In search of new graphics card.

  • Thread starter Thread starter AcidX
  • Start date Start date
Can you give examples of what games and/or programs you'll want to run with
this card? And post the rest of your system specs too, it'll help pick the
best card.

Smith
 
I'm hoping to run programs such as Flash 8, Photoshop and some fairly
newish games, that require at least 64-bit graphics.

I'm also running at 2.53ghz with 1gb ram (992mb using my onboard
graphics card)
 
Depends on how much money I get in the next month or so.
But I'm not expecting to be spending much more than £125 (about $250,
prolly a bit less)

Ideally it'd be around £60 so I can still buy my new speakers too =P
But I don't mind going over.
 
Have you tried looking on any UK vendor websites?.. PC World for example?..
they have at least eight cards, all around your price, and most with 256mb
on board..

You have a choice between ATI and NVidia chipsets.. your call.. there are
supporters in both camps..

--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User


Depends on how much money I get in the next month or so.
But I'm not expecting to be spending much more than £125 (about $250,
prolly a bit less)

Ideally it'd be around £60 so I can still buy my new speakers too =P
But I don't mind going over.
 
Be careful, I just went through the same process only to find out that the
card I bought (NVIVIA 5600 Ultra, 128MB) requires at least a 300 watt power
supply! My PC is a Dell and uses a custom ATX Power Supply connector so I
needed a new PS and adaptor to connect the PS to the MOBO.

Jim

Depends on how much money I get in the next month or so.
But I'm not expecting to be spending much more than £125 (about $250,
prolly a bit less)

Ideally it'd be around £60 so I can still buy my new speakers too =P
But I don't mind going over.
 
Oh yeah that's a good point.
My Power supply is 300W. ;)
I was looking at a 5600 card earlier. But they said that you shouldn't
bother with them unless it's the 'ultra' version (like yours)
 
The 6600 recommends a 350w. Don't know what the 5900 requires, but it runs
off my brothers' 250w fine.
 
AcidX said:
Oh yeah that's a good point.
My Power supply is 300W. ;)
I was looking at a 5600 card earlier. But they said that you shouldn't
bother with them unless it's the 'ultra' version (like yours)
Click to expand...

Please include adequate context. Even on the foully broken Google
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F'ups set.

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Also see <http://www.safalra.com/special/googlegroupsreply/>
 
The 6600 recommends a 350w. Don't know what the 5900 requires, but it runs
off my brothers' 250w fine.
Click to expand...


5900 is a very power hungry card for it's era. It's not
supposed to be ran from a 250W PSU at all, not even a good
one though for your brother's to work it must be better than
the avg. 250W PSU, perhaps OEM?
 
Oh yeah that's a good point.
My Power supply is 300W. ;)
I was looking at a 5600 card earlier. But they said that you shouldn't
bother with them unless it's the 'ultra' version (like yours)
Click to expand...


5600, and 5600 Ultra, are not good choices today. They were
fairly hot running for their time and today's technology is
faster at about same price, even lower heat levels for the
same performance or more.

If you had a friend looking to sell one to you cheap, maybe
that'd be a good deal depending on your needs but generally
speaking you should aim for the 6xxx series if not 7xxx
series in nVidia cards for an upgrade today. That is,
except for the cheapest of the cheap cards like an FX5200,
but even now the 6200 cards are pretty inexpensive.
 
kony said:
If you had a friend looking to sell one to you cheap, maybe
that'd be a good deal depending on your needs but generally
speaking you should aim for the 6xxx series if not 7xxx
series in nVidia cards for an upgrade today. That is,
except for the cheapest of the cheap cards like an FX5200,
but even now the 6200 cards are pretty inexpensive.
Click to expand...

Yeah... The 6xxx series aren't that expensive.
But as I said earlier, the only real problem is my motherboard.
It's this model:
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/products_motherboard_2.cfm?pName=6514MR-ES
and I don't know, but it's probably going to have some compatibility
issues with newer cards, as a lot of them are AGP 8x, etc...

I'm running of a 300W power supply, 1gb ram and a 2.53ghz porcessor.
If there's a particular card that someone can recommend in my situation
it'd be greatly appreciated.
 
Yeah... The 6xxx series aren't that expensive.
But as I said earlier, the only real problem is my motherboard.
It's this model:
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/products_motherboard_2.cfm?pName=6514MR-ES
and I don't know, but it's probably going to have some compatibility
issues with newer cards, as a lot of them are AGP 8x, etc...
Click to expand...

5600 is also an 8X card.
Your board has AGP Universal slot, it will run a modern 6xxx
or 7xxx AGP card.
I'm running of a 300W power supply, 1gb ram and a 2.53ghz porcessor.
If there's a particular card that someone can recommend in my situation
it'd be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

The PSU could be a limitation, you'd be wanting to avoid mid
to higher end gaming cards. Some 300W PSU are MUCH better
than others too, if you definitely want to avoid upgrading
PSU then post your PSU make, model, 5V and 12V amperage
ratings.

Also you wrote "low-budget" card but that could be
interpreted differently by differnent people. It'd help to
have a price range and a rough guesstimation of how long you
expected to keep using the system.

Of your prior tasks descriptions, the newer games are the
only thing that'll get the most benefit out of spending
more, but clearly will do that. A typical generic answer is
a Geforce 6600GT as they've dropped down under $130 after
rebates, maybe even sale prices recently. That could be too
much for your power supply though, especially if you have a
lot of hard drives or the supply doesn't have a lot of 12V
amps. There are VGA charts at http://www.tomshardware.com
,
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/05/vga_charts_vii/index.html

Which should give you a rough idea, keeping in mind you'd
probably want at least an average framerate of 50 or higher
to cover the times when frames drop to lowest levels. These
days reviewers also tend to enable much if not all eyecandy,
so if you can do without some of that or don't run games at
high resolutions, you can get a little more performance than
implied on some of the listed cards, especially the lower
end and older models.
 
kony said:
The PSU could be a limitation, you'd be wanting to avoid mid
to higher end gaming cards. Some 300W PSU are MUCH better
than others too, if you definitely want to avoid upgrading
PSU then post your PSU make, model, 5V and 12V amperage
ratings.
Click to expand...

It's 10:40pm and everyone else at home is in bed (they've all got work
tomorrow) so I'll have to do check my PSU in the morning. I'll get back
to you with that info tomorrow.
Also you wrote "low-budget" card but that could be
interpreted differently by differnent people. It'd help to
have a price range and a rough guesstimation of how long you
expected to keep using the system.
Click to expand...

low-budget for me is about £100 in this situation. However, I am
looking to spend an amount closer to £50 - £70 as I also want to keep
a bit saved to put towards the new speakers I'll be buying as well. I'm
not entirely sure what any of that is in dollars because the exchange
rate's changed since I last checked.
And, as for how long I'd be keeping it, well, I'll be using it on this
system until it pretty much dies (Had it since last April). I doubt I'd
nick much of the hardware for a newer system, as I'm hoping to buy a
laptop before I go to uni, with good enough spec to not be upgraded for
a while.

So yeah... I'll get the PSU information in the morning.
Thanks again for the help ;)
 
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