GPU's - Its all getting a bit much now!

[Blitzen]

I still have a personal suspission that the whole G92 chip was suppoesd to be the new 9 series but nvidia had to push it out eairly as the ati HD38x0 where neatly sewing up the mid price range and the 8600 really wasn't up to much.

I agree.
They are basically the same card.

[Salazaar]

I've got an 8800GTS 320 as well and even though it's one of the least powerful of the bunch I can't see a cost effective upgrade in the current lineup!

[Blitzen]

I've got an 8800GTS 320 as well and even though it's one of the least powerful of the bunch I can't see a cost effective upgrade in the current lineup!

I had one of those until January and you are right.
The 'noticeable' performance leap isnt big enough to warrant a £200 spend.

The next up from there is the 8800GT and whilst its a performance gain, its by no means a massive one, especially if the monitor is less than 22".

[staffsMike]

The next up from there is the 8800GT and whilst its a performance gain, its by no means a massive one, especially if the monitor is less than 22".

I think that is the key point. A lot of people are buying the higher end card for gaming on a 22" screen where our old GTS's are fine and where the the new HD3850 does very nicely.

If I were building my PC again now I certainly wouldn't spend over £125 since I'm at 1680 x 1050 and at that res all these card cope quite happily.

[Blitzen]

I think that is the key point. A lot of people are buying the higher end card for gaming on a 22" screen where our old GTS's are fine and where the the new HD3850 does very nicely.

If I were building my PC again now I certainly wouldn't spend of £125 since I'm at 1680 x 1050 and at that res all these card cope quite happily.

I agree aswell.....
I only went from the 8800GTS 320mb to the 8800GTS G92 512mb because i did a job 'on the side' for a firm i used to work for and they asked what i wanted.

I got one of those sothe Mrs couldnt get her hands on the cash so had that instead.

My GTS 320mb ran Bioshock PERFECTLY on my 22" WS monitor.

It died though and awaiting RMA from EVGA so just aswell i got the new one really.

[Oobie-]

I too hate all these names being thrown about, but I don't see a problem with it, when the bigger problem (in my eyes) is the fact that they cant seem to produce good bug free drivers that don't make performance of older games deteriorate.

[Salazaar]

I too hate all these names being thrown about, but I don't see a problem with it, when the bigger problem (in my eyes) is the fact that they cant seem to produce good bug free drivers that don't make performance of older games deteriorate.

Or stop working at all... I mourn the loss of my ability to play System Shock 2.

[Phil_P]

I'm still using my ATI Rage Pro with 4MB ram and it's going strong. It handles my 24x80 console sessions beautifully in glorious 16 colours. It's about 10 years old now and I reckon it has at least another 5 years left in it yet

Mind you, if I were to upgrade I could run my terminal sessions on KDE with Compiz and have a terminal running on each face of a spinning 3D cube with full transparency and other wobbly effects... maybe I hear the call of a shiny new 21st century Radeon 7000 with 32MB ram

[staffsMike]

I'm still using my ATI Rage Pro with 4MB ram and it's going strong. It handles my 24x80 console sessions beautifully in glorious 16 colours. It's about 10 years old now and I reckon it has at least another 5 years left in it yet

Mind you, if I were to upgrade I could run my terminal sessions on KDE with Compiz and have a terminal running on each face of a spinning 3D cube with full transparency and other wobbly effects... maybe I hear the call of a shiny new 21st century Radeon 7000 with 32MB ram

I've got a leadtek geforce 3 if you want to really blow your mind

[s3ds]

i have a xp1600 with win2k pro and a 3dfx voodoo3
and a p4 2.8 with a 128mb gf3

mind you i dont play games ( except wii )

[Biscuit]

i have a xp1600 with win2k pro and a 3dfx voodoo3

Is there XP drivers for the voodoo cards

I've got a leadtek geforce 3 if you want to really blow your mind

pretty sure i have a geforce geforce 2 and a geforce 4 at home should get them together for a party

[staffsMike]

Thats my most mordern old card lol

I've also got an S3 Virge and Geforce 256

[Biscuit]

my first graphics card upgrade was some kind of matrox i believe

[SiM]

I remember having a 2mb matrox card lol... also those 16mb(or was it 8mb) Diamond Viper cards!

[Funkstar]

I have several Matrox cards in a box here. Millenniums, Mystique's, a G200 and a Quad G200 PCI.

Who is it on here collects old graphics cards? One of the mods I think.

I keep meaning to put these up on the for sale forum for the cost of postage. No use to me, but obviously there are odd people that collect them

Back to the OP.

I find it really confusing, and the only times I look at graphics cards is when I start thinking abut upgrading my HTPC. All I need is HD acceleration, but it's still difficult working out what is best. Especially when cooling is a consideration.

[SiM]

All I need is HD acceleration

Anything in the ATI range 2400pro and up will probably do the job
Probably best to go for a 3450 though...