Best sub £60 graphics card?

[Applesink]

A new base system arriving thanks to a Dell misprice (spec below). Want to add a card in the £60 range that will play decent games on my Samsung 206bw (20"). Any suggestions in this price range. Not a big gamer, only play a couple of times a week at most, but would like something that runs as quiet as possible. Thanks for any suggestions.

Vostro 200 E4300 Core 2 Duo Processor 1.80GHz, 800Mhz FSB, 2MB cache
Memory 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 667MHz
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
Vista Business

[MrP]

Look on aria, they have a jetway ati x1950 pro for £65 i think

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=27834

[Pob255]

your choises are going to be
Ati x1650Pro
nvidia 7600GT

but at 1680x1050 resolution they are probably going to struggle.
Although you can play games at less than native resolution (yes, shock, horror, some people do and it's often not that bad)

Also these cards are not DX10 (but no games are yet ether )
for DX10 at sub £60
nvidia 8500GT
ATi HD2600Pro

however I wouldn't risk them as currently on DX9 / OpenGL games they perform worse than the other two I mentioned.

EDIT: beaten and bettered by MrP

[Mad-Max]

What slot is it I'm assuming it's PCI-E

What about

7600GT, 8500GT, 2600Pro,

[MrP]

7600gt isnt too bad, thoug 8500 and 2600 arnt much cop unless you desperate to play DX10 games

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts...score,230.html

have a root through that and choose the cards to give some idea of comparative performance

[Applesink]

Thanks guys - off to bed now to mull over these choices (well, not really - I'll look at prices in the waking hours).

[Pob255]

but a 7600GT isn't a patch on a x1950Pro though.
it's around the same as the x1650Pro
So if you can get a x1950Pro I'd say go for it.

EDIT: other card to look for is an nvidia 7900GS but you'll be pushed to find one for under £60, unless you try ebay

[Biscuit]

Look on aria, they have a jetway ati x1950 pro for £65 i think

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=27834

DEFINATELY the one to go for at that price but it will be a bit noisey with that tiny HSF!

Personally if i was buying a DX9 gfx chip now i wouldnt go any less than a 7900GTX or x1950XT. At around £100-120 it is kinda double budget but they will eat pretty much any games you throw at it

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=364166

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=618011

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=619509

Running at higher res you would definately see the benefit over a 1950pro or 7600gt. For a £60 card to run 'decent' games you may have to sacrifice some texture quality, anti alias and texture filtering to run at native resolution @ a decent FPS

[Applesink]

ok, I'm convinced that the X1950 Pro 256MB will suit my needs, and I need to remain more or less within my budget so this fits the bill. Biscuit's comment about noise is worrying though. I was hoping for something as quiet as poss, with passve cooling preferably, but is it unrealistic to get something with this power and passive cooling?

[Applesink]

[EDIT: Ignore this post - just looked at reviews and worked out this is not at all useful for games. I'll stick to letting you experts give advice. Slowly learning...]

But upon saying that ... what about this one for something silent with passive cooling and support for DX10? (£66.76 del.)

512MB Asus 8500GT Silent PCI-E (x16) 800MHz GDDR2 GPU 459MHz 16Streams D-Sub/DVI-I/HDTV

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=632511

Am I way off the mark here? Don't know enough to understand why the recommends above are better. Cheers.

[Biscuit]

To sort out noise...

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=627848

if you have decent airflow in your case then that would do the trick.

alternatively

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=470199

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=168309

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=353441

[jimbouk]

Power and silence don't exactly go hand in hand unfortunately. However I'd recomend the X1950Pro at that price, then save up another £15 for a quiet cooler [edit: lol beaten to the coolers!].

But if you don't want to go over budget and really do want something silent then there's a 7600GS (other manufacturers available) or X1650 for around £55.

You'll need to make sure there is enough air flow in your case or passive cards will get rather toasty...

[Applesink]

Great - thanks again. I def will keep myself to these recomms now. Enough to get on with and make a decision when back from hols next week. Anyway, just noticed my Dell delivery date changed from Aug 1 to 24th! Lots of time to watch for price falls...

[Maz_D]

If its a dell pc your putting the graphics card into, the generic psu will probably not have enough power for the high-end type (high power consumption) cards like the ATI's 1950s and nvidias 7800s. You will have to go for a less power consuming card like a 2600xt, 7600gt or 8600gt, unless you buy a new psu. I would recommend the 2600xt out of those cards.

[Biscuit]

If its a dell pc your putting the graphics card into, the generic psu will probably not have enough power for the high-end type (high power consumption) cards like the ATI's 1950s and nvidias 7800s. You will have to go for a less power consuming card like a 2600xt, 7600gt or 8600gt, unless you buy a new psu. I would recommend the 2600xt out of those cards.

Might have a point, i would open up the case and give us some details about the psu. Wattage, rails etc

[Phil_P]

In this price range, I'd be tempted to take a look on ebay. For example, I picked up a 7600GS for £30 recently. People upgrading to the latest greatest will be off loading their old cards and there are always bargains to be had.