purchasing a new card

[hellraiser06]

hiiiii
i wanna buy a new gfx card according to my present specs
intel d101ggc mobo
p4 2.8 ghz (nothing fancy just a single core
1 gb of ram (again nothing fancy)
monitor capable to display only upto a resolution of 1024*768...
i know any my computer will be a bottleneck for any mid or high end card and anyways i will wait till next year for a MAJOR upgrade...but for now i want a card with which i will be able to play all the games released till december 2006 (with an exception of oblivion)with all the settings maxed out and at least 2x antialiasing..(IF ALL THIS IS POSSIBLE)... and if all this is impossible to achieve please forgive me for my noobness :twisted: so please suggest a card....
thanx in advance..

 

[prozac26]

Intel's site says your mobo has a PCI-E slot, so you can get a 7600GT or X850XT in the $120 range.

 

[hellraiser06]

Intel's site says your mobo has a PCI-E slot, so you can get a 7600GT or X850XT in the $120 range.

u sure 7600 gt wud be utilised upto all its potential????
i mean my system wont be a bottleneck for the card????????
thanx for the help but i m just trying to confirm....

 

[kaotao]

No, the 7600GT would fit nicely with your system.

 

[hellraiser06]

and just for the sake of knowing it what card is better in the sub $100 range that is out of gf 7300 gt and ati's whatever(i dont remember the model no. )?????????????
also does 7300 gt 256 mb uses turbocache?????if it does is there any model available that does not?????

 

[kaotao]

I don't think the 7300GT uses tubro cache. If you're going to get the 7300GT, make sure it's the one that has GDDR3, otherwise don't bother.

 

[hellraiser06]

I don't think the 7300GT uses tubro cache. If you're going to get the 7300GT, make sure it's the one that has GDDR3, otherwise don't bother.

thanks for the help kaotao and can you tell me any brand which has gddr3 or provide me with a link???any help will be greatly appreciated...

 

[kaotao]

http://www.inno3d.com/products/graphic_card/gf7_pcie/spec_7300gt.html

Here's a link to the 7300GT from Inno3d. I think this is the only brand that has GDDR3. They have a GDDR3 version, and a GDDR2. You'll have to look around for prices, and where to buy.

 

[hellraiser06]

http://www.inno3d.com/products/graphic_card/gf7_pcie/spec_7300gt.html

Here's a link to the 7300GT from Inno3d. I think this is the only brand that has GDDR3. They have a GDDR3 version, and a GDDR2. You'll have to look around for prices, and where to buy.

galaxy also has 7300 gt gddr3...
right now i am looking at the benchmarks....thanks for the help.....
i am goin to buy the card tomorrow and till then any other suggestions will be most welcome

 

[kaotao]

Yeah I wasn't sure who else if any made that card with GDDR3. Glad to help.

 

[hellraiser06]

Yeah I wasn't sure who else if any made that card with GDDR3. Glad to help.

ok here it is...i hav seen the benchmarks for galaxy(gddr3) and inno3d(gddr3) both at 500/700 MHz.
.one of my friend has msi 7300 gt(gddr2) at about 375/500 MHz which costs about $50 less here in india.....
so now will gddr3 make a huge difference????????what card among the two (inno3d and galaxy) and msi should i go for?????inno3d and galaxy are about the same and expensive by about $ 50 than msi....
http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=78&Itemid=27&limit=1&limitstart=0
and i dont want to overclock for at least 6 months...

 

[kaotao]

You gain an extra 125MHz on the core, and an extra 200MHz on the memory going with the 7300GT GDDR3. I'd say it's worth the extra $50. Like I said in my previous post, don't bother with the 7300GT GDDR2.

 

[sojrner]

did you look here? Right at the top is the sub-$100 class that is where you are looking. I realize that your prices are probably higher, but regardless of relative price they fall in the same category for performance. The gddr3 version does give you clock speed increases but also the ram timings and latencies are better.

To back up the other advice above: If you can afford it the 7600gt mentioned earlier is the much better bet, but if not then either the 7300gt gddr3 or the x800gto that are mentioned in the short list will serve ok. Also watch for a 7600gs if it is the same price as what you are looking for over there.

Rock on.

 

[hellraiser06]

did you look here? Right at the top is the sub-$100 class that is where you are looking. I realize that your prices are probably higher, but regardless of relative price they fall in the same category for performance. The gddr3 version does give you clock speed increases but also the ram timings and latencies are better.

To back up the other advice above: If you can afford it the 7600gt mentioned earlier is the much better bet, but if not then either the 7300gt gddr3 or the x800gto that are mentioned in the short list will serve ok. Also watch for a 7600gs if it is the same price as what you are looking for over there.

