what graphics card

[louis]

got £150 to spend on a new graphics card what do you guys think
is the best for the money?

[spazman]

Get a Radeon9600XT for £125 and spend the rest down the pub

[dawson]

Originally posted by spazman
Get a Radeon9600XT for £125 and spend the rest down the pub

I agree, the 9600XT is a nice card, with HL2 for free too!
The extra £25 could buy an extra 256MB ram, a new mouse, keyboard or something like that.

[DrBombcrater]

Far and away the best card for £150 is the FX 5900XT. It's way quicker than a 9600XT.

[SilentDeath]

id say 9800se_aiw if you can find one. the should overclock a bit and are as good as 9600xt at stock and can be moded to 9800pro aiw

DrBombcrater - how good are fx cards in dx9 now? also what are the best fx cards atm? what speeds do they run at?
would a fx5900 (non ultra) be good for £95 (pcw boxing day only sale)

[skattrd]

No contest 9800se AiW £150 delivered - and if ur lucky you'll end up with a 9800pro AiW - if not it's still a great performer, with AiW features and a remote control

[Howard]

I think he means 5600 Ultra. The 5900 Ultras are about £270.

And the 9600XT is better than the GeforceFX 5600.
I'd never advise buying a GeforceFX anyway. nVidia have seriously gone downhill

[DrBombcrater]

The latest FX cards (5700,5900,5950) seem to be just fine in DX9. Still not quite as strong as the 9800 is some cases, but it's not really a problem anymore unless you expect to play Half-Life 2 all the time.

IMHO the best FX is the 5900XT. It uses the same 400MHz NV35 core as the 5900 and 5900Ultra but mounts it on a cheaper PCB. The memory clock is dropped to 700MHz, but the latency is reduced as well to compensate a bit.

Peformance-wise its maybe 1-2% slower than a normal 5900, so it's a lot quicker than anything else in the same price range. (Dabs are doing them for £150)

The PC World offer was actually for a Leadtek 5900XT and was a damn good deal. Wish I'd been able to get one so I could flog it on Ebay and make a nice profit

[SilentDeath]

so the fx5950 ultra would currently be there fastest, what clocks it use?
the fx5900ultra being next
then the fx5900xt
then the fx5900
then fx5700 ultra
etc...?
wasnt the fastest fx about 200mhz higher on core than the 9800xt? 400mhz would be v slow for an fx?

[DrBombcrater]

Clocks for the FX cards are:

5950 Ultra - 475MHz core, 950MHz Mem
5900 Ultra - 450MHz core, 850MHz Mem
5900 - 400MHz core, 850MHz Mem
5900XT - 400MHz code, 700MHz Mem

Because its lower-latency memory brings the 5900XT almost right up with the 5900, it's a pretty good deal.

[louis]

wheres the best place to get the card from?

cheers

[m0dm0]

Originally posted by louis
wheres the best place to get the card from?

cheers

OT a bit but where's the best place to get a 9800se AIW... which will hopefully mod?

m0.

[duongnt]

well try www.evesham.com, they sell 9800se AIW for 150 incl del. Not sure about the softmodable thought

[DrBombcrater]

@louis : dabs.com (2WJRWS)

@dognut : I'd be very wary of those cards that Evesham are flogging. They don't give a detailed spec, model number or manufacturer's name. Even the picture is wrong.

The Hercules 9800SE AIW that's widely available is known to be a good soft-modder and runs at 380/680, but the price Evesham quote is a bit too low for it to be the Hercules. I'd guess this one is based off the cheaper 9800SE design that runs at 270/540 and uses a 128-bit PCB.

@m0dm0 : OC UK have them :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...ics_cards.html

[skattrd]

I got an 9800se AiW from Evesham last week and it is 256bit memory (as stated in the description) and the clocks on mine were 380/680 as well. Softmodded ok, but had to lower it to 380/620 for no artifacts, so its ok, but could be better

[DaftpuNk]

The review of the 9800SE AIW on hexus and one i took part in at www.gibtek.co.uk show that the hercules boards are absolutely brilliant! Get one now