Curse

Burton2000 · Apr 01, 2007, 09:06 PM // 21:06

I'm buying a new graphics card and I really have no clue what is the best graphics card to buy at the moment for my money so any help people could provide would be nice.

My price range is £100-£200 and my motherboard has PCI-express X16 slots as well as PCI-express.

Thanks in advance.

Hockster · Apr 01, 2007, 10:03 PM // 22:03

I'm not current on the conversion rates, but I think in that price range you're looking at the nVidia 7900 series or the ATi 1950 series. Either will run Guild Wars at max settings with ease.

Dex · Apr 02, 2007, 12:50 AM // 00:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hockster

I'm not current on the conversion rates, but I think in that price range you're looking at the nVidia 7900 series or the ATi 1950 series. Either will run Guild Wars at max settings with ease.

IMHO the x1950 is a better choice between the 7900 and x1950. The 7900 series is weak in the pixel shader department (important for many future games) and doesn't fully implement shader model 3.0. The x1950 consumes more power and gets a bit hotter, but has a lot more shader muscle and complete implementation of SM3.0. A good example of this is in games like Oblivion and Call of Juarez. The x1950 can simultaneously run multi-sample antialiasing with HDR effects (like color blends and HDR lighting). The 7900 series GPUs can't. 7900 owners have to settle for "fake" HDR like that in Half-Life 2: Lost Coast if they want to be able to turn on AA. Real FP16 blends are much prettier.

If you want to go up from there the 8800 series would be the way to go right now. If you shop around you might be able to find a 8800 GTS in your price range.

Justin_GW · Apr 02, 2007, 07:09 PM // 19:09

You should go for the 8800GTS. You can get it for 199.99 including delivery here: http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/332057.../Product.html#
It easily beats everything else in that price range, including the X1950XTX (ATi's current top model) which costs almost 100£ more.

Zodiak · Apr 02, 2007, 07:20 PM // 19:20

EVGA 8800GTX is the Fastest Strongest thing on the market, nothing compares to it

if you can afford the 500-800$ pricetag for it, depending where you are

EternalTempest · Apr 02, 2007, 08:09 PM // 20:09

hmm "best" is debatable - that will start ati vs nvidia

war.

The 8800 series is a good card DX 9 & DX 10 native and the Ati(amd) X1950 series is a a good DX9.

I would go for an 8800 series card myself.

The 79xx series is good, I can almost run at max... but my ancient single core cpu using older DDR (not DDRII memory) is holding my card back.

Dex · Apr 02, 2007, 08:17 PM // 20:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin_GW

You should go for the 8800GTS. You can get it for 199.99 including delivery here: http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/332057.../Product.html#
It easily beats everything else in that price range, including the X1950XTX (ATi's current top model) which costs almost 100£ more.

For the most part, that's true, but it also depends on the game and the resolution. In some games the x1950xtx is still faster, and at ultra-high resolutions the x1950xtx is faster in most games:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...800_gts/4.html

However, for the money the 8800GTS is still probably a better buy than the x1950xtx. I still wouldn't buy a 7900-series card right now, though. Although they run current games fine (except for shader-heavy ones like Oblivion and the Battlefield series), many upcoming titles are going to hit the pixel shaders pretty hard. The 7900-series cards are a bit weak in that area, as well as having the inability to run FP16 blending with multi-sample antialiasing at the same time.

lightblade · Apr 02, 2007, 09:21 PM // 21:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by EternalTempest

hmm "best" is debatable - that will start ati vs nvidia

war.

The 8800 series is a good card DX 9 & DX 10 native and the Ati(amd) X1950 series is a a good DX9.

I would go for an 8800 series card myself.

The 79xx series is good, I can almost run at max... but my ancient single core cpu using older DDR (not DDRII memory) is holding my card back.

There is no choice here. Which brand he uses is all predetermined by the motherboard he's using. You know...the onboard Northbridge chip. If it's nForce 3 or 4, you'll have to go with nvidia's product. Or if it's crossfire chip, you'll have to go with ATI.

lightblade · Apr 02, 2007, 09:26 PM // 21:26

price range from 100~200 pound?

Hmm....

8800 = 500+ USD
7900 = 300+ USD

hm...if you're motherboard is SLI capable, I recommend you getting two 6800. It perform better than one single 7900 AND cost cheaper.

Dex · Apr 02, 2007, 10:41 PM // 22:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by lightblade

There is no choice here. Which brand he uses is all predetermined by the motherboard he's using. You know...the onboard Northbridge chip. If it's nForce 3 or 4, you'll have to go with nvidia's product. Or if it's crossfire chip, you'll have to go with ATI.

Nonsense!

That's only true if you want to run SLI or Crossfire, which is a waste IMO. Otherwise, nVidia cards work 100% fine on non-nVidia chipsets and ATI cards run 100% fine on nVidia chipsets. There is no advantage to matching your northbridge chip manufacturer to your GPU manufacturer. As far as SLI/Crossfire go, it's far more cost-effective to buy a better single card and periodically upgrade it than it is to hold onto your old tech and buy additional cards for the paltry FPS increase it brings. Waste of money unless you're planning to run at outrageously high resolutions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lightblade

price range from 100~200 pound?

Hmm....

