Best Mid Range Gaming PCI express out there?

[Barrichello]

I need to decide on a graphic card for my P5B Deluxe/E6600 set up.

1. I have up to £200 max i want to pay
2. I dont mind if ATI or Nvidia
3. would like it to come with a fairly quietish fan/cooling soloution, much like the HIS 1800XT Iceq3 ATI series (i cant find that card anywhere online? any ideas?)
4. And yes if for gaming purposes, want best bang per buck until DX10 type cards are worth getting in a year or so.

Your help as always appreciated

[SuicidaL]

quickly looking can't find the 1800, but have found the 1900 versions

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...00_Series.html

both the 256 and 512 versions there

or there's a powercooler 1800xt 512mb, although don't know bout the noise

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...00_Series.html

[jackvdbuk]

from overclockers, an x1900XT 256mb, the one im savign for for myupgrade (oh so soon! its about 170 iirc! bargainous for performance fo a beast

[Dark Horse]

Worth looking at the 7900GTO as some can be flashed to 7900gtx and are £180-£200 at the moment. Check the thread in the graphics forum for some useful info.

[kalniel]

We're all struggling with the same question Have a look in the graphics accelerator section of Hexus for some similar threads :

http://forums.hexus.net/forumdisplay.php?f=66

[piranha]

Thought about just getting a second-hand x1900xt?

[chuckskull]

7900GTO, powerful, clocks extremly easily, even without a BIOS flash and comes with a nice quiet stock cooler, £180-190 most places.

[Barrichello]

7900GTO, powerful, clocks extremly easily, even without a BIOS flash and comes with a nice quiet stock cooler, £180-190 most places.

Someone else had mentioned the 7900GTO to me before, i saw this deal on ockers "week only deal" here....


Is this the card you mean? £176inc vat seems a good price

It says that the memory is "clocked slower" is this a good thing? not had much experience with overclocking, is it fairly straighforward?

[kalniel]

Slower memory is not a good thing, however it won't have a huge effect on the performance of the card, it's still going to be fast.

[chuckskull]

The slower memory, drops the performance by 3-5% in most reviews and those cards actually have the same emeory chips as the GTX and yes, overlcoking is very simple on a graphics card. It's just a case of 2 sliders or if you are unsure about what clcks to aim for, you can have it overclock and test itself.

[Thorsson]

The choice is between one of these and a X1900XT. These are a little over £200 (Novatech had them at £210 a few days ago), but offer better performance in the most demanding games and better image quality on the others.

[Jammer]

Im looking at the sapphire x1900gt,
For 130 quid on ocuk, price for performance wise it looks great.

But would it run games like bf2142 on mid to high settings @ 1920x1200 res at decent frame rates?,

Im trying to drain every last bit out of this pc till i build a new one vista time.
Also the card is a 1-slot design.

Happy to hear others opinions if this is a great or poor card

[FatalSaviour]

Personally, I'd plump for the 7900GTO, as, having bought one myself when they were £150 at Dabs, and having been able to OC it past 7900GTX speeds, it probably offers the best bang for the buck

[Rack]

Agreed, either the 7900GTO or the X1900XT.

[Thorsson]

Personally, I'd plump for the 7900GTO, as, having bought one myself when they were £150 at Dabs, and having been able to OC it past 7900GTX speeds, it probably offers the best bang for the buck

Well now they're £180 or so, and you OC'd it past GTX stock would be more accurate. The ATI X1900XT will handle the most demanding games & settings better. Games like Oblivion or (possibly surprising to some) NWN2 (it uses 3 light sources apparently).

The GTO is faster at lower graphic settings, Open GL games, etc. But who cares if you get 120 FPS or 130FPS?

That said, if you can get a GTO at £160 again then it's worth grabbing.