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

I've read through all the recent posts I can find about current graphics cards, ploughed through several reviews and checked prices on Scan and at the end of the day I feel I'm still no closer to picking the best card for my needs!

There seem to be many viable options: 8800GS, 8800GT, 8800GTS, GTX260, GTX280, 9800GTX, 9800GTX2, 9800GTX+, HD4850, HD4870.. lol, it's making my head spin! :surrender:

I think I've ruled out the new GTX260/280 as I don't want to spend that sort of money.

What I was really hoping was that you guys could simply say what YOU think the best card is for between £100 and £200 (and how much better is a £200 card than a £100 card?!)

I have an 18" TFT with a maximum resolution of 1280*1024 so I am fairly restricted there compared to more recent screens, but I would like to play Crysis at that resolution.

I'm more inclined to buy an nVidia card after a bad experience spending over £400 on an ATI x800 platinum (stupid I know) only to have the fan fail and the card overheat constantly, although I dare say they're addressed that problem since 2005 :rolleyes:

... anyway, I'm all ears!

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Originally Posted by zaphox

There seem to be many viable options: 8800GS, 8800GT, 8800GTS, GTX260, GTX280, 9800GTX, 9800GTX2, 9800GTX+, HD4850, HD4870.. lol, it's making my head spin! :surrender:

I think I've ruled out the new GTX260/280 as I don't want to spend that sort of money.

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Well as you state the GTX200s are out of the budget, as is the 9800GTX2, and probably the 9800GTX+ and HD4870 will be.

At that resolution get a 512MB 8800GT for around £100-£110 the other cards might give a boast to your FPS but when anything other then Crysis runs at 60+FPS IMO you will barely notice the difference.

Yep, I was going to say the new type 8800gt, Ive heard bad things about the new nvidia series anyway, however these opinions are unfounded as of yet.

4850, plenty of change :)

ok thanks, I was originally looking at the 9800GTX cards, but after reading reviews it seems it's not a lot better than the 8800 series. I'm now 90% decided on the following:

512MB Gigabyte 8800GT PCI-E 2.0, Mem 1800MHz GDDR3, GPU 700MHz, 112 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I, Zalman Fan

@ £111.84 Inc VAT, sounds pretty good to me... anything I should know about it?

Yes, you should know about this - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145605

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Originally Posted by Katar

Well as you state the GTX200s are out of the budget, as is the 9800GTX2, and probably the 9800GTX+ and HD4870 will be.

At that resolution get a 512MB 8800GT for around £100-£110 the other cards might give a boast to your FPS but when anything other then Crysis runs at 60+FPS IMO you will barely notice the difference.

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9800gtx+ will be around the 160 mark at the most.

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Originally Posted by zaphox

@ £111.84 Inc VAT, sounds pretty good to me... anything I should know about it?

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

You can save £11.84 by getting the Zotac one from ebuyer

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Originally Posted by Tetsu

9800gtx+ will be around the 160 mark at the most.

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I'll believe that when they are in the shops for that much. Nvidia have hardly been great at competitive prices on a newly released card.

That Zotac 8800gt from eBuyer is a bargain at £94.

An 8800gt will play most games smoothly at 1680 x 1050 so running 1280 x 1024 will be a doddle for it! You should be able to play Crysis at that resolution smoothly on it if you run with SOME medium settings.

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?

All the cards are the same really, its just different companies buy them from Nvidia and OC them and add different coolers. The Zotac will be exactly the same inside as the Gigabyte card but may have a slightly different cooler and a different OC. Actually that Zotac doesnt seem to be factory overclocked but it is easy to do yourself and will give you a few extra FPS. i'd save yourself a few quid and get the Zotac if i were you.

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Originally Posted by Katar

I'll believe that when they are in the shops for that much. Nvidia have hardly been great at competitive prices on a newly released card.

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well it should be a lot less but i'm over estimating it. $229 its price will be in the US, given the 4850 is around $199

8800GT if you're planning on sticking @ 1280x1024 but I'd go for the £95 version and wouldn't pay any more than that. If you were to pay any more (or intend on getting a higher-res monitor sometime) you may as well get the ATI 4850 which beats the 8800GT/GTS/9800GTX in most games and only costs £124 delivered from eBuyer.

I went for the Palit purely because of the bigger quieter cooler