Rock on.

and what brand to go for x800 gto????are there any other models available for it????and where can i find a comparison between x800 and 7300 in terms of real worls tests?????i cant find it man....thanx a lot for the help

 

[sojrner]

not a problem... Easy thing is that sometimes if you look around on Tom's site you find alot, like on the vga charts linked from the front page.

as for brands, the x800 is last generation and so the number of brands still making it are smaller than any x1k gen card. Unlike Nvidia, ATI makes some themselves. (literally "ATI" brand) Saphire, Asus, Powercolor, HiS... pretty much all are good brands. Most of the 800gto's are gddr3, but there are a few out there that use the slower gddr2, and stay away from the x800gto2. Other than that, pretty much buy for price and enjoy.

 

[hellraiser06]

man now i really wonder how much difference does gddr2 and gddr3 create!!!!!!!!1
and in x800 shader model 3 is not available while in 7300 it is there...does that make a difference??????and really thanx for the help u guys are giving

 

[angry_ducky]

and just for the sake of knowing it what card is better in the sub $100 range that is out of gf 7300 gt and ati's whatever(i dont remember the model no. )?????????????
also does 7300 gt 256 mb uses turbocache?????if it does is there any model available that does not?????

7300GTs with GDDR2 are okay performers, and good value for the money. 7300GTs with GDDR3 (like THIS ONE) are great performers, and amazing value for the money. That card that I linked to is out of stock right now, but it's worth waiting for it to conme back.

 

[hellraiser06]

not a problem... Easy thing is that sometimes if you look around on Tom's site you find alot, like on the vga charts linked from the front page.

as for brands, the x800 is last generation and so the number of brands still making it are smaller than any x1k gen card. Unlike Nvidia, ATI makes some themselves. (literally "ATI" brand) Saphire, Asus, Powercolor, HiS... pretty much all are good brands. Most of the 800gto's are gddr3, but there are a few out there that use the slower gddr2, and stay away from the x800gto2. Other than that, pretty much buy for price and enjoy.

but in the chart the 7300 gt used is a turbo cache one!!!!!!!

 

[angry_ducky]

This seems to be the best card for the money imo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143049

That card is a good deal, however, it's $30 more than that 7300GT.

 

[sojrner]

This seems to be the best card for the money imo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143049

He is not in the US (india I think) so prices are all skewed differently

 

[sojrner]

but in the chart the 7300 gt used is a turbo cache one!!!!!!!

yup, my bad man. Sorry. You can google up others I'm sure though. In those charts though, the 800gto performs on par w/ a 7600gs... so the thing to look at is still that it is better than a 7300gt.

as for sm3.0, that is a dx9c feature that allows OpenEXR HDR and other effects. The 7300 is far from powerful enough to run those, so it is irrelevant as you would have to turn them off to play a game anyway.

HL2 uses a dx9b version of HDR that works fine on the x800 and others.

 

[hellraiser06]

but in the chart the 7300 gt used is a turbo cache one!!!!!!!

yup, my bad man. Sorry. You can google up others I'm sure though. In those charts though, the 800gto performs on par w/ a 7600gs... so the thing to look at is still that it is better than a 7300gt.

as for sm3.0, that is a dx9c feature that allows OpenEXR HDR and other effects. The 7300 is far from powerful enough to run those, so it is irrelevant as you would have to turn them off to play a game anyway.

HL2 uses a dx9b version of HDR that works fine on the x800 and others.
but i think hdr can be enabled if aa is off......or so i have heard....

 

[sojrner]

OpenEXR HDR cannot be enabled at all unless the card supports sm3.0 natively. the 7300 does, the x800 does not. No Nvidia card can enable both AA and OpenEXR HDR, but any ati x1k gen card can do both.

b/c the x800 does not support sm3.0 it cannot do OpenEXR HDR, which is what oblivion uses. w/ the x800 oblivion uses bloom lighting. HL2 uses a sm2.0 spec HDR that can work on any sm2.0 card (these two included), with or w/o AA on.

While it sounds like the 7300 is more capable b/c of the sm3.0 thing, the rub is that it is no-where near powerful enough to actually use that capability for HDR. Thus you have to disable that type of HDR in any current games, which renders it at the same tech-level as the x800.

Hope I am not confusing you more... just trying to help ya.

 

[hellraiser06]

no atually you are not and i can grasp what you are saying coz i am familiar with all the tems........but the thing is i cannot understand what ati has what it can do and what it cant
am not an nvidia fanboy but i hav seen that all the games today comes with that damned logo"the way its meant to be played"....does that affect gaming in low and mid end ati GPUs?????
also x800 gto doesnt hav sm 3.0 support.does that mean i wont be able to switch on HDR or is there a difference between openEXR hDR and HDR???

 

[Anoobis]

You can also search for GDDR3 7600GSs. They will overclock to near 7600GT speeds.

A plain jane GDDR2 7600GS will also suffice. A GDDR3 7300GT will give you nearly the same performance as a GDDR2 7600GS so you have a few options as a GDDR3 7300GT will be close to the price range of a GDDR2 7600GS.

On a side note, don't be fooled into paying more for cards with 512MB of ram. Most cards in the lower-end are 128-256MB cards which is sufficient but manufacturers like to trick people into thinking that a 512MB low-end card out performs it's lower RAM counterpart. The gains are very small and the additional RAM doesn't justify the cost.