Upgrading Video Card, Need advise.

I am looking at this following card.

ATI Radeon X1650PRO 512MB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161036

will it be compatible with SL, its not listed under system requirements, a lot of video cards aren't. Do you think it will work that well?

You could also recommend something similar in that price range if you would like

Then I'd suggest a NVidia GeForce 8500GT 512MB

why ? Because ATI products, at least in the past, appeared generally to have disadvantages running SL on it.

Thank you!!!!!!!

Just ordered it, can't wait for it to come!!!! I'm excited, to view SL in good detail once again.

My old computer fried, and had to downgrade since. I am now using an motherboard built in card, its not good at all.

Can't wait for this new one to arrive. Thanks for the suggestion.

No problem, you're most welcome

I have had many ATI cards and they always give me more trouble than my NVidia cards on nearly every game less one or two that had been created using ATI's.

The 8500GT is a good workhorse, although the 7950GT is far superior.

The important numbering is the middle digits. These normally signify greater core and ram speeds when compared with lower numbered versions. GT speaks for itself. Steer clear of 'GO' style chips, they normally only have a very small dedicated memory and mainly use slower System Ram, and are also welded to the MB.

Bearing in mind the vast majority of upgrades to GC's these days are focused around DirectX functionality, whereas SL is a OpenGL platform. nVidia cards used to be hopeless for OpenGL against the ATI equivilents, they are now perhaps superior, mainly due to the OpenGL drivers. ATI were way to slow to get their drivers right, and to market in time. Couple that with the very slow releases in Vista compatible drivers, put them way back in the charts as far as SL goes.