New Graphics card

I"m looking for something for things like Guild Wars 2 and Elder Scrolls. Doesn't need to be much mine isn't that bad but its needed a upgrade for a long time.

Specs:
Dell Dimension 8400
Windows Xp SP3
1 gig RAM
P4 3.20
ATI X300/X550/X1050 PCI-express I think. Just a slot.

Goal is GW2/Elder Scrolls. I only want to change my graphics card. All I know is Nividia is where I want to go, ATI always has the issues.

Hopefully with luck something that isn't too loud either. Also just got a new monitor, now at 1280 x 768 would like to take advantage of that. Guild Wars currently is beautiful and runs amazing but with the new screen the sharpness is nearing fuzz

Thanks for your time.

if your just looking to upgrade the graphics card and want to play guild wars 2...I have some disappointing news....

But that can wait.

Again assuming everything else is the same...I'd reccomend something along these lines:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130395

but...that's going to outproform ummm....everything else on your pc. And I can almost guarentee that you will need more of an upgrade for guild wars 2.
I mean honestly. For Oblivion your processor is barely meeting the recommended requirments and your ram is not meeting the minimum req.

Odds are Guild wars 2 will be more system intense. And you may have to upgrade if you plan on playing gw2. I can't say for certain as official system specs are not out.

I don't know I think GW2 will have a decent low end. Low end is almost if not more important then high end after all.

I will be beefing up my RAM soon for sure. 2 to 4gigs.

Will I encounter problems since that card is outperforming? If I don't buy a new PC later next year I might stick a new processor in if I get gutsy enough.

You need a complete new system, if you want to play Oblivion at better than low to medium settings and GW2 then you are going to have to do a total upgrade/new computer... sorry mate, but that's the fact of it.

I'm not talking to play gw2 well. I'm talking to have the game like work past a loading screen. I heard rumors that the minimum specs will involve core2 duo or equivilent. Even if this is somewhat high...Your chip predates that by 6 years. Guild wars was made to be played on an average fresh off the shelf computer maybe a little bit before. As it stands your average off the shelf computer runs circles around what you have and there is still aways to go in development. So yeah low end is important. You probably won't even be able to do that on your current system.

If your going to be upgrading your system though I would reccomend a slightly higher end gfx card. Assuming your keeping the psu your going to be limited in terms of what you can get most likely. But you might be able to throw a gts 250 in there.

buy a 8800GT it will run GW2 and Elder Scrolls easily on max

No it won't. Unless you consider max to be 1024 x 768 with no AA or AF enabled. I played Oblivion 100s of hours with a 4850 (better than 8800) and could not even come close to maxing it out at 1680x1050, when I upgraded to 1920 x 1080 I had to go Crossfire just to keep playing at high settings without AA.

If it must be nVidia, I would tend to agree with End. A GT250 would fit into your Dell with little fuss - nVidia recommends a 350watt power supply, which is what Dell says is in your rig.
Provided you get the computer's RAM up to 2Gig (1Gig is just too little), you should be able to at least play GW2 at some level.

With a P4, I don't really think it will play Guild Wars 2 with any smoothness. Given the hints provided by ANet, you will need at least a dual core. Save you dimes and build yourself a nice new quad core with a good video card.