Best £40-£50 PCI-E Graphics card available? (For a mid-range spec build)

[Leethal]

Hi guyz,

Just wanting some input on the best PCI-E Graphics card available for £40-£50?

The reason for the limit on price is because i am doing a custom build for my nephew & he wants to keep the price low & doesn't see the need in spending more than this on a graphics card. (lol)

He has chosen:
Sapphire HD 3650 512mb DDR2 Dual DVI TV OUT PCI-E £41.49

"512MB DDR2
128-bit memory interface
Core / Memory Clock – 725 / 500
PCI Express® 2.0 x16 bus support
DirectX® 10.1 / Shader Model 4.1 support
ATI CrossFireX™ multi-GPU support
Unified Video Decoder (UVD) for Blu-ray™ and HD DVD at full HD 1080p
HDMI with 5.1 surround sound audio"

He definately needs DirectX 10 & SM3 SM4 support, as i'm sure he'd like to play gears of war on the pc!

I myself have an ATI X1950 512mb that has DDR3 & i *** my card, lol, the above one is DDR2 & personally i think he should aim for a DDR3 card although the specs look ok for what he wants it for, