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[kitano]

So I bought a desktop earlier this year and decided not to put a graphics card in to stop myself from playing games, but now I want to play games lol

So what sort of graphics card should I get and how much should I spend?

I don't want to spend a lot because I'm not a massive gamer, but I don't want to 'miss out' and I've tried running new stuff with the motherboard's card and it doesn't really work....

[chanhonam]

it really depends on which games you want to play as well as the resolution, screen size and the amount of detail. Also need to be sure your psu can handle the new card.

[eggcluck]

A mid range card may suit your needs. I usually always went mid range. I was able to get away with slendom changing it. Most Games now are made with the consoles in mind adn that hardware is constant so there will be not be so much more power requirements. That said PC only games are a different matter but they are increasingly limited to things like RTS.

I bought an ATI 5770 two years ago, left it at home, however it is still a capable card now, but you would want something newer. ATI give more bang for the buck but NVIDA are the top performers. This does change now and then so read some reviews.

Also do not jump on ads that tell you how fast the card is, if it does not have the memory to suppourt it then you would be wasting money. Though overclocking is always an option and it is not as scary as it seems if you just do a small one. Though I mamanged to overclock my 5770 by 30% but it was an older model that had a stock cooler designed for much more powerfull cards, that one is no longer in production so you would lose on cooling power with the newer models.

[Pashley]

It depends what graphics you have on the main board and what sort of games you play. On-board graphics chips and graphics units built into CPUs have been improving a lot in the last few years. A low-end graphics card is not likely to beat them by enough to matter, and a mid-level or high-end card is not going to give a really large performance gain unless you do heavy 3D stuff.

[Foscolo]

I don't know about games, but just for day-to-day use, a graphics card makes a noticeable improvement. A while back I bought a Dell laptop with a modest 512MB graphics card. Shortly afterwards Mrs Foscolo bought a similar Dell laptop with near identical specs but no graphics card. Side by side, the difference was very clear. Richer colours, better contrast and smoother scrolling with the graphics card.

[kitano]

Skyrim is the game that I really want to play but I don't really know anything about games anymore....

Also, what sort of prices am I looking at spending for an ok graphics card?

[chanhonam]

the link for the pc spec requirements below.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/113823-Skyrim-PC-Requirements-Revealed

the requirement is not high for it to be played but if you want it to be smooth and look good you will need the recommended specs not the minimum required.
I am not current on prices as I bought my card 2 years ago for about rmb 1600.
do a quick search on taobao for prices.

[BrandeX]

Yep like he is saying there above me...
If you want to play Skyrim, use that as a starting point. It says to have at least: GTX 260/Radeon 4890 or higher

So pick a budget first of how much you want to spend, then get either an Nvida card with a number of 260 or higher, or an ATI card with a number of 4890 or higher.

For reference, I have a 2GB Nvidia GTX 660m built in to my laptop, and aI can play Skyrim at high fps in 1080p with hi-res mods and various other addons. A lower performance card should certainly be more than suitable.