8800 = 500+ USD
7900 = 300+ USD

hm...if you're motherboard is SLI capable, I recommend you getting two 6800. It perform better than one single 7900 AND cost cheaper.

Umm....

100 GBP = ~197 USD
200 GBP = ~395 USD

An 8800 GTS should absolutely be obtainable for that amount of money. No offense, but buying two 6800's is an absolutely terrible idea. For one thing, SLI is horribly inefficient...two 6800's are scarcely faster than a single 6800 by today's standards. It would be an awful waste of money. Secondly, the 6800 is old tech. It doesn't have the capabilities of newer hardware not only from a power standpoint, but also from a DirectX and shader standard standpoint. You should only buy a 6800 right now if you can get an amazingly good deal on it. Otherwise a single x1950 is a FAR superior choice if you're not going to move up to the 8800.

SLI and Crossfire are not a good value. EVER. You should never buy two lesser cards and put them in a dual-GPU configuration instead of buying a single, more powerful card. It's like throwing your money in the toilet. The only time SLI and Crossfire make sense is when a single top-of-the-line card isn't enough to run at the ultra-high resolutions you require, and your intention is to put two top-of-the-line cards together. Trust me. I've done the math.

Dmitry · Apr 02, 2007, 11:27 PM // 23:27

i agree, ive ran my pc with an old meesily fx 5500 for a few years now

recently bought a x1950Pro 256MB GDDR3 256-bit and its like heaven, seariosly! and it cost me only 205 Euro, which is about 120? 130? pounds? but ive also had to buy a more powerfull power supply to acomodate my new monster,

while it worked it was great but my PSU broke down after 4 hours, technical fault, buying a new one tomorrow, my point is this make sure u have a powerfull enough PSU for what ever card you buy

Club3D: x1950ro
[email protected]=no problems
[email protected]+extras=no problems
[email protected]=no problems
Counterstrike Source and other source based [email protected]+extras+more extras= as smooth as baby's bottom

i love it, money well spent! except the PSU....dont buy from Xion...

Dex · Apr 03, 2007, 12:35 AM // 00:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by SephyXIII

what the hell are u talking about

Care to elaborate?

easyg · Apr 03, 2007, 07:32 AM // 07:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by lightblade

There is no choice here. Which brand he uses is all predetermined by the motherboard he's using. You know...the onboard Northbridge chip. If it's nForce 3 or 4, you'll have to go with nvidia's product. Or if it's crossfire chip, you'll have to go with ATI.

Yes, Dex is quite right. This is nonsense.

Truth to tell, with hacked drivers it's even possible to run nVidia cards in SLI in a ATI Crossfire-supported board.

For instance, Abit's AW9D-Max and AW9D boards are based on the 975X chipset. Officially, this board is only supported by ATI Crossfire for dual graphics cards. Unofficially, it supports both, which Abit sort of backhandedly acknowledges by shipping the boards with generic SLI bridges.

Etta · Apr 03, 2007, 09:45 AM // 09:45

I'm a fan of nvidia & XFX, so XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB DDR3 PCI-E is a great option for just under £200.

Here's the link to microdirect uk so you can pick and compare whatever you like for you money : http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...,57,3214&n=643

Btw use the driver ver 100.65 if you going for nvidia. It's the most stable one so far.

Uncleadolph · Apr 03, 2007, 10:12 AM // 10:12

WOW!!! £180? I've only seen it for £200+. That is an amazing one, and I love XFX aswell (<3 the design on the 7900GS). Looks like the 8800GTS might be getting itself plugged into my PC afterall. Thanks for that.

Burton2000 · Apr 03, 2007, 01:09 PM // 13:09

Thanks for all your help it looks like ill be pick myself up an 8800GTS come next week.

Tachyon · Apr 03, 2007, 04:57 PM // 16:57

Firstly I'd check that your PSU has the required power connector that the 8800 cards need. Also, make sure that the card will fit inside your case first as these 8800's are gigantic when compared to other cards.

easyg · Apr 04, 2007, 05:37 AM // 05:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azagoth

Firstly I'd check that your PSU has the required power connector that the 8800 cards need. Also, make sure that the card will fit inside your case first as these 8800's are gigantic when compared to other cards.

I think most companies ship 8800 series cards with adaptors -- 2 molex connectors to one 6-pin PCI supplementary power connector to plug into the video card. So, even if his PSU didn't come with a PCI power connector cable it's not going to be the end of the world. Theoretically, all he needs is 4 free molex power cables to power up an 8800 series card, provided (this is the biggie) the PSU generates sufficient amperage to actually power the video card while also supplying all the other stuff that plugs into it.

In short, the OP needs to check out the specs on his power supply, specifically the total amps put out by the 12v rail(s). He also, of course, will have to know approximately how much power existing components are drawing.

Yanman.be · Apr 04, 2007, 08:44 AM // 08:44

Yeah easyg, I think my asus 8800gtx had those.

ObiWan07 · Apr 05, 2007, 06:03 PM // 18:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dex

For the most part, that's true, but it also depends on the game and the resolution. In some games the x1950xtx is still faster, and at ultra-high resolutions the x1950xtx is faster in most games:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...800_gts/4.html

You should read the test, not just look at the numbers.
At all tests the GTS is tested using more details and an higher AA/AF rate.