gpu suggestions

[MrP]

am wanting something to play games a little better than my x800gto.

currently i have a 19" widescrfeen monitor (so 1440x900 i think) and wanna play with some AA and AF enabled to make it look a bit better.

i'm running windows xp, AMD xp3700, 1gb ram, and a DFI lanparty UT RDX200 CF-DR

budget of about £100, so i'm thinking of an ATI 1950 pro, but i'm open to other ideas.

[Pob255]

The new ATi HD2600XT's are comming out very soon.
The price tags are looking around
£95 for the GDDR4 version
£80 fo the GDDR3 version
They look good on paper but my guess is at least a month before we really have a good idea on there performance.

For getting it now, then you've got the choise of the x1950Pro or the 7900GS
Depends on what games you play most and what the driver situation are like for both, ATi's seem to be rather poor with OpenGL based games atm But they are better on very shader heavy games.

I'd note that there's been quite a few faults/bad cards reported on x1950Pro's atm, they might of let quality slip to keep prices down? But that's just a guess on my part.

The next step up after thoes is the 7950GT at around £125 or the x1950XT at around £120
I'm not mentioning the 7900GT which would be the next nvidia because they are hard to find new now
Now I mention these simply because if you want to go the 2nd hand route you should be able to pick these up for under £100, but remember that no warranty I know of will cover 2nd user cards.


EDIT: is it worth crossfireing a x800GTO ? ? ? Sorry no experience here, just looked at prices and you can get one here for £100.04
or a Grade C (repaired) one for £75

EDIT2: Just seen the eairly reviews of the HD2600XT, not looking good, rubbish to put it simply

[MrP]

unfortunatly i think i have a crippled x800gto.

http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Video...o-Card-Review/

i dont think its crossfire compatable and would itbe the 128mb ram thats on it causing it to be so slow at 1440x900??

i picked this one up for £35 from a bargin on here, so i dont mind dumping it for something better to be honest

[Pob255]

Looks like it and 128mb is probably hampering you at 1440x900
I find with my 128mb 6800LE I have to drop the resloution to 1024x768 on most games to get decent fps

difenately x1950Pro or 7900GS are your best choises, 256mb will be fine.

Or a 2nd hand 7900GT or 7950GT if you can find one.