I would really appreciate any advice that anyone can give before I upgrade my video card.  I have tried to 'piece' together various bits of information I have gathered on the net about video cards etc but I figure there is someone out there who has the techincal experience to tell me what I need.  First, here are the details of my video card setup:  Nvidia Geoforce 6600 256mb with DDR memory. It supports directx9  It is located in PCI-express 16 slot. I am running xp home edition.

I want to get a new card with min of 512mb (but would like to go higher if that woudl be of benefit).  I have these questions:

1. If I buy a card which says it supports directx10, does that also mean it will support directx9?

2.Is there a problem with getting a card with directx10 to use on xp (I gather it is for vista only).

3: do I have to be careful about the type of memory the card has? (i notice that the cards I have been looking at say they have DDR3 type...);

4. are there any other issues that I should consider.

5: finally, is there someone who has a 512 (or better) card on xp who can simply recommend?

thanks

Olaf

(moderator's note: Combined two postings that were split by a forum software problem into a single posting. -- Dave S.)