[NeonShivan]

Awhile ago I bought a $250.00 graphics card and based on memory I believe it was a AMD Radeon 6500 (not at my house at the time of this topic posting) is it any good, lets hope I didn't waste a good 250 on a ****ty card, and next: is there anything I need to know when it comes to installing it or is it just shove the thing in it and watch it run (except that you need a power supply capable of supplying 500W, already know that and working on getting a new one hence why it isn't installed yet.)

[Rodo]

You should have made the proper investigation before buying the card, now it's just useless.

AMD products are as good as they get, Nvidia is also a good option... Intel, not so much.

Don't ask me about the price, I have no clue on that regard

[NeonShivan]

You should have made the proper investigation before buying the card, now it's just useless.

AMD products are as good as they get, Nvidia is also a good option... Intel, not so much.

Don't ask me about the price, I have no clue on that regard

Yeah, at the time I didn't think it had a power requirement, if that's what you mean by proper investigation. As for Intel products, because of a recent issue with Nvidia and Intel I'm kinda forced atm to deal with their integrated card. Plus as for a power supply: should I look into if its compatible with my computer model or what?

[Jeff Vader]

based on memory I believe it was a AMD Radeon 6500

Well, try to be certain about these things. A single digit can easily be the difference between life and death.

is it any good

It's probably at least a little bit good. Operating under the condition that we still don't really know what model we're talking about.

is there anything I need to know when it comes to installing it or is it just shove the thing in it and watch it run

- punch it in
- (optional) install drivers for it
- if it needs two power connectors, hope that your PSU has two pci-e power connectors

[achtung]

Where did you buy the card?
What is the actual model? If you spent that much on anything less than an HD 6950, you probably got ripped off.

[LHN91]

Yeah, 250 dollars is an awful lot for anything less than a 6900 series. I'm seeing HD 6970's at 199$, and I'm in Canada where we kinda get shafted on price drops fairly often.

Edit: Now, if it is a 6900 series, it's a pretty good card. But make sure you research fully before buying a PSU - Wattage ratings are often horribly misleading.

[watsisname]

Yeah, I seriously doubt you bought a 6500 series for 250 bucks.  The AMD 2GB 6570 I bought a few months ago cost me about $75.

[TwentyPercentCooler]

The PC I just recently built has a Radeon 6850 - I've been very happy with it so far, and before this, I was pretty staunchly in Nvidia's corner. The drivers and software seem to now be of comparable quality, and Radeons have always had better performance at a given price point. They also have more flexible driver side overclocking, if you're into that sort of thing. Most Nvidia cards won't let you play with much, especially voltages.

[TrashMan]

I'm using an ATI card and it works like a charm. Of course, it always depends on the specific model....