8800 equivalent are ... ?

[FatRakoon]

I am just wondering...

2 of my kids are still only on an X1900XT and an X1900XT

Irritatingly, one is the xfire version but I never did get hold of a cable so I never was able to play with it.

Anyway, for most of the games they play, these cards are just fine and they do a great job.

But I fancy upping them a little so they can also play a bit more.


What I am thinking, is that the 8800 is a nice enough card, and will do a sterling job.

So, I am wondering about cards of about that capability really.

I am not going to argue over this or that, but, I will say that within a certain level, all 8800 cards are about on par with each other. The GTX 250 is a tad up on them, but again, about on par.

I am wondering what you guys suggest as a nice one to go for?

The thing is that I will quite probably be buying 3 of them you see... I am also buying them a new HD each too, so, I dont want to dish out too much cash.

 

[jms198]

I would suggest stating a budget and get advice from there. The cards you are talking about seem quite old now. gtx 260 should be about 35-40 second hand and 4870s for even less.

4850 is on a par with a gts 250.

 

[FatRakoon]

Well yeah a budget would be around the £50 mark.

However I was hoping to go new.

Ok, well my daughter has a 250... The Zotac 250GTS one IIRC

That does everything asked of it.

Ok, the ATI 4850 is about on par with that then? Ok, I will have a less ignorant peep at whats out there.

Thanks.

 

[cmndr_andi]

For new cards, the ones that are on the performance level of the 8800GTX are the AMD HD 4850, 5750, 6750 and 7750, on the Nvidia side there is the 8800GTS 512MB, 9800GTX, 9800GTX+, GTS 250, GTS 450 and GTS 550TI are roughly on the same performance level.

However, unfortunately you are unlikely to get any of these new for ~£50. So for this level of performance you either need to get very lucky with a fantastic deal, buy second-hand or increase the budget.

 

[FatRakoon]

No, budget will be staying around that.
They have had new HDs and a few games etc... Stuff them.

Sure, I am flexible of course... But only enough to justify the flexibiliy...

The X1900XT is what? Half the speed of an 8800 give or take? ( Not measured it and its not important ) so surely any of those you mentioned will be an upgrade of surely?

Wow, the 550TI is about the same? Hell, I was going to buy one of them the other day just to have a look... Glad I didnt.

Thanks.

 

[cmndr_andi]

That's fair enough. For a new card for gaming at around this price the best option is probably a HD 6670 1GB DDR3.

Though if you are willing to go second-hand then you could get something on the level of a HD 5770/6770 for the same money.

As for the GTX 550 TI, yea that one is quite a bit better than the 8800 GTX, but from the current generation the next-lowest card (that isn't OEM) is the GT 520 which is a lot slower than the 8800GTX, hence I mentioned the 550Ti. That said, I still wouldn't buy the 550Ti as it basically the same price as the HD 6850 and quiet a bit slower.

 

[FatRakoon]

The thing is that these are confusing quite often... Its been very much the same throughout the years though, but you get one card and you think that a bigger number would be a faster card, but this is not always so.

It can catch you out far too easily cant it?

The trouble with second hand, is that you really dont know what you are going to end up with do you?

I have removed a list of my cards that I have and have had over the years but bugger it, I waffle too much, I have editted it down.

No, what I basically want, is to give the kids a bit of an upgrade that will be worth it, but with them also having a new HD and a fresh install etc ( When they have the cards ) and I have also I forgot to mention, re-homed the PCs in new cases ( cheaper than buying new I know you iwll agree ) then I just want to spend enough so that they can see its a better setup, without spending too much.

But perhaps £50 is a little selfish...

Lets see

 

[Soundood]

you can get a GTX275 on my other forum for £50, great card. that seems to be the going rate now for them, since the 600 release, god you can get a GTX470 for a £100 now, second hand of course.

 

[arc@css]

Second hand or not, ideally I would consider something like a 6850. It'll be worth it in the long term.

 

[cmndr_andi]

I was just looking for a decent way to compare the performance of a X1900 crossfire, this passmark list isn't exactly precise, but it gives you a decent idea on relative performance of many generations of graphics cards:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=Radeon+X1900+CrossFire+Edition

The X1900XT is pretty decent for performance considering how old it is.

If you went for something like a HD 6670 (which should match your £50 budget) then it will be a bit faster, offer more VRAM, run much cooler/quieter and support DX10/11.