Overall Best Graphics Card for between £100 and £200?

[zaphox]

Hmm, this AMP edition of the Zotac card looks even better: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134732

Opinions? I'll be make the purchase tomorrow

[kalniel]

The point of going for a 8800GT is that you don't need anything more powerful. Thus the idea of going for a factory overclocked one, with the accompanying downsides like increased heat/noise/instability in some games seems a bit odd.

[!TIMMY!]

Zotac looks great for the price. Cheapest one and pre oced. My mate has a Zotac 8800GTS 320mb and its been fine for him.

[Katar]

The point of going for a 8800GT is that you don't need anything more powerful. Thus the idea of going for a factory overclocked one, with the accompanying downsides like increased heat/noise/instability in some games seems a bit odd.

Only reason I'd go for an overclocked one is if it had a decent aftermarket cooler rather then the reference Nvidia one.

[edjay]

I'll let you know when mine turns up next week.

It's got a lovely fan which seems to be quite quiet, and as a very quick test, I loaded STALKER and set it up at 1440 x 900 @ max with full dynamic lighting. Hmmm, seems ok? I've yet to investigate software for the temperature.

NX88T512HP.....and, it's gone down in price by a quid today!!

[zaphox]

It's got a lovely fan which seems to be quite quiet, and as a very quick test, I loaded STALKER and set it up at 1440 x 900 @ max with full dynamic lighting. Hmmm, seems ok? I've yet to investigate software for the temperature.

NX88T512HP.....and, it's gone down in price by a quid today!!

ooh, it's back in stock! (was out of stock this morning!) I'm really liking the fact it has a Zalman fan on it.

I was about to order the Zotac one then found out I've got a job to do in Newcastle tomorrow, so I'll be driving right past Scan anyway... think I'll let my impatience get the better of me. Thanks for your input guys, did help me clear up a lot of thoughts.

[edjay]

Hey Zaphox

The graphics thing is pretty new to me and it seems it doesn't always go in a predictable manner: I just tried STALKER at the above settings, and today, it didn't like it at all and I came down to 1280 x 800 in the end, and just to double the confusion, I tested BLACKSITE and it played at 1920 x 1200???

Your guess may be as good as the one that I don't have?

I'm still definitely happy with the GT, I just think that things might take a little bit more patience than I expected. Anyway, hope you get your card sorted.

[edjay]

Now this is more like it:

I found out that the setup for the 8800GT was 700/something like 1715/940, so I installed the Nvidia HUD and changed it to 600/1500/900 and everything's fine. I can now run STALKER at 1920 x 1200 with max details and full dynamic lighting!

[zaphox]

Good to hear edjay! I ordered mine today, looking forward to the arrival next Monday =)

*cracks knuckles in preparation for being able to play Oblivion again!*

[kalniel]

Now this is more like it:

I found out that the setup for the 8800GT was 700/something like 1715/940, so I installed the Nvidia HUD and changed it to 600/1500/900 and everything's fine. I can now run STALKER at 1920 x 1200 with max details and full dynamic lighting!

Heh.. see my post above about factory overclocked cards Sometimes reference speeds *are* best

[edjay]

....increased heat/noise/instability in some games....

(under)Clocked!

[daggman]

HI

I have the zotac 8800gt Amp edition,card is great , games fly compared to my old 7900gs, it is very quiet and seems to run cool enough, would recomend to anyone.was actually going to sell it because i got caught up in all the hype over the 4850, but i have decided to keep it till next year and see then.

daggman

[fraps]

It's extremely tempting, but I've never heard of Zotac and am almost tempted to pay a bit extra for a Gigabyte card. Are they a well established manufacturer?

have no experience of zotac, but I would go for a 4850!

[edjay]

I changed the settings on my Gigabyte card again to 700/1680/900 and that quite happily gives me max everything in STALKER. This is still on and below the factory issue. Happy bunny.

[Pob255]

I seem to remember that there's been quite a few issues with the gigabyte card with zalman cooler
Some have fixed it by tuneing it down to stock 8800gt speeds some people have had to give up on it completely after 2 or 3 rma's

back to the issue at hand for 1280x1024 anything much over a 8800gt is fairly wasted, granted I'm waiting for my 9800gtx to arrive (tuesday) but that was only because I got it for £112 on today only on scan (last wed) although it's still on at £117 http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=787790

Yes it'll be overkill for my monitor (1280x1024) but it will set me up for a larger one, which will be my next upgrade.
I know people will say it's rubbish but If your PSU can handel it it's worth looking at for £117 (I'd of never bought one at there original £180)

[edjay]

I should have mentioned that I'm using 1920 x 1200.

By all accounts, so far, the 9600GT, 9800GTX and even the 260 and 280 are the new cards for the extra resolution of 2650 x1600. The general oppinion on the net is that Nvidia should get their fingers out and release a GPU that really makes a difference compared to the 8800 cards.

From what I've learned recently, I can see that there's no way they will be doing this whilst there are enough people buying into their SLI idea. This therefore means that single cards are deliberately placed at the "always could be more threshold." It quite plainly appears to be a carefully planned corporate (marketing strategy) rip-off. After all, when an industry as a whole has no really new ideas, what can they do except stretch the old ones to keep themselves ticking over?

This is a very good/realistic price for the 9800GTX. Well done SCAN.