Computer Shopping for Christmas!
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/Computer Shopping for Christmas!
Hi,
I'm thinking about getting a new graphics card for Christmas. I've always wanted to play Doom 3 at a high as possible setting so that I can play it comfortably without it skipping on me or freezing up, at the moment my graphics card is a Sparkle GeForce 5500 FX, AGP 8x.
I'm thinking about upgrading to a Sparkle GeForce 6600 GT, AGP 8x. I don't have much money and my limit is £150.
I don't know much about graphic cards so was wondering what kind of graphics card you would buy if you had £150 to spend. Thanks.
At the moment my PC is outputting 1024x768 at 60Hertz, 32-bit. What determines a good graphic card from a bad one?
I would donate the money to charity... Games are so boring these days :p
Doom 3? Quake 4? F.E.A.R?
if you want a good card, never buy the budget ones.
You'd actually be better off buying a "outdated" top of the line than the current budget cards.
A good example was Geforce4 and Geforce4MX (MX was essentially a Geforce2)
I always buy the current top of the line cards, latest purchase was ATI x850XT, but thats because Im a little crazy and have a little too much cash at hand.
Doom 3? Quake 4? F.E.A.R?
Yawn. yawn. Y.A.W.N.
You guys are odd people.
What makes me odd?
What do those games have that is new? What's in them that hasnt been done before, that actually adds gameplay?
Don't say graphics. Thats nice, but i generally wasnt impressed by them in them games.
Certainly not Doom3, i can't stand normal mapping.
lol @ Cygnus. :P
Why are you being spastics? either help the man or @#!* off.
You're not contributing anything with your mindless jokes. Get a life...
Jono, only the Ati X1000 series have sufficiently fast opengl to upgrade from what you have so I would if I were you, look a getting a second hand 6800 ULTRA, or highest nvidia card you can afford. The 6600GT is ok, but you can actually do a lot better for £150. You can get a genuine 6800 brand new for £100.
Shop around and consider asking on the www.overclockers.co.uk forums. They are expensive on ocuk so consider somewhere like ebuyer.com for the actual purchase.
6600GT and 6800 represent fair performance on these games but still do not expect to put the settings on ultra without a pci 7800GTX :)
I don't know much about ATi Graphic Cards, but a friend gave me his old ATi card which is much better than my old GeForce 5500 FX.
The GeForce 6800 is top of the range for AGP 8x cards, producing 256-bit. But I think this kind of graphic card is out of my price range.
So I might go with the GeForce 6600 GT version at 128-bit, AGP 8x.
I'll have to phone around now and find the best prices, see if I can get them under the £150 mark. Thanks for your help, those who don't flame.
It looks like I'm going to have to change my motherboard to support PCI if I want Ultra High settings. Maybe even PCI Express, holy cr*p. How we're talking big bucks.
“NVIDIA has told us more than once that the 6800 series was “designed to play DOOM 3,” and the truth of that statement is now glaringly obvious.” --HardOCP
I bought my 6800 for £160, and it now costs £99 in the same store just 6/7 months later.
Just get the standard 6800 rather than the gt or whatnot, and DONT get the LE, which is like a very very cutdown version.
Think of it as a 6800, with half the circuit from the GPU calved out.
Can you beleive Maplin still sell the 5200 at £79.99? the same price as 3 years ago!
By the way, No matter who you go with, ATI/Nvidia, expect Driver issues to hold you back from flying-
ive never had an ATI, but have heard tons about the probems.
and every Nvidia card i've had since my TNT2 has had problems with the drivers causing them to freeze up every few minutes for a few seconds, before returning.
Yep Cygnus is correct, the 6800 (NOT the LE!) is only 100...
I've had the same problem, I've been playing FarCry and doing quite well, but If I turn around too quickly or run for too long, the game will freeze, I then stop doing whatever I'm doing, giving it time to catch up. But instead I die in the game even though the game is still being played. (If that makes sense.) Then the screen becomes very fuzzy in colour and starts shaking, I then have to restart my computer in order to carry on with the game. Very frustrating as I can only save at 'save points'.
My GeForce 5500 isn't bad at all, I can play Quake 2 with it and Return to Castle Wolfenstien fine. But I can't play Doom 3 or Quake 4. In FarCry the ground is all blue, musn't beable to display the textures or something. I got it with this PC and it only costs £50. Humm...
I can play doom3 and quake4 just perfect with my Ati 9800PRO to be honest. Get a 6800 (not LE) from ebuyer or overclockers.co.uk
SP-AG40GPT if you can afford it :)
My Missus is getting me a new Mac Mini - Yippee - I want it early! I want it now!
Once you go Mac, you never go Back!
Personally, I bought my current system purely because I wanted to play stuff like "jono" wants to at full detail.
Just to let you know - (As with "Rob") the Radeon 9800 Pro which I have is still running everything at full detail (Doom3, HL2, FarCry, etc). I am not intending to upgrade it until I get a game which it struggles with.
A card from the 6600GT range that you intended to buy is well recommended.
PC Zone recommend the Gigabyte GV-NX66T128VP Turbo Force at around £133. They say it is the fastest 6600GT they have tested and they think the price is good.
I noted that the XFX 6600GT (£133) is recommended by Computer Buyer magazine - they point out that unless you have a decent monitor capable of 1600 x 1200 then you won't need anything faster. Basically, they are saying the 6600 GT is great for 'normal' resolution usage - I run my monitor at 1280 x 1024 which I think is fine for gaming - prior to that I did the same as you and ran it at 1024 x 768.
The 6600GTs will be similar in performance - although there will be differences - some manufacturers clock theirs, etc. So, your choice might just be swayed by what you get with the card - free games, etc.
Also, be mindful of your AGP 8 when purchasing (or taking advice) as a lot of cards are PCI Express.
You can get Radeon X800 for circa £150.00 though.
I'm contemplating upgrading to SLI 7800GTXs... But truthfully, the 6800GT I have in my machine right now plays anything I want to throw at it, at max res / settings... except everquest 2. And that's just because Sony doesn't know how to create a 3D engine to save their lives...
I'll add my advice and say get a plain 6800 (not ultra). If you want something faster than the 6800, overclock it ;)
You probably wont though. My 7800 is pretty much redundant. I only bought it because I couldn't think of anything better to spend my money on (couldn't afford the 24" Dell widescreen TFT).
I was going to get a 6800 and overclock it but instead I decided not to have a TFT and to spend the leftover on a better gfx card.