Hi please can anyone recommend a 256MB (or higher) fast gaming card in the £100 to £150 (inc. VAT) price range. This will be to run modern games (e.g. Quake 4/FEAR and also current/forthcoming games) and needs to be Nvidia or Radeon. It's for a friend, but I've got a Radeon 9800XT which was king once, but is now uh peasant and I wondered if new cards for the price mentioned would kick it's arse or not. Thanks in advance for any feedback! :-D
Please recommend £100-£150 gaming graphics card.
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/Please recommend £100-£150 gaming graphics card. You may want to mention what slot you are intending to put it in.
ah good point. It's actually to go in a new PC, so I have a choice of cheaper AGP motherboard or more expensive (and I guess future proof-ish) PCI-express motherboard (DDR2 RAM costs a bit more for this board too).
Get PCI-E. You won't regret it.
As for which card to get, it's mostly religion, but any 150 quid gfx-card should kick your 9800's backside.
As for whether to get Radeon or GeForce, that boils down to mostly religion.
As for which card to get, it's mostly religion, but any 150 quid gfx-card should kick your 9800's backside.
As for whether to get Radeon or GeForce, that boils down to mostly religion.
Mortgage you house and get sli 7950GX2's on quad.
haha yeah I read about the Quad but that won't do for this friend. So um, PCI_E and dare I ask for a model number or two?
I would wait till DX10 cards come out..both ATI and NVIDIA should come out with low end cards.
If you cannot wait, let me know...I'll help you do the research. I'm a hardware nut.
Jason
If you cannot wait, let me know...I'll help you do the research. I'm a hardware nut.
Jason
No I can't wait, thanks anyway Jason, as it's for someone that wants a PC ASAP. Basically I just need £100-£150 decent graphics card. I don't need a location, just a model number or three as if the card is mainstream, my supplier will be able to get it. I could research this for myself of course but I was hoping for some "Get card X" recommendations :-)
Grey, I'd get a Geforce 7600GT. Handles anything you throw at it currently :) Thats right in your price range :)
Also,PCI-E doesnt mean you get DDR2 memory.
Also,PCI-E doesnt mean you get DDR2 memory.
Cyg Thanks. And now someone else I know wants a £50 card as well, is it possible to get something AGP that will play last year's games OK?
Yeah as for PCI-E, I was just looking at a Pentium Dual Core on a 945 board with PCI-E and that took DDR2 RAM.
Yeah as for PCI-E, I was just looking at a Pentium Dual Core on a 945 board with PCI-E and that took DDR2 RAM.
Get a Geforce 7600GS PCI-E. It's plenty fast enough (HL2 at 1600x1200 with HDR runs very well.), it's really cheap, and it does NOT have a fan on it, so you won't have a fan breaking in a year and you won't have the extra noise.
I can sell you a pcie amd64 mobo for £30+postage.
I'd also recommend a 7600.
I'd also recommend a 7600.
Ahem.
[hijack]
Anyone know what graphics card I should get for $500 Canadian? I have a PCI-E slot (I think.)
Oh, and when are the first DX10 cards supposed to be coming out?
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Sorry.
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Anyone know what graphics card I should get for $500 Canadian? I have a PCI-E slot (I think.)
Oh, and when are the first DX10 cards supposed to be coming out?
[/hijack]
Sorry.
sswift OK, no fan, what just big heatsink? Hmm, that cards half the price of the 7600GT, it must be way under the GT performance...?
smilertoo, thanks, but I'm ordering the machine new pre-built as I don't want to faff around building PCs any more.
smilertoo, thanks, but I'm ordering the machine new pre-built as I don't want to faff around building PCs any more.
(tu) Grey Alien:
I recently had to replace a ti4200 in an awful hurry (fan died and replacements were not in stock anywhere at the time); I was in a hole cash wise too, which is when these things like to stirke the most, I like to save and buy rather than buy on credit, so I took a big gamble, I went to dabs site, and plunked down a whopping £29.00p on their own brand 256Mb FX5500, and you know what? It's given me a whole new outlook on all this. Not only is it good for the money, I'd say you can forget the "for the money" bit too. I was quite shocked!
So, I'd go look over there and see what other "dabs value" goodies are to be had for a lot less than you'd imagine, even "dabs extreme" given you have an actual budget whereas I did not! ;O)
OK, so, like me, you'd have to take a wee gamble, but if I was not under pressure I'd have not learned anything by doing so either. Glad I did now.
