Hi Guys,

My friend is looking to upgrade his graphics card to play SC2 and asked me for a suggestion.

System Specs:
Acer Aspire model number AM1641-E3750A.
It has E5200 Intel Premium dual-core processor, 3GB DDR2 memory, a 320 GB SATA and nvidia G100 graphics.

He wants to spend as little as possible so I'm thinking about $100 or less.

My recommendation would be the Nvidia GTS 250 512mb but I wanted to pass it by you guys to see what you may recommend.
I have no problems with ATI but to my knowledge they don't seem to have a card that has the performance of the GTS 250 within the price range.

Thanks!

Sure, it'll work.

250 or a 9800GT, if the PSU is enough for it. If it's a typical OEM, you might wanna look at the GT 240.

240 eh? Is there much of a performance difference between the 240 and 250? It is an OEM system so I'm not sure what kind of PSU is in it, I will ask him.

Most scholars are stumped, if not disturbed, at what model NVidia cards perform better than others, due to their neverending rebranding.

Haha, yea I know that the 240 is probably better than the GTS 250 going by the numbering theme....220, 240, 250, 260 etc. I was just wondering if it's a substantial difference or not I have found it difficult to find a 240 anywhere.

The GTS 250 is a 9800GTX+ if you wanna call a fish a fish. Then again, Nvidia got so creative even I'm confused sometimes. The 240 is a much slower beast, but it is content with a tiny bit of juice and will work fine on even a 300W OEM POS.

Okay, cool. I will tell him to try to go for the GTS 250 then. THanks everyone!