I'm thinking of doing an upgrade so will need a new graphics card as the Radeon is AGP.
Don't want to spend too much. Would prefer passive cooling. Which cards do you think I should consider?
Printable View
I'm thinking of doing an upgrade so will need a new graphics card as the Radeon is AGP.
Don't want to spend too much. Would prefer passive cooling. Which cards do you think I should consider?
9800pro brings back some memories for me! :D
Modern replacement, hmmm, was highend back in the day, what res do you game at? and what are the specs of your new build?
For starters, nVidia 9800GT @ around £100 or ATI HD4850 @ £115 would be adequate for for 1600x1050 and not crazy money if your budget minded. Above that or if you want to go into highend your looking at ATI 4870 or nVidia GTX260 @ £170 upwards and on into 4870X2 and GTX 295 land. If gaming at insane res with all the goodies isnt the primary goal, the ATI HD4670 @ £60 is very capable and well worth considering, couple of passive options around too. As is the 9600GSO/9600GT, don't know of any passive 9600GSO's, but there is a passive 9600GT.
Passive 9600GT at Scan
ATI HD4670 - no passive ones on Scan, but they do exist. (As do 4650 ones and downwards, depends if all you want it for is media as they won't set the world on fire).
Only passive 9800GT I know of, downside is Sparkle so not the most well know/respected brand I guess.
and scan do a passive 4850, but is pricey!
This recent thread might also be of some use. http://forums.hexus.net/graphics-car...-ati-card.html
And if you havent already, deffo checkout Webbys excellent sticky. http://forums.hexus.net/graphics-car...-x-thread.html
Really does depend on res and other specs to an extent before anyone could be more specific me thinks, but hopefully the above is of some use. :P
From what I've heard the gigabyte 4850 pasive cooler is not that good and tends to run very hot
Alot will depend what resolution you're running at.
For 17" to 19" then 9800gt or 4830
For 20" to 22" the 9800gt and 4830 still cope well, for how much longer? :juggle: I'd say your best option there is a 4850 or 9800gtx+
For higher resolution start to consider the 1gb memory versions of the 4850 and 9800gtx+ as well as the gtx260 and 4870
Very few of these cards will be passive, the heat production starts to get too much.
However base rule of thumb, ati stock coolers run hot, nvidia stock coolers are much better.
Oh and Sparkle is a well know and trusted brand, just not in the EU, they scaled back there EU presense years ago, it's a shame as they do good cards and cards with good non-stock cooling.
I'd be more than happy to buy that card if it would fit in the pc case, if worst comes to worst it should be easy to strap a 120mm fan to it ;)
The problem you get with sparkle is if a card has to go back to manufactor then it has to be shipped of to asia.
Yay! 9800 Pro ftw! Sadly it was wayyy out my price range... considered a 9700 Pro and settled for a 9600 Pro. Still cost... oh... over £120. rofl... just picked up a 3850 for £40, in the full knowledge I'll be able to get a 4850 next year for the same price, a 5850 a year later, and still have paid less than the 9600. how times change. and now we got crossfire and dual gpu cards too... damn confusing. bring back the 9800 Pro days, at least then you knew what was best. Still, I'm guessing a 4870 is today's equivalent.
Am I the only one to get confused with graphics cards? Did anyone ever do a performance chart that compared old models to new models so we could see what new model was as powerful as the old ones.
erm... because the new ones are always more powerful?
this might help though: http://www.playtool.com/pages/vidtable/table.html
nice table couple I don't agree with and a few which are missing
eg the hd3870 is better than the 9600gt, generally rated between the 9600gt and 8800gt 512mb
and no hd4830
8800gts G80 there were two versions 320mb and 640mb, the 640mb was rated as the same as the 8800gt 512mb
But it does make a good base line.
unfrotuneately newer doesn't always mean faster, and it's very useful to know how the low end of the latest serier compairs to the high end of the last.
eg 8600gt is slightly slower than the 7900GS
The 8800gtx which can be got cheaply 2nd hand is still a powerfull card and should out perfrom anything below a 9800gtx or hd4850
That is my point though, They are not. The Nvidia FX range came out after the Geforce 4 but, alot of the FX numbered cards were less powerful than the Geforce4 Ti 4600 (which I still use in one of my machines).Quote:
Originally Posted by pepsi_max2k
Thanks for the chart, I'll have a look and see what I think.
Sputnik - from what I'm reading, you'd like a modern graphics card that has similar performance to the 9800pro yes?
If so it's pretty easy - just set any budget above £40 and you're good to go
What is your budget?
That is what I'm asking. At least the same performance as the 9800 pro but, hopefully not too expensive. I don't want 'cutting edge' technology.Quote:
Originally Posted by k0nigen
Don't have any fixed budget but, best 'bang for buck' under 100 quid preferable.
Basically if you are going for a brand new PCI-E card under £100 an Nvidia 8800GT/9800GT or an ATI HD4830 would be the best available. They cost around £80 to £90 generally. If you are willing to go secondhand an ATI HD4850 would cost between £85 and £100 and is more powerful than either an HD4830 or 8800GT/9800GT.
However if you are not gaming that much and just need a reasonable card for older titles then an ATI HD4650 512mb GDDR3 would be your best for £55:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151454
This is card is bus powered and does not need any external power connector. It also has HD video acceleration features. This card is a few times more powerful than your 9800 pro. There is a cheaper and much slower GDDR2 version for a few quid less but the GDDR3 is worth the extra money:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151397
This is a review of another manufacturer's version of the same card but the GPU and memory clocks are the same so performance at stock should be quite similar:
http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/ind...1&limitstart=2
If you can pick up an HD3850 512mb for the same price new it would be even better.
If you do not care that much at all about gaming performance the 9500GT comes in passively cooled versions for under £50:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151457
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/154994...roduct_reviews
It should have better performance than a 9800pro and is also bus powered. The HD4650 GDDR3 offers significantly more performance for a similar price!!
Ok, well... 9800 pro has a clock of 380 MHz, max 256 MB @ 680 MHz / 256bit. And it's built with old tech so will be hotter, support less standards, slower ram, etc. Frankly, anything's better than that.
I'd say a 3850 256MB for ~£40 on ebay is probably best bang for buck. Spend any more than that and the percentage performance increase doesn't match the percentage price increase, although you may want a 512MB version if playing at higher reses, or a 4670 if using lots of AA/AF.
Check tom's GPU chart for speed comparisons: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/g...hmarks,30.html
Frankly you can pick up a card faster than the 9800 for ~£5, but if you actually wanna spend money... In order of general speed:
9600gt ~70 ebay
3870 512MB ~60 ebay ~63 ebuyer
512MB Asus HD 4670 ~62 scan ~63 ccl ~48 ebay
3850 256 ~40 ebay ~52 ccl
512MB HiS HD 4650 ~49 ebuyer
8800gs/9600gso £50 pcworld
4 series will run cooler, overclock higher, and work better with AA/AF than the 3 series, but will also cost more for similar stock performance. 8800 GS is deffinately slower than the 3850, I never really looked in to the 4650 much.
I vaguely remember doing some calculations about 6 months ago and worked out that the 9800 Pro is about as powerful as an AMD 780G motherboard's onboard graphics.
If I got that right, pretty much any discrete modern graphics card will be faster.
If you want to go AMD, anyting 3 or 4 series should do e.g. 3450, 4550 or anything starting with a 3 or a 4 :)
Wait, are you still using AGP or are you upgrading and want a PCI-E card?
I'm trying to work out what I want to use when I upgrade.