Cheap PCI-e Graphics card

[Smudger]

I'm building a cheap rig for a mate who's not going to be playing any of the latest games, and want a cheap (<=£50) PCI-e card to put in it. I don't have a clue what's any good at that end of the market. Do I go for a newer, low spec card, or see if I can get an older series, but perhaps meatier card?

Any help gladly accepted

Thanks

[abeacock]

I was able to pick up a second hand PCI-e Galaxy 6600 for &#163;33.
If you want new gear then I suggest a trip to Scan's website as there will probably be the cheapest, I'm sure a 6-series card will do you mate just fine and he can always upgrade later as it's PCI-e.

[cotswoldcs]

I went for a 256Mb Sapphire Radeon X300 SE PCI-E @ £24.19 + VAT from Scan for a recent build. If it's not for gaming then I would recommend an ATI card as I personally believe that they have superior image quality in 2D work. It has both DVI and D-SUB connections which would be worthwhile having. Not all cheapo cards come with a DVI connection and I would definitely recommend one that has.

[Smudger]

Actually, it looks like it's going to be between a 7300 and an x1300.

I found this one on Scan:

256MB Sapphire RX1300XT PCI-Ex16 12Pipes 800MHz GDDR2 500MHz GPU D-Sub/DVI/S-Video Retail

Ok, it's a bit over budget, but only £7...

Are XTs still the top card?

[Smudger]

Or, maybe not...

How would a 7300GS compare to that x1300? It seems to only have 4 pipes, but faster GPU and DDR. Do pipes make a huge difference?

You see, he says he's not going to play games on it now, but I can see him changing his mind a few months down the line.

Would these cards be ok playing the likes of Far Cry or CoD?

[Rack]

Get the 7300GT. Twice the pipes is worth the £10.

[Rack]

Get the 7300GT. Twice the pipes is worth the £10.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=454110

[Smudger]

Is it better than the x1300xt with 12 pipes though?

What do the pipes do?

[Rack]

Well, it's a bit harder to compare across different GPU's, but to put is simply a 7300GS is a 7300GT with half of it disabled.

There are other factors for performance, but the 7300GT is a pretty attractive low end card, while the 7300GS is not good value. X1300XT performs well too, I don't think your mate will notice the difference between it and a 7300GT, unless you get the 7300GT with DDR3 Memory from DABs for &#163;65 - it's a cracker!

[CrazyMonkey]

Get the 7300GT &#163;5 over and he will be able to play some of the new games if he wants, I second the 7300GT

[DanceswithUnix]

I don't think there is much in it. Both cards are cut down versions of the next model up (x1600 or 7600) rather than from the range they claim to be. Seems to depend on exactly whose card you buy though, some are overclocked by varying amounts and some even use GDDR3 ram to get a nice performance hike.

Pipes process pixels, the more you have the more pixels it can work on at once. The faster the pipes clock, the more pixels each can do per second. Obviously it actually works out more complicated than that, a 7300 pipe is about 40% faster than a 6200 pipe at the same clock speed.

Some benchies here.

[Smudger]

OK, thanks for the input, guys.