What is the best video card upgrade for my new HP? My aim is respectable gaming capability.?

I recently purchased an HP Pavilion Phoenix Special Edition a6655f PC. (the Best Buy exclusive) For specs see: http://www.hp.com/large/campaigns/personal_again/datasheets/HPPavilionPhoenixSEa6655fPCDatasheet.pdf



I was disappointed with the rendering when I tried to play Midievil II Total War. Graphics were jerky, etc. I am confident that a video card upgrade will do the trick. There is an available pci express x16. What is my best bet for being happy gaming on this rig? Thanks

|||Any video card upgrade would be limited to a low-end video card unless you replace the 300 watt stock power supply.



HP Pavilion a6655f Desktop PC (EMEA)

5188-7601 Active Power Factor Correction power supply (Chardonnay) - Rated at 300-watts , 80+ efficiency - Support for Parallel ATA (PATA) and Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives

http://partsurfer.hp.com/cgi-bin/spi/mai…|||Check out this ATI card under $100:

ttp://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonhd450… |||i would recommend probably something from the nVidia 8 series, maybe an 8600gt http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3504453&Sku=P450-8674

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At $91, this PNY 9600GT card is one of the more powerful video cards around, dollar for dollar,



http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=PNY-960…



It's true, the minimum recommended power supply for a 9600GT has 26A on the 12V rails, so a stock 300W power supply usually isn't good enough (many have only 17-18 amps on the 12V rail), but I was able to look up specs on another recent HP 300 watt "active power factor correction" power supply (not from that exact computer, but from a comparable one). The power supply is still sort of junk (made by Bestec), but, to my surprise, it has two 12V rails, 11.5A, and 11A. It's not wonderful, but it could be worse.



It also helps that a 9600GT doesn't draw that much power (around 60 watts peak).



Thus, I would try a 9600GT on the stock 300W power supply first. There's a chance it will work, and, if it doesn't, the worse thing that will happen is, it will crash once in a while --or more often --while playing games. But then you'll know for sure it needs a bigger power supply, and you can replace it.