Apologies, it's a "What graphics card" thread...

[Northwind]

Yeah, I know. I'm just mentally ill-equipped to make this sort of decision for myself

I have at most £200 to spend on this card, but I'd sooner not spend to the limit, since the rest will go back in the war chest for the next upgrade (new motherboard, case and PSU) Currently I have a 2.8 Pentium D, 1.5gb ram, and Leadtek 7600GT. The GT's overclocked as far as it'll go and does well, but not quite well enough. Mainly playing Oblivion just now, Company of Heroes is on the way. Quiet is good, but not the be-all and end-all. I don't want a max power PC that sounds like a hoover though.

So...

Tom's Hardware's recommending X1900XT 256mb cards in my price range, that's a popular choice on here I can see. Seems like going up to 512mb doesn't make a huge difference on these cards? I gather the reference cooler is noisy, though, so replacing that ups the price.

£190 gets the silent HIS one, 625/1.45, 256mb
£170 gets the Connect 3D noisy one 625/1.45 256mb.

Seems to be a lot of good deals on 7900s and 7950s just now... I'm drawn to the rep for low power draw and heat, since this is going in a Dell case with stock PSU for a few months. But I'm steering away from GTOs after reading Bad Things.

So, that gives:

OCUK Galaxy Silent 7950GT 512mb, 565/1430 with Zalman for £200
OCUK 7950GT 550/1400 £180
Gainward 7900GT 256mb, 550/1400 £190 "Golden Sample"
OCUK Galaxy Silent 7900 GS 512mb 540/1500 with Zalman for £160
OCUK 7900GS 512mb 450/1320, £140

Most of these have a slightly cheaper 256mb version, but with Nvidia that doesn't seem to make so much difference...

I gind myself leaning towards the Galaxies- I hear good things about overclocking 7900GSs, for one, and both come with Zalman coolers... But I can't get a handle on how the different types (7950GT vs 7900GT vs 7900GS vs X1900XT) really compare. I'm not getting too hung up on clock speeds, whatever I get will be overclocked regardless so the factory clock's more or less irrelevant, but clockign potential would be a selling point.

I'm drowning here Any help much appreciated, even if just to tell me where I'm wrong or wipe one out of the running.

 

[Hamoodii]

Well if you're after nice picture quality in games get the X1900 as they can do AA+ HDR, also the 7950's were realeased because the 7900's were failing, get the X1900XT 256MB, great card

 

[Hamoodii]

Also ask yourself what res will you run your games at?

 

[Northwind]

This monitor's native at 1280 x 1024, and it's a keeper for the moment, so that's really the target/limit...

TBH I'm not a HDR fan at all, I've never yet met a game in which it looked right, so I wouldn't weep to lose it... It always seems like a cool effect that nobody's worked out how to use yet. But that's maybe just me Doesn't look real at all to me. In Oblivion it does give a great look to some of the scenes but in others it jars. This is with an X1950XTX, at least.

 

[Naffa]

X1900XT 256MB would be my choice here without a doubt. HDR+AA is pimped by ATI fanboys.. To the point when it becomes ridiculous. But the fact is it can be done, but if it's not an issue with you then cool. But it's still the best card for the money.

 

[man_from_uncle]

I'm actually interested to know what you heard about the GTOs as I was just about to buy a pair.

But it exchange for that i'll follow the trend and recommend the X1900XT 256. Best card for the money. Having said that if you want/need a card with lower power requirements (and given that you are using a Dell PSU I think that's a wise consideration as i doubt it'd run a X1900XT) the 7900gs 512 is good for the cost and should overclock far enough to compete with at least a X1800XT.

You'll have to tell us more about you PSU before we can all unanimously agree that the X1900XT is the card for you.

 

[Northwind]

As far as I can tell, this thing's powered by a hamster in a wheel. Oh my word, 305W it says. So, a mouse in fact. That makes this lot relevant, it's also running a pair of sata 2 drives and a single optical drive. The screen has its own supply. I doubt the case will take many aftermarket ones either, with i being Dell's funky form factor.

Not heard much about the GTOs, other than a lot of internet rumour along the lines of the 79XX unreliability... But it seems to be backed up a bit more since they tend to come with low memory clocks from the factory. Since I've no intention of leaving the speeds standard even rumour's enough to put me off, when there's enough products out there without that level of muttering. But I'm paranoid.

 

[man_from_uncle]

As far as I can tell, this thing's powered by a hamster in a wheel. Oh my word, 305W it says. So, a mouse in fact. That makes this lot relevant, it's also running a pair of sata 2 drives and a single optical drive. The screen has its own supply. I doubt the case will take many aftermarket ones either, with i being Dell's funky form factor.

Not heard much about the GTOs, other than a lot of internet rumour along the lines of the 79XX unreliability... But it seems to be backed up a bit more since they tend to come with low memory clocks from the factory. Since I've no intention of leaving the speeds standard even rumour's enough to put me off, when there's enough products out there without that level of muttering. But I'm paranoid.

Actually 305w from a dell is pretty good and at least the equal of a 400w from a 'comes with case' PSU. That's probably enough for a 7900gs. You should probably get a second opinion though, maybe in the PSU section.

 

[Northwind]

It certainly runs the 7600gt without any probs at all...