*How to Ask for Advice about Choosing a New GPU*

Look at the *Tom's Hardware Graphics Articles* and review the most recent "Best Graphics Cards for the Money" Article (published monthly) to get you started. Tom's Hardware has a staggering amount of information about all of the latest and greatest graphics cards to keep you up to date.

Create a New Topic for your GPU question with a descriptive title, such as "Upgrading 8800GT, $200 budget" or "Need Advice on HD 5770 vs. GTX 275", not just "Help" or "WHAT CARD??".

In order to make things easy, copy and paste the following template into your post and edit the italicized examples to suit your needs:

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APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: (e.g.: this week (the closer the better)) BUDGET RANGE: (e.g.: USD $150-250) Before / After Rebates

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: (e.g.: Gaming [and what games you want it to play - a card for WoW only will be much different than one for Crysis or Metro 2033 at full settings], Folding@Home, home theater/watching movies)

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: (e.g., ATI Radeon HD 4850 and Corsair 750TX 750W PSU - without this info, it's really hard to help you)

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: (e.g., make/model of CPU, MoBo, memory - this can help us determine whether or not a given card is compatible with and makes sense for your system. For high-end cards, knowing your case/cooling setup may also be helpful)

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: (e.g.: newegg.com, ncix.com -- to show us selection & pricing) COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: (e.g.: Grand Fenwick)

PARTS PREFERENCES: (e.g., if you will only use ATI cards, want PhysX card, prefer XFX cards over Sapphire cards, etc., tell us)

OVERCLOCKING: Yes / No / Maybe SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Yes / No / Maybe

MONITOR RESOLUTION: (e.g.: 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1440x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 1920x1200)

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: (e.g.: Need to have better than stock cooling; Want a card with a lifetime warranty; Must run Crysis with full AA on a three-display setup, etc.)

REMEMBER: The more information we have about your system, your budget, and what you're using the card for, the better the advice we can give you - providing it up front gets you your answers and puts a card in your hands that much faster!

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Include a list of any GPUs you are currently considering or would like opinions on.

The easiest method is to paste the label on one line and then paste the link below it.
Example:
SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100282VXSR Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card /ATI Eyefinity - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102886&cm_re=HD_5850-_-14-102-886-_-Product

Looks like:
Logitech 920-000914 Black 106 Normal Keys Wired Ultra-thin Illuminated Keyboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6823126043

Links can also be created using the following format: [url= paste the url here ] paste the label here [/url]

The paperclip button on the toolbar gives this: [url=www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102886&cm_re=HD_5850-_-14-102-886-_-Product] paste the label here [/url]

Example:
[url=www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102886&cm_re=HD_5850-_-14-102-886-_-Product]SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100282VXSR Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card /ATI Eyefinity - Retail/url]

Looks like:
SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100282VXSR Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card /ATI Eyefinity - Retail

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Credits: This post was inspired by, and modeled on, theAnimal's How to Ask for New Build Advice Thread in the Home Build forum. Big thanks to him for his hard work on that thread, which made this one much easier.