Soleron on 02 October 2009
Yeah, PSU quality is important. 450 or 500W is the lowest I would go.
I would say HD4850. $100, will run any game on High settings at 1600x1200 res (and Crysis on Medium at same). Go any higher and the price will rapidly increase for tiny gains, go lower and performance halves while you save $20. And make sure you have PCIe, otherwise if it's AGP your options include only the HD 3850 or 4650 AGP realistically.
A whole new system is sub-$450 when you reuse your current monitor/OS/keyboard/etc. so maybe that's a better option?
