Hello,
A few months ago I bought a Dell Ubuntu desktop. The basic spec was pretty low so I upgraded everything except the graphics card, where the only option was an 8300GS. It was fine until I installed Vista (my own fully legal copy) and tried to play TR Legend. That, and a bit of reading since has shown my card to be absolutely pants.
So I need a better card, and I'm new at this so I have a couple of questions.
1) Does my 8300gs use PCI-express? (ie do I need a PCIe replacement) - I haven't had the case open yet but I'm not event sure what PCIe looks like.
2) What's with all the different brands? If I type k850i into amazon (or whatever) I get one kind of phone by one manufacturer (SE). If I type in 8600 GT, I get allsorts - different brands, prices, options, etc. Why buy one over the other, and why don't I just get one "nvidia 8600 GT"? Which should I choose?
3) - this is the biggy - What card should I get?
For more background,
- budget: £50 - £70. I know that's really cheap, but I can't understand why some cards cost £300+ . That's more than a new console and I've already spent £700 on a PC. I can't understand why cards cost that much or why people buy them... Also see next point.
- I don't need cutting edge, just something that will run half decent slightly older games without choking.
- I still want to use Linux/Ubuntu (does that indicate nvidia is the way forward?)
As suggested I'm thinking about the 8600 (GT or GTS?), but I'm confused by question 2 above. Also when reading the "best cards for the money" article, it specifies that GDDR3 is a must - how do I know if the card I'm looking at uses GDDR3 if it isn't mentioned in the description on the website?
If anyone can answer any (or all) of these questions I'd be really grateful.
Thanks,
Tim
A few months ago I bought a Dell Ubuntu desktop. The basic spec was pretty low so I upgraded everything except the graphics card, where the only option was an 8300GS. It was fine until I installed Vista (my own fully legal copy) and tried to play TR Legend. That, and a bit of reading since has shown my card to be absolutely pants.
So I need a better card, and I'm new at this so I have a couple of questions.
1) Does my 8300gs use PCI-express? (ie do I need a PCIe replacement) - I haven't had the case open yet but I'm not event sure what PCIe looks like.
2) What's with all the different brands? If I type k850i into amazon (or whatever) I get one kind of phone by one manufacturer (SE). If I type in 8600 GT, I get allsorts - different brands, prices, options, etc. Why buy one over the other, and why don't I just get one "nvidia 8600 GT"? Which should I choose?
3) - this is the biggy - What card should I get?
For more background,
- budget: £50 - £70. I know that's really cheap, but I can't understand why some cards cost £300+ . That's more than a new console and I've already spent £700 on a PC. I can't understand why cards cost that much or why people buy them... Also see next point.
- I don't need cutting edge, just something that will run half decent slightly older games without choking.
- I still want to use Linux/Ubuntu (does that indicate nvidia is the way forward?)
As suggested I'm thinking about the 8600 (GT or GTS?), but I'm confused by question 2 above. Also when reading the "best cards for the money" article, it specifies that GDDR3 is a must - how do I know if the card I'm looking at uses GDDR3 if it isn't mentioned in the description on the website?
If anyone can answer any (or all) of these questions I'd be really grateful.
Thanks,
Tim