Graphics Cards

[iCraig]

Hi All,

I've recently 'upgraded' my PC.

I purchased a PCIe 7300le as a stopgap and I thought this being a newer card than my old AGP FX5200 it'd be faster and have better graphics on the games I use (I play Rail Simulator which states minimum is an FX5200).

The 7300 is as slow as hell, possibly just as bad as the 5200.

My question is, is what is the best graphics card I can get really cheap? I don't mind buying used or new. I assume my 4x PCIe slot can take the 16x cards but just not run at full speed too?
I have about £30 to spend.

Cheers

Craig

[jim]

I'd look at second hand cards that were high-end in their day.

Something like an 8800 GTS 320MB would probably be around that price now, but you'd definitely have to go second-hand because you'll get fleeced if you try to buy an old card from a retailer. I'm not particularly knowledgeable about the second-hand graphics market, but something along those lines would serve you well. Whether you can get a better deal from ATI - I don't know, was an nVidia fanboy back then.

If it was rubbish when it came out, it doesn't really matter how new it is - it'll always be rubbish. In other words, I'd buy a 7800 GT in preference to a GT 210, even though it's much, much older.

[Iron Sights]

To be fair there is not a lot you can get for brand new. The closest decent card you could get for £30-35 would be a radeon hd 4650 and even they are hard to come buy, plus if you include delivery it will be ~£40.


http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=39055


Your best bet tbh is ebay, you can find some real bargains there

[DanceswithUnix]

I'd look at second hand cards that were high-end in their day.

Something like an 8800 GTS 320MB would probably be around that price now, but you'd definitely have to go second-hand because you'll get fleeced if you try to buy an old card from a retailer. I'm not particularly knowledgeable about the second-hand graphics market, but something along those lines would serve you well. Whether you can get a better deal from ATI - I don't know, was an nVidia fanboy back then.

If it was rubbish when it came out, it doesn't really matter how new it is - it'll always be rubbish. In other words, I'd buy a 7800 GT in preference to a GT 210, even though it's much, much older.

GAH! I hate people recommending 7800/7900 cards: all the performance of a 9500GT, but with a higher PSU requirement and even with a ton of fan noise they had a habit of cooking themselves.

Anyway, the 4650 really is a cracking card for the money, slightly outside your budget but the leap in performance is worth it. Just save up until you can get one.

Your £30 budget would only get you about a GT210, the 4650 is about 3 to 4 times faster for another tenner.

These graphs show the faster memory version, the 4670 but the 4650 is only about 20% slower which gives you an idea of what it can do.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2935/8

[jim]

GAH! I hate people recommending 7800/7900 cards: all the performance of a 9500GT, but with a higher PSU requirement and even with a ton of fan noise they had a habit of cooking themselves.

I recommended an 8800.

So would you take a GT 210 in preference to a 7800?

[DanceswithUnix]

I recommended an 8800.

So would you take a GT 210 in preference to a 7800?

7800 has simply never been an option.

Any machine I could have upgraded with a 7800 would have required a PSU upgrade, making a more powerful but PSU friendly card actually a cheaper option.

[jim]

Any machine I could have upgraded with a 7800 would have required a PSU upgrade, making a more powerful but PSU friendly card actually a cheaper option.

Fair enough, but it was hardly the point I was making by mentioning the 7800.

[DanceswithUnix]

Apologies if I came across a bit strong originally, guess I should only post when I have the time. I shall try and give a more rounded response, but in short whilst both are too slow for my main machine I could find a use for a GT210, but would not want a 7800gt.

I have quite recently recommended an 8400gs, ie a slower GT210, a couple of times to people for whom it would be the right tool for the job, eg giving more stable video drivers than Intel or dual head support.

I have not recently recommended a 7800gt. I know in the day they were a good card, and I personally had a 7900gt with factory overclock and 512MB of ram when the usual was 256MB, so that card utterly rocked when I bought it and was way faster than a 7800gt. But here is the rub, when it failed (these things happen) I bought an 8600gt as a replacement, and could hardly tell the difference other than my machine became quieter, cooler and better supported.

I don't usually use ebay, but having a quick look on there just now there were only a few 7800gt cards and a shed-load of 8600gt cards, so I expect you could get a better deal aiming for a modern plentiful midrange card than an older top of the range card thanks to the better choice. Both give the same game performance.

Then comes my experience with hand me down video cards in other machines around the house (I tend to update my machine, and re-deploy the older cards around as seems best rather than selling). Nvidia only vaguely support older video card generations. The drivers install and kind of work, but I found with my 4200ti, 6600gt and 7900gt cards that if I changed the game I was playing I would sometimes have to downgrade driver version to stop driver crashes. Get an 8 series or later and that just doesn't happen as they are still selling the chips so the driver testing against modern cards is far far better than against the old relics.

Older cards worry me for reliability too. My 4200ti and earlier cards survived to obsolescence, but the 6600gt, 7900gt and my wife's 5200fx died. Newer cards seem to be holding up nicely.

Then there are things like flash acceleration that only work on modern GPUs.

Things have moved on, and no matter how nostalgic an old card may make me feel I just can't agree it is a good fit in a modern machine.