Gfx Card £100 or under

Macca

Macca

Member
Helloooo.

Well yes it's another one of those threads where a "not so up to date on computer hardware" person asks any of you you "up to date on computer hardware" people about hardware :D.

Basically I'm looking for the best Gfx card I can get for 100 quid or less. Basically I need it to do me for games the next 2 years or so. Ohh and would I be worth paying the extra "X" pounds to get DX10?

Thankyou :).
 
E

elDiablo

Guest
Macca said:
...would I be worth paying the extra "X" pounds to get DX10?
Click to expand...

Do you have Vista? If not, you'll need to get that to get DX10, so probably not going to get it for under £100. If you do, a lot of cards come DX10 compatible now as standard.

Which interface are you looking at; PCI-E or AGP? Post the current specs of your PC (with model numbers if you know them) so people can tell you exactly what you do and do not need :)
 
Tetsuo_Shima

Tetsuo_Shima

In Cryo Sleep
Well, I don't know about doing you for the next two years, or even current years :/ but I do have a spare GIGABYTE Radeon X800XL I could maybe let you have for a decent price. Source games are good on it, can manage Battlefield 2/2142 on med/high with decent framerates, can do CoD2 nicely on DX7 (bit sluggish on DX9). Should be able to play most current games, on low settings at least. Might be a bit low spec for what you're looking for, which is decent future compatibility.
 
thatbloke

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
if its PCI-e (and I hope it is or you aint gonna get 2 years out of it) I would probably recommend an nVidia 8600 of some kind. Dunno whether the GT or the GTS is the better one (look up some benchmarks) but they are in the £80-£100 price point.
 
Macca

Macca

Member
Ok well I don't plan on getting Vista soon due to it sucking balls :p.

I'm thinking of getting a new MoBo, Gfx card, Proccesor and Ram. I'm fine with the rest of the stuff however my knowledge on good Gfx cards is out of date. So yes it will be PCI-E and it won't matter about my Mobo etc because I'll probably mold that around the gfx card providing that could be gotten for a fair enough price aswell.

Thanks for the offer Tets, however I'm thinking maybe grabbing one that will do me for a wee while longer.

I'm currently running a 6600 GT, on an AMD Athlon 64 - 3000. So it's getting a tad out to date.
 
waterproofbob

waterproofbob

Junior Administrator
Macca said:
Ok well I don't plan on getting Vista soon due to it sucking balls :p.

I'm thinking of getting a new MoBo, Gfx card, Proccesor and Ram. I'm fine with the rest of the stuff however my knowledge on good Gfx cards is out of date. So yes it will be PCI-E and it won't matter about my Mobo etc because I'll probably mold that around the gfx card providing that could be gotten for a fair enough price aswell.

Thanks for the offer Tets, however I'm thinking maybe grabbing one that will do me for a wee while longer.

I'm currently running a 6600 GT, on an AMD Athlon 64 - 3000. So it's getting a tad out to date.
Click to expand...

at the mo its all about the 8800GT it roxorz, basically a bit short of 8800 GTX standard and is the shit.
if you need someone to make a good spec for a specific design spec and desired usage then give us a price and a vague ideas that u have then I will do what i can.
I do quite well ask elD it's entirely up to you what you get but i do like doing builds to certain budgets.
also if any of that makes no sense have drunk quite a lot on Intel (they rock) free beer FTW.
errr yeah thats that
 
Iron_fist

Iron_fist

Super Moderator
Staff member
if you plan on running XP with the DX10 hack then the 8600 is your best bet in the under £100 category, however if you want to get the best DX9 performance then i'd say that the X1950 wins out over the 8600. My X1950 handles everything i've thrown at it ( coped pretty well with Bioshock 1280x1024 V-sync and only dropped below 60FPS on a very few occasions with _lots_ of explosions being rendered). On the other hand i have to say that i agree with Bob, the 8800GT seems to be the way to go at the moment. I really don't see my X1950 lasting out beyond Christmas '08 in any sort of gaming capacity so i'd say in terms of last-ability you're looking at £100 now and probably about the same next Christmas. so if you can streach your budget to the 8800GT then that would be your best option, otherwise my original recommendations stand
 
Tetsuo_Shima

Tetsuo_Shima

In Cryo Sleep
So did I, but a tomshardware benchmark I read yesterday said otherwise. I'd post a link, but trying to browse on this shitty work connection is akin to having your fingernails gouged out with a rusty screwdriver. It was on tomshardware.co.uk under a review of the HD2900XT
 
waterproofbob

waterproofbob

Junior Administrator
Tetsuo_Shima said:
The last benchmark I saw placed the 8800GT behind the 8800GTS ...
Click to expand...

where was that, all the benchmarks and reviews I've seen and the only 8800GT I've seen in real life have dominated the GTS all over the place.

errr just read toms hardware review and they seemed to only complain that it didn't come out earlier

/me goes to rummage more
 
Tetsuo_Shima

Tetsuo_Shima

In Cryo Sleep
Hang on, sorry. It's because I'm dumb and wasn't paying attention to the numbers. 8800GT does outperform the 8800GTS. Yes *ahem* *cough* moving onwards, swiftly ...
 
Macca

Macca

Member
Right well I wasn't planning on getting a new machine right at this minute, however when I was trying to fit a floppy disc drive so I could put some Sata drivers on a floppy for a new hard disc I bought... the Graphics card has went bezerk. Every time I turn on the computer I get blurs of fragmented colour :S. Anyway It seems as If I shall be getting a Gfx card sooner rather than later. Probably some time this week.

I was having a look at World Of computers (the local hardware place) pricelist and am probably going to go with the 8600 GT. That seem like an ok choice its under a 100 quid and the reviews I've read of it are pretty good.
 
DeZmond

DeZmond

Junior Administrator
To make sure you're getting the best price, I would also check Priceless Computing and Budget Computers - these stores are literally a block away from World Of Computers - directly under the railway line - my normal trek for components takes me round all three stores before deciding where to get my kit. There can sometimes be some large price discrepancies depending on what you get, so it's best to check all three :).
 
Macca

Macca

Member
Yeah I did have a look at all 3, however I always feel World of Computers is far superior to both shops. Their prices are generally cheaper and the service is a hell of alot better. The guys actually know what there talking about, whereas Pless and Budget Computers - the guys don't really have a clue.

Anyway I decided to go for a X1950 GT. I was in a bit of a dilema about whether I should get the 8600GT and have the Dx 10 capabilities but get a much lower performance, or get the X1950 which is a much better card but doesn't have the DX10. However I doubt I'll be getting Vista anytime soon and I suppose their wasn't going to be a huge amount of difference having DX10 and not an exellent card to play it on. Yeah so I went for the ATI card.

So overall I got:

AMD Am2 X2 5600+ Proccessor
Gigabyte Ma69vm-s2 Motherboard
Saphire X1950 Pro 256MB
1GB Geil DDR2 800MHz
Trust 570W Pro Psu
Western Digital 320GB Sata 2 7200RPM 8MB HardDrive.

Which wasn't bad for just over 300 quid. Thanks for the tips again guys ;).
 
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