Hi group, right now I'm running a Pentium-D 2.80 GHz-based PC. It has 1 GB of RAM, 750 GB hard drive, and a very basic (=cheapest) PCI Express video card. The video performance is awful; I played Half-Life 2, Hitman and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Chernobyl on the lowest-res modes. To be quite frank, it sucks!!
Are there any video cards under $200 that can play these games in full-res modes and still have excellent framerates? Does anything else in my system need attention to run these games in hotshot video modes?
One thing you didn't mention was what resolution did you want to play at? Max res is dependent on the monitor you've got hooked up. Let's assume that you've got a 19" LCD with max res at 1280x1024 (fairly common). You will not be able to run STALKER at 1280x1024 with everything maxed with a $200 video card, it ain't gonna happen. You'd need at least a 8800GTS 320MB to max it at 1280x1024, and even then it's a maybe. That's also assuming that you've got enough CPU power and ram. Like someone else mentioned, if you do buck up for a $300+ 8800GTS, your CPU will be your bottleneck.
My recommendation would be to get a ~$150 video card and spend the other $50 to add 1GB of ram. 1GB of total system memory isn't enough for the newer games nowadays. Tom's HW did an article way back that showed the performance difference in BF2142 with 0.5GB, 1GB, 1.5GB, 2GB RAM and there was a significant performance jump from 1 to 1.5GB. 1.5 to 2GB was also better, but not as big a jump as from 1 to 1.5GB.
And just to give you an idea of some realistic expectations, my gaming box at work is: Core2 Duo e6300 (1.86GHz), 2GB RAM, x1950Pro 256MB, 19" CRT (all stock speeds, HP workstations are not good overclocking candidates
) can only run Rainbow Six Vegas at 1024x768 with quality settings at about 75% smoothly. If I try to max out the quality it lags and stutters. If I try to run at 1280x1024 with 50% quality, it lags and stutters. My home gaming box fairs a bit better at 1280x1024 maxed, but the hardware list is different and everything is overclocked.
(Opteron 148 (2.2GHz o/c'ed to 2.76GHz), 2GB ram, 7950GT 256MB o/c'ed)
You're $200 limit is actually a good thing to prevent you from spending more than necessary. If you're a car guy, a good analogy would be something like spending $1500 on ultra-high performance Z-rated Pirelli's on a Toyota Yaris. You won't be able to take full advantage of the better hardware because the rest of the system isn't balanced. My advice is just add more ram and a cheap 7900GS or x1950Pro and overclock it to tide you over until you can afford a full rebuild of your PC to a high powered Core2 or quad core build that would complement a faster video card better.
WNG, for a HTPC card, look for anything with a passive heatsink, you don't want or really need a fanned unit if you're not gaming with it. The silence will be worth it. The only ones I can find on newegg after a quick search that have a passive heatsink AND HDMI out are the MSI NX8500GT-MTD256EH, MSI RX2600XT-T2D512EZ, and MSI RX2600PRO-T2D256EZ. Keep in mind that a lot of video cards with HDMI out don't stream the audio over the HDMI cable.
