tip on giting a video card

Like most hardware, you look up the latest, greatest video card and then buy one or two cards back. This gets you the best price on a video card that can do all you want and more. As Auggie said you also need to be sure that your computer card meets your computers specs. If you don't know then you might take it to a shop, sometimes you are limited by the your computer as to what card you can run.

Often the latest, greatest video card can cost you 500 bucks but if you step back a couple versions you can get a similar card for 1\3 of that.

Beyond that, we need to know what your computer is to help more.

 

Thats still a decent video card but as you said, its getting old. You want to shop for a PCI Express card. Look for the news, baddest, most expensive video card, then buy back a couple generations for best deal.

Look at top sellers for example here:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...rds&cm_sp=Masthead-_-Computer Parts-_-Spot 17

And see what your budget can do. Newest car is about 600. I think you will be happy in the 150 ranges. I have a 280 Nvidia and it plays everything perfectly. world of Warcraft, Modern Warfare, etc.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1337063&Sku=E145-0279

HOWEVER, you need to make sure if PCI Express 2.0is compatible with your computer, maybe another geek can tell me if it is?

If not, you might play is safe and shop PCI Express:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...ch.asp?CatId=28&sel=Detail;55_158_13067_13067

 

Just checked and your video card is not good enough. So minimum is:

Nvidia: GeForce GT 330

ATI: Radeon HD 6530D

The card you linked will work but it is just over the specs (6530 minimum and 6570 chosen)

 

VGA? Get an adaptor. Simple. Most modern cards will have an HDMI port, however budget cards might be lacking in these features to make them affordable.