What should I buy

[tolmie]

Hi everyone, I'm looking to get a temporary graphics card to tide me over for the next 6 months. I'm only looking to spend around £130. The graphics card I have the now is a ATI X300 PCI-X. I've seen good reviews of the nvidia 7600 and was wondering if I would seen a good improvement over my present card. I would like my card to run Pro Evo 6 when it comes out and I play a bit of company of heroes. I look forward to your advice.

Cheers

 

[shata]

Yeah the 7600gs is a fairly nice video card, although i dont know how it runs single i have them in SLi on my computer. they can max world of warcraft and run max-mid settings on other games.

This video card is great.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143070

7900GS that will handle the games you wana play no probs. As far as finding this card in the uk well you will have to look at your srouces and see but converting US to pounds this is in your budget range.

 

[redwing]

Hi Tolmie,

I was actually browsing the thg forums out of pure procrastination (I hate dsp matlab assignments), but when I came upon your post, I figured I could contribute. I recently was in the market for a decent mid-range video card, so I did some extensive searching& review-reading before I made my choice.

I live in Canada, but going on the assumption that the prices are roughly equal, my recommendations for your price range would be as follows :

1. 140-160 CDN : 7600GS (256mb, PCI-E). This card seems to be performing on par with the X1600Pro, which results in decent fps in most games at resolutions of 1280*1024 and lower, with fairly high settings (excluding monsters such as Oblivion, of course). This can easily last you until you are "forced" to upgrade to a DX10 card, unless you like to turn up ALL the details or game at 1600*1200. The other bonus here, is that you can find a passively cooled version of this card = less noise for you

2. <200 CDN : 7600gt . This is the card I currently have (EVGA 7600gt KO). A few months ago, this was the sweetest spot in terms of performance/price. It can easily beat previous generation cards such as the 6800GT or the x850, plus it supports all the features of DX9c and the latest OpenGl. To put things in perspective, I am playing FEAR at 1280*960 with mostly everything maxed out, and getting a decent 35+ fps, which is what I was aiming for in games.
In older games like WoW, this will enable you to turn up ALL video goodies, and game at any resolution you like.
Basically, I'm very satisfied with my purchase, and this card can actually be had for as low as 170$ (after rebates), so I consider that a great deal.


3. >250 CDN : This is more tricky, we're entering mid-high end territory. Depending on whether you're an ATI or an Nvidia fan, I'd recommend the x1900XT 256mb or the 7900GTO 512 mb. Their benchmarks come out roughly the same, with the radeon possibly having a slight edge.
However, the cooler on the 7900GTO is undeniable better (virtually silent), whereas with the x1900xt you have a turbine in your PC.
Additionnaly, the 7900GTO is basically a slightly underclocked 7900GTX, which is the NVIDIA single-gpu flagship - so you get a bit of prestige points there , as well as the ability to overclock it to GTX levels, with minium effort. I'm not sure how much £130 is in CDN dollars, but if it's around 250-260, you should consider this beast of a card. You'll thank me later I believe the x1900xt is slightly more expensive than the GTO, albet not by much.

With a 7900GTO (or the x1900xt), you are set for a good year or more of high-resolution, high-detail gaming - until you are ready to upgrade to a DX10 card.

Cheers

 

[redwing]

Regarding my previous post, I dont want to sound like I'm overly biased towards Nvidia (even though lately I have been looking more at Nvidia than ATI), so I should add a few more entries to my list. There are many cards that offer good performance, but few that give you a good performance/price ratio. I believe the following cards are also worthy of your attention :

x850 (xt or pro, not sure which one) - I've seen them retail for less than the price of a 7600GT, and they are also good performers (albet they probably cant beat a 7600gt).


x1800GTO - this is ATI's response to the 7600GT, performance is roughly equal and so is the price. Worthy of checking out some prices and reviews.

x1900 All in Wonder. This is a card more tailored towards a multimedia oriented computer rather than gaming, it provides many types of outputs.
In terms of performance, it's definitely slower than the x1900xt type of cards, yet still provides excellent frame rates in most situations. Probably on par or better than the 7600GT, but likely not as good as a 7900GT. If you can find this at a good price, this is a good deal. These cards have been discontinued, but you may still find a few in e-outlets.

Good luck and be sure to read at least a few reviews before you make your pick