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New Graphics Card Advice

JazzMaverick

JazzMaverick

JazzMaverick

Associate
Joined
1 Feb 2009
Posts
55
Location
The Zooniverse
Hi,this my first post on the forum :)

I'm looking for some advice on buying a new graphics card,my current setup is-

Intel Pentium D 920 dual core 2.8ghz - ATI Radeon x600(flashed to 512mb) -1GB DDR2 ram and a 230v psu.

The x600 as done me well,i've oc'd it by 48% and it runs BF2 well on med to high settings,but it's limiting the amount of newer games i can play.I'm looking to spend around 50/60 pounds,maybe a little bit more at a stretch.

So,what are the differences,if any,between Nvidia or ATI cards?..what are the best cards for oc'ing?..would i need to buy a new Psu?...i'd like something that will enable me to play Call of Duty 4,Mass Effect etc with decent framerates,nothing highend tbh.A friend of mine as a 8600 GT that i thought was ok,but i've read on the forum that it's not a great gaming card.

Sorry for the long post :D Any advice welcome.
 
Welcome to the forums mate! What resolution would you be playing at? If you want to be playing games like CoD at decent framerates you may want to stretch more towards £80, which will last you into CoD 6 which is out in the too distant future. I would personally get maybe a cheap Radeon 4830 for that money.

A better PSU may be a gd idea, maybe a Corsair 450W? 270V, 230 watts I think, will be very borderline. And you CPU may bottleneck a card in the 4000 series, but maybe not as it's dual core.
 
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I'd be more than a little concerned about his psu. I'm assuming that you mean 230Watts psu, thats pretty low and probably generic, get yourself a decent psu first if you're plannig on upgrading your graphics card. Once you've done that, maybe an Nvidia 9800GT? I know they're re-badged 8800GT's but they decent cards and comparable on price to the ATI - not sure how they stack up performance wise tho compared to the 4830...
 
assuming that your mobo has a PCI-e slot which I would have thought it would, the Radeon 4670 is the best/only card for £60

the recommended wattage for the saphire card is 400W by the way

what wattage is your PSU? (230 Volts doesn't help too much I'm afraid)
 
Thanks for the replys :) my psu is a 230w unit that came with the pc,i suspected i'd need to buy another one at some point..i'm sure i've got a PCI-e slot as i got the mobo off a friend who was using an 8600 GT in it.

I'll be playing at 1280 x 960 resolution.
 
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This is the beauty of building your own PCs, when you feel you need to upgrade one part, another also needs upgrading, and eventually you find an excuse to just build yourself a brand new computer!
 
shinester184 said:
This is the beauty of building your own PCs, when you feel you need to upgrade one part, another also needs upgrading, and eventually you find an excuse to just build yourself a brand new computer!
Click to expand...

Lol,true...the Mobo and Cpu will do me for the time being,but after i get a new Gfx card,Psu,a few more Gigs of ram and a new case,it will be a new pc :D
 
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