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Thread: Which card?

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    Question Which card?

    I was wondering if someone could suggest which graphics card I should go for with the specs below. I am out of touch with the graphics card market and would appreciate the advice of people who have a clue (unlike me)

    CPU: Athlon XP 1800+ (probably getting same model 3000+ at the same time as the GCard)
    Mobo: Abit NF7-S (nForce2)
    GCard: Powercolor Radeon 9500 PRO
    Memory: TWINX1024-3200XLPT XMS3200 2x512MB 2-2-2-5
    Sound: (nForce2 5.1)
    OS: Win XP SP1 + Linux (deciding on a new distro atm)
    monitor: 17" TFT 16ms 1280x1024 native res
    PSU: 400w very loud mofo (plenty of spare connectors)

    Games im likely to want to play on it.
    CS Source
    Battlefield 2
    GTA San andreas
    Farcry
    Doom 3
    HL2 (when lost coast is released)

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    Senior Member sawyen's Avatar
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    painful... 1800+ will probably crawl thru bf2... if ur going to go for a 3000+ XP.. u might as well dish a little more to get a new 754 mobo and a 3000+ A64 that can actually let u play stuff at decent framerates.. trust me... altho the numbers are the same.. the performance is not... A64 is much more powerful..

    if ur still inclined on getting a 3000+ XP... u'd probably be getting a 6800GT AT BEST! 6600GT would be more appropriate.. as your CPU would an apparent bottleneck..
    Me want Ultrabook


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    ATI X800XL or Nvidia 6800GT. Nvidia has better drivers for Linux so they say and both options are £200 and maybe less if you shop around. These are good cards for 1280x1024 native in all your games. The 3000+ will be the bottleneck here so you can safely ignore any faster GPUs. If you want a more modest performance boost at a lower price then a 6600GT would be a good choice.

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    Lightbulb 6800GT + nForce?

    Thanks I am just upping my system enough to tide me over till xmas, I will be building a complete second system which will be my main gaming pc and will be a lot, lot better than this one. So for now I will stick with the XP 3000+. My budget for the lot this time is about £300.

    I heard the 6800GT doesn't like my nForce mobo, anyone got any experience of this combo? If it works well I will definately go for it due to the linux issues (had no end of problems with my 9500 PRO in linux)

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    While im at it, any thoughts on this card http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...60&GroupID=331
    Last edited by eviljonny; 28-06-2005 at 07:23 PM. Reason: Posted wrong URL

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    I would spend the £300 as follows

    NF4 Ultra £80 Asus A8N-E
    A64 3000+ £95 (upgrade to X2 later)
    6600GT PCIe - £120 (upgrade to 7800GTX later)

    This will tide you over as you say. Infact it sets you up rather nicely for a spending spree at xmas. If you think you need an expensive SLI motherboard then look at the 7800GTX as proof that you don't. The arrival of a single card that matches the 6800 ultras in SLI.

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    ATI Technologies exAndrzej's Avatar
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    You could get a 3000+ for about £75 inc vat and an X800XL AGP for £200

    The only thing you need to be aware of is that you will be continuing to develop your AGP box

    Also, I am guessing that you will be choosing 32-bit technology CPU

    Would it not be an idea to 'have a think' about waiting a little longer and refreshing everything ?

    I know that it is more costly...

    ...cos you might have to change ram etc...

    ...but you need to ask yourself 'How long do I expect to keep this box'

    I can tell you now that Battlefield 2 is a very demanding game and it is possible to pick a setting that will make every card in the market today stutter at some point !

    At £300 you can get your box 'up to speed' to play all of the current games (HL2, D3, FC)...

    ...if you wanted to build in some future proofing - then you are looking at around £600
    .
    "X800GT... snap it up while you still can"
    HEXUS
    ......................................August 2005

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    You can easily get an X800XL AGP with DVI and ViVo and a AXP 3000+ for under £300 at scan You would have about £20 left for a night out
    .: Predator :.


    - Shuttle SN25P - A64 3700+ San Diego @ 2.7GHz - 1GB PQI Ultra DDR - X850XT - Asus DVD-ROM - 200GB Maxtor + 2*80GB SATAII -

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    I expect to keep this box for years but not as a gaming machine. I dont want to upgrade the motherboard and am happy to leave it as agp since its only to play games until xmas.

