Hi everyone, I need a new video card (this one is dying), but I'm not sure how to go about it. What's the most economical and practical approach. I assume I have to figure out what I have before I can look for a specific replacement, but in the mean time, any advice, suggestions or over all comonsense would be greatly appreciated.

Work out your price range and buy the best card you can for the money?

so any card will do?

(Wow, it's like each mod is banning someone lately, what the shit is happening to this site?)

First of all you need to find out if your motherboard supports PCI-E(the standard these days) or AGP (for older Computers). If you tell us your current Video Card and maybe CPU, we can help.

Once you find out the type of slot, check out this link
http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/04/07/the_best_gaming_graphics_cards_for_the_money/

It all depends on what your budget is, and whether you need an AGP card or a PCI-E one.
If you're looking for best bang for your buck and you can support PCI-E, the 9600gt will probably be a good one to look at.

I don't game on my PC, I just need something that can play the latest video at the very most.

I've heard of a simple program that allows you to view the stats of your Computer, I thought I had it but can't seem to find it now.

If you just want to view videos, might as well get a 8400, cheap and plays videos well. But be warned, that card is only good for videos lol, it'll bomb in games.

What is your current card now?

You can probably find a Nvidia GeForce 8600 for $50-$75 if you look for a deal...that'll set you up for anything you want to do on a PC...it'll play the latest games with good settings.

Otherwise an 8400 would probably be fine for you as well...it will also play most newer games on good settings I think...it should be more than good enough for your purposes anyway.

Here's one that's $37, $27 after the mail-in-rebate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127296

thanks guys, I really wish I could find that program that brings up your computer's hardware parts stats.