Jump to content

I want a new graphics card!


Recommended Posts

No, I'm not begging for one. I have money and everything (real money too, not this toy money they use in europe or america). Money to buy from a shop. Not you.

 

I'm looking at spending between £100 and £200 (but spending less wouldn't be a bad thing), and I want to play Half-Life 2 on highest settings 1024x768, and all current 3d strategy games on fairly high settings. I have an AGP slot, with only room for a single-slot solution, and neither of those is going to change. I doubt my power supply can take a graphics card that needs two auxillary power inputs.

 

I'm basically looking at various versions of the 6600GT, as the X700XT doesn't seem to actually exist. RAM 128mb obviously, I don't really care much if it has 256. Ideally the speed of the RAM should be 500mhz (it normally comes at 450). TV-out in the form of composite (not s-video) would be a significant advantage, as would warranty-safe overclocking and being able to control the speed of the fan. Oh, and if it makes more noise than my crappy MX440 (w/ stock cooler) it's definitely out.

 

I've narrowed it down to the following two:

XFX (higher memory speed)

Asus (higher memory speed, composite out)

 

If anyone knows of any other manufacturers who meet my requirements, or can suggest a graphics card with a similar level of performance, let me know.

 

Also, if anybody knows where I can actually buy the damn asus one in the uk, that would be kinda helpful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very few new graphics cards allow you to use the PCI slot next to the AGP slot.

 

Except for the slower ones - the 6600 is derived from the 6800 but slowed down, it has a single-slot cooling solution on most designs. I was just checking 'cos the cooler on the galaxy version looked quite large.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am in a similar situation. I was going to buy a 5900 from ebuyer for £117 (i dont rememeber the manufacturer - ebuyer deleted my quote after a week), but i got paid an extra £100 this month so i was going to spend it on getting a better one. I was thinking about getting a 5950 Ultra because my mate has one and it runs HL2, Far Cry and Rome in full detail, which is what i want. I've just had a look on ebuyer, but the XFX version has had mixed ratings. Some have said that it is not a major improvement on the 5900.

 

To be honest, all i want is a card that will be future-proof for about a year max, since then i'll have my student loan :grin: so i will rebuild completely. I want it to have a good tv-out/s-video thingy (which is the one which lets you watch your PC images on your PC, since i have a much larger TV than monitor, and watching dvds bites at the moment), and will actually work. The reviews of the 5950 say that alot of them have been faulty. Can i get some opinions?

 

By the way, sorry for hijacking your thread ZoFrex. I just thought that since the topic names would have been identical, along with content, that it would be better to include it in this one. If you want me to shift it, PM me and i'll make a new topic. :cool2:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No problemo.

 

Regarding your graphics card - the FX / 5 series sucks when it comes to pixel shaders - which modern games are full of. The 6600 fixes this, and adds some nifty features. Steer well clear of the 5 series if you want to play current games, let alone future ones. The 6600 seems a solid choice, I might get that galaxy one and soundcard be damned. I have an Ideq 200P (like a shuttle pc) so the graphics will get better cooling this way. We'll see :cool2:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ive just read the the review of one guy who has almost my exact system, with the 6800GT added, and he says he hasn't found any problems at all. Hes overclocked it (i won't, im too scaried to break something) and got 3500 in 3dmark 05. Its out of stock at the moment so i'll stick myself in the queue for it. Its only £30 more than the 5900, and a load less than the 5950.

 

Cheers for the advice, ZoFrex :grin: .

 

EDIT: After waiting for two days, ebuyer have had a delivery of 6600GT's, 300 from PNY and 20 from XFX. After deep thought, i ordered the PNY version because it had an equal rating with the XFX (with 11 more reviews of it) and was came with a similar bundle and soforth. It comes on Thursday, so don't expect a review until Friday/Saturday (i will be replaying HL2 in a decent resolution with full details :grin: ).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...