Do I care if it's DX10 - no, coz if that starts to matter, then I can now afford to replace it! Do I care if it's the latest thing in other ways, no, for the same reason! All things considered we are conditioned into thinking these things matter just a bit more than they really do.
I recently had to replace a ti4200 in an awful hurry (fan died and replacements were not in stock anywhere at the time); I was in a hole cash wise too, which is when these things like to stirke the most, I like to save and buy rather than buy on credit, so I took a big gamble, I went to dabs site, and plunked down a whopping £29.00p on their own brand 256Mb FX5500, and you know what? It's given me a whole new outlook on all this. Not only is it good for the money, I'd say you can forget the "for the money" bit too. I was quite shocked!
So, I'd go look over there and see what other "dabs value" goodies are to be had for a lot less than you'd imagine, even "dabs extreme" given you have an actual budget whereas I did not! ;O)
OK, so, like me, you'd have to take a wee gamble, but if I was not under pressure I'd have not learned anything by doing so either. Glad I did now.
Do I care if it's DX10 - no, coz if that starts to matter, then I can now afford to replace it! Do I care if it's the latest thing in other ways, no, for the same reason! All things considered we are conditioned into thinking these things matter just a bit more than they really do.
I wouldn't count on playing oblivion on that though! :-D
"sswift OK, no fan, what just big heatsink? Hmm, that cards half the price of the 7600GT, it must be way under the GT performance...?"
Yes, a heatsink. It's not that big either.
Check TomsHardware.com their VGA charts. I did a lot of research on this. As far as I remember you're paying 2x as much for a small increase in performance if you get the GT.
And either way, as I said, it runs HL2 great. High res, HDR lighting, high rexture detail, high model detail etc. It's a good bit more powerful than my 6800 OC was.
Anyway I'm happy with it. I don't think there's too many games out there that are gonan require a far more powerful card than HL2 that will be coming out in the next couple years.
Also if you get the right motherboard, you could stick two in there and get 2x the speed with no fans and you have that option to upgrade later. I think the card cost me like $160 or so at Circuit City.
Yes, a heatsink. It's not that big either.
Check TomsHardware.com their VGA charts. I did a lot of research on this. As far as I remember you're paying 2x as much for a small increase in performance if you get the GT.
And either way, as I said, it runs HL2 great. High res, HDR lighting, high rexture detail, high model detail etc. It's a good bit more powerful than my 6800 OC was.
Anyway I'm happy with it. I don't think there's too many games out there that are gonan require a far more powerful card than HL2 that will be coming out in the next couple years.
Also if you get the right motherboard, you could stick two in there and get 2x the speed with no fans and you have that option to upgrade later. I think the card cost me like $160 or so at Circuit City.
thanks all
sswift: hmm, yeah silent could be nice too and if it's truely that powerful, it's a bargain.
Right now, I need a suggestion for a £50 card for someone in AGP (shock horror) ;-) thanks.
sswift: hmm, yeah silent could be nice too and if it's truely that powerful, it's a bargain.
Right now, I need a suggestion for a £50 card for someone in AGP (shock horror) ;-) thanks.
bumptasic on the £50 card recommendation, cheerz
Perhaps the Geforce 6600? not sure if thats available under £50 yet though. Google is good- I will check for the website I got my card from later mate, it's full of fantastic bargains. I got my 7600 from there for £80. It's got a small heatsink, runs hotter than the 7800 or 7600GT but remains totally stable and I play Oblivion with everything but AA on no problem, might have to lower the grass settings for higher resolutions though.
hmm, OK I'll checkout the 6600 thanks for the tip.
I saw some 6800XTs for the same price (well few quid cheaper). Would they be viable I wonder, or are they older than the 6600?
what happens if you put a new fangled AGP 8x card in a slot that doesn't support that speed. Will it still work, just not as good?
It will run at 4x in a 4x slot no problem.
Anything earlier than 4x can cause problems due to voltage changes. I've seen burnt out boards and cards from incompatible vga slots
but an 8x into a 4x slot will work fine.
Anything earlier than 4x can cause problems due to voltage changes. I've seen burnt out boards and cards from incompatible vga slots
but an 8x into a 4x slot will work fine.
hmm, well this is an oldish Packard bell, sorta around the 2GHz mark iirc, so I wonder what the AGP slot is...I'll have to see if she can find a manual or we need to look up on the Internet the model number I spose.
I think the 6600 is just a 6800 card with a couple of disabled "pipelines". How much did you find the 6800XT for?
less than the 6600, £70.29 inc. VAT Ebuyer.