Ahh, Video. At first glance you would think that this is the most important aspect of a gaming machine. In many ways, this is true. However, there is still money to be saved here.
I upgraded my computer last week. I can play Crysis now:
My video card cost me $89*.
Wh…what?!?!
There are three major things to consider when buying a video card: CPU, Resolution, and finally Power (…as in watts).
The first and perhaps the most important is your CPU. You want to make sure that your CPU isn’t a bottleneck on your card’s performance. For example: My last system had a Geforce 7800 GS video card inside of it. It was being pushed by a Athlon 64 3200+ (single core running at 2.0 Ghz). That card was the most powerful AGP card on the market (until vendors recently started porting [at a hefty premium] newer Radeon HD boards from pci-e to agp), and I probably didn’t see most of what it could do because of my processor.
The general rule here is to go at least Dual Core and faster than 2.5 Ghz. The reason I say dual and not quad is because while more cores will mean better performance overall, most games are optimized for two. You may want to take futureproofing into consideration, but check the benchmarks. In my opinion, it’s just not worth it right now.
I chose the Athlon 64 x2 7750 Black Edition ($79 @ the egg) as my CPU. It ships at 2.7 Ghz, but the multiplier is unlocked, which means that I had it running solid at 3.0 Ghz with a few keystrokes and no increase in the voltage. It can go even higher on the stock cooler, from what I have read, but I think 3 is a nice round number. 
Resolution is probably going to be the biggest factor when you decide how much you want to spend. And to be honest, even then you shouldn’t be spending over $200 (Unless you are gaming at 1080p resoultions). I have chosen two cards for you to consider. They are both Radeon HD cards because of the price/performance ratio.
Radeon 4830 HD (if you are gaming at 1280×1024 or lower)
-This card is great because of the large heatsink. I have mine overclocked and running at 4850 speeds. Oh yeah, remember this card was only $89! *(Note: It seems it is now $99. Still a sweet deal!)
Radeon 4850 HD (1280×1024+)
-This is another great video card if you need some more power. ($154.99)
An easy way to waste money is to buy more video card than you need. I could have purchased a more expensive card (for futureproofing) but I don’t plan on buying a new LCD any time soon because I am quite happy with my 19″ with a native resolution of 1440×900.
Benchmarks are the key. It takes a few seconds to Google a card that you are thinking about to see how it performs on the games you play. My two recommendations are above but you may want to go Nvidia for some reason.
Finally, you want to make sure that your power supply can handle the card you buy. That means at least 450 watts with at least 18 Amps on the 12v rail(s). If you get a more expensive card (naturally) this will be higher. Rail amperage is easy to check, just look at the side of the box.
You don’t have to break the bank to get decent performance. With my system the only game that dips below 30fps when the action gets hot is Crysis Warhead (Gamer (high) settings; No Anti-Aliasing). Everything else runs on high at 1440×900 with everything maxed out at 60+ fps.
P.S. – Some of you might be thinking, “Wow, my console can push 1080p (for our purposes, 1920×1080 resolution) with no problem. Computer gaming sucks!!” but allow me to inform you that almost none of the games that run at 1080p on a console are native. Almost all of them are up-sampled from a lower rendered resolution.
Happy Gaming!
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