Graphics Card Time

  • Thread starter Exo-Warrior
  • Start date
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Exo-Warrior

Guest
Ok, so I've done this before, but I'm going to be a lot more precise now I actually know what kind of budget I have to work with, amongst other things.

I have a budget of £90. NINETY POUNDS. I am looking for a good graphics card to replace my infinitely shoddy GeForce 4 440MX. The card I require will have to be AGP (my current one is AGP8x) as I do not have the cash to replace my motherboard to be using PCIe.

Now, what I don't want is stupid posts, or offtopicness. And I'd rather not have to fish through reviews that blather on about things I barely have half a mind to try understanding.

On the plus side, the longer it takes me to make my mind up, the more money I'm going to have available.
 
Pestcontrol

Pestcontrol

In Cryo Sleep
How fast is the rest of your system? CPU make/model/speed? I upgraded from a Geforce3 (more than twice as fast as what you have) to a secondhand Radeon 9800 pro which cost me 80 euroquid. It's AGP and it's got all the performance i'll ever need till i do a full system upgrade, with some to spare.

The problem with getting something new right now is it's probably going to be more performance than you need, and you can't carry it on to your next system because AGP is end of life, that's why it's probably best to look around on ebay or other places for something similar, if you are familiar with this.
 
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Exo-Warrior

Guest
My CPU is a Pentium 4, 3ghz. It needs a bit more RAM (only has half a gig) but that's secondary to getting myself a new 'card at the moment.
 
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elDiablo

Guest
I would suggest a 6800GT one. The bigger the memory the better.

Don't get me wrong, I dislike the 6000 series from nVidia, but without more money, and without PCI-E, this is probably you're best bet. VibroAxe on these forums has this card, and he says BF2 is fine. Ask him which one he has...

On a side note, VibroAxe asked me this EXACT question a few days ago... Same budget, same specs, and all... Do you two know each other? o_O
 
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Exo-Warrior

Guest
elDiablo said:
I would suggest a 6800GT one. The bigger the memory the better.

Don't get me wrong, I dislike the 6000 series from nVidia, but without more money, and without PCI-E, this is probably you're best bet. VibroAxe on these forums has this card, and he says BF2 is fine. Ask him which one he has...

On a side note, VibroAxe asked me this EXACT question a few days ago... Same budget, same specs, and all... Do you two know each other? o_O
Click to expand...

Thankfully not. :D
 
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elDiablo

Guest
Eugh 6600 :( Didn't thatbird get one of them, and it was NASTY. I stand by my 6800, seeing as its a LOT better then the 6600 ;)
 
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Exo-Warrior

Guest
Pestcontrol said:
I think thatbird was suffering from a rather slow CPU. Not a problem for exo.
Click to expand...

Definitely. The only other concern I have in mind currently is RAM, but that can be dealt with once I have a new card.

Also, I'm getting about £40 a week, so accumulating muhnay will not be hard. ;)
 
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elDiablo

Guest
I would suggest waiting for a bit more money and getting a new mobo and a PCI-E card.
 
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Exo-Warrior

Guest
Depends how much that'd cost overall though, as getting a new mobo might also mean getting new RAM.
 
Pestcontrol

Pestcontrol

In Cryo Sleep
If it's two sticks ddr-400 you have with your p4, then you can just pop in an a64 + mobo and have a full upgrade on the cheap.
 
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Exo-Warrior

Guest
Pestcontrol said:
If it's two sticks ddr-400 you have with your p4, then you can just pop in an a64 + mobo and have a full upgrade on the cheap.
Click to expand...

I'd have to crack open the case to check at this point, not something I want to be doing at 1 in the morning. I have no idea what RAM I have in this thing.

Last time I opened it was to put in the new HD... and the case was a real bugger to get off too. Nevermind get ON again... :eek:
 
Pestcontrol

Pestcontrol

In Cryo Sleep
Download and run CPU-Z (no install required). If you click the SPD tab, it will tell you exactly how fast your memory can run, and how many modules you have installed.
 
Ronin Storm

Ronin Storm

Administrator
Staff member
elDiablo said:
I would suggest a 6800GT one.
Click to expand...

I have the XFX Geforce 6800 GT 256MB, which is great but certainly isn't under £90. Battlefield 2 plays just sweet and, frankly, I feel like I have less problems than most other people on these forums with my card. That said, I don't overclock anything, ever.

You say that you only have 0.5GB of RAM, though... that was proving to be a serious issue for me. I ramped up to 0.75GB, which had a noticable effect, but ultimately I've pushed all the way to 1.75GB and my machine feels like it gained another 6-9 months of life just through doing that. Even just passing the 1GB marker would probably help.
 
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elDiablo

Guest
256MB XFX 6800 XT Extreme, Dual DVI-I, S-Video/TV Out - £93.52 Inc VAT. That is the slowest on though, and an extra £40-50 will give you either the same card with twice the memory (here) or will give you a much nicer GPU (here).

But thats PCI-E, meaning you'll need another mobo (between £80 and £110, for example, a VERY good mobo is here, which is the one I have, and its worth getting - BIOS set SLi, no need to change a jumper everytime you want to switch!) and CPU (AMD 3200+ 64-bit Single Core at around £80-100 again).

So a new mobo, CPU, and graphics card is anywhere from £250+, getting a decent base that will allow you to upgrade later, and will last a good while, without getting rubbish.

AGP wise, the cheapest on scan is 512Mb Asus AGP N6800TD GDDR2 TV/DVI, while the 256Meg cards (here and here) are ~£150 and ~£185 respectively.

Still, 6000 series not the best. But in your price range, is probably the most you want to go for. You can make a very nice system that will last for ~£700 like I did. New case, mobo, RAM, CPU and graphics card. But again, you said you only have £90, so you might need to save up ;)

Edit - I'm impressed with that nice little semi-rant there! :D Just tidied up the top link though - too much info in it.

Edit 2 - Its also worth mentioning that you don't have to buy from scan! They can be a bit expensive. However, they do have a Today Only section (as do Overclockers (This week only) - link on the front page that changes every week) where you can get some nice discounts if you look, and don't mind buy things separately (scan charge for delivery). PHEW!
 
DeZmond

DeZmond

Junior Administrator
Well I'm late as ever, but here's my two pennies.

I've got a Leadtek 6800LE which I got back in August for £110. It's AGP, got 128MB RAM, and an awesomely cool dual-sided copper cooling system that looks sufficiently impressive. If you can find something similar, you will get a good performance out of it. My system specs:

Athlon XP 3000+, 333 FSB, 512K L2 Cache
1024MB RAM (DDR 333)
Aforementioned 6800

And I can run Battlefield 2 absolutely fine. In it's unpatched form.
In fact, I can run FEAR at 1024x768 with just about everything on high without stressing my system very much.
In 3DMark03 I get around 9000 points.

So I'm a fan of the 6800 series. In addition you get PS3.0 to tide you over till your next new system.

And whatever you do, DO NOT BUY THESE CARDS:
-Nvidia 6200
-ATi X300/ X600

Their performance isn't going to be anything great; in fact they are a waste of money.
 
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Exo-Warrior

Guest
Thanks for all the help. The 6800LE sounds like a good bet, in that case. Much better response than I got over at the BCG forums. :rolleyes:

EDIT: It also seems to be rare, at least in AGP form.
 
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