    I dont mind having the graphics on the lowest setting for the time being (as I will have about 2k (possibly upto 3) to spend building a totally new pc at xmas). For now I just want to be able to play cs source and battlefield 2 without juddering (even if its on the lowest setting.)

    The only thing you need to be aware of is that you will be continuing to develop your AGP box

    Also, I am guessing that you will be choosing 32-bit technology CPU

    Would it not be an idea to 'have a think' about waiting a little longer and refreshing everything ?
    I know im developing my AGP box still but I will be building a PCI-E one at xmas and this wont be used for gaming at all then. I will have enough money to build a fantastic system at xmas without saving what I have now. I am choosing 32-bit for this system but like I said its just to tide me over gaming wise. Six months is too long to wait for me especially since I can afford to up this a bit now (at least enough to play BF2 on min settins).

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    Quote Originally Posted by Firelord
    You can easily get an X800XL AGP with DVI and ViVo and a AXP 3000+ for under £300 at scan You would have about £20 left for a night out
    This is what im thinking at the moment, my only beef with this is ATIs linux support, although my 9500 pro works perfectly now in linux.

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    Senior Member sawyen's Avatar
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    As far as I'm concerned, Nforce 2 Ultra 400 doesnt have any issues with my 6800GT... was running roughly the same setup on my BOING RIG (refer signature below) until I ripped the card out for my new system... and really even a 3200+ XP is a bottleneck..

    A future proofing rig would probably be £800 odd if u shop at scan

    3700+ SD + 7800GTX + SLi mobo + decent LoLat RAMs
    Me want Ultrabook


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    the card from microdirect (the V9999 gt 128MB) is quite a good, it is not a full GT though, it is a full GT core but only has 128MB of slower RAM. When I had it though it clocked to 400+ core and 900 memory Didnt like the fan though, it was a bit whiny for my liking, although not too noisey when turned down (Im pretty sensitive to high pitched noise though...)

    that card is £147 at overclockers.co.uk this week (until friday I think), normally its £193 there. At £147 its a bargain, much faster than a 6600gt. However at £193 you could get a x800 vanilla (£175 @ Scan) or an AGP X800XL (£210 @ here ) although both these cards cooling systems arent especially quiet afaik either)

    Im runing BF2 at 1280x960 with a 980pro and a XP3000+ and its great. Half Life 2, San Andreas etc allrun great at 1280.1024 (I have a 17" tft) Far Cry and Doom 3 chugg a bit at that resolution though, but at 1024x768 they are fine
    Last edited by YorkieBen; 29-06-2005 at 12:16 PM.

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    Senior Member Dark Horse's Avatar
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    If you want something to tide you over then I think a decent option would be to get a 2500+ mobile, they will overclock to 3200+ speeds(~2100mhz) on stock voltage and can reach up to 2500mhz given a little more juice.

    With my 2500+ mobile and 6600gt at stock with 1gb of ocz plat rev2 at stock I can get 3300 in 3dm 2005 and about 3900 at 250x10 and the 6600gt at 570/1180. Its not amazing by todays standards but the nf-7s is a good board and you should be able to overclock it without any trouble at all. Check http://www.tweakers.com.au/articles/...xp-m/page2.asp
    for a good article on it.

    That should only set you back maybe £60 for the 2500+ and £120 for the 6600gt, if not the 6800gt at http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...k_Only_25.html
    for £145 is an absolute steal and would get you close to 5000 3d 2005 marks

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    Keeping the NF-S then I'd go for the v9999gt since it's on offer and a mobile 2500+ which will overclock above 3200+ speeds. Setting the bios to 12x200 & 1.65volts on a mobile 2500+ took me about 2 minutes and I've had no problems since the day I built it. CPUcity stock the mobile XP.

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    6800gt at http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acata...ek_Only_25.html
    for £145 is an absolute steal and would get you close to 5000 3d 2005 marks
    Not bad since I only get 1700 now I think I may well take this option.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ed^chigliak
    Keeping the NF-S then I'd go for the v9999gt since it's on offer and a mobile 2500+ which will overclock above 3200+ speeds. Setting the bios to 12x200 & 1.65volts on a mobile 2500+ took me about 2 minutes and I've had no problems since the day I built it. CPUcity stock the mobile XP.
    Thanks, I am pretty sure my mind is made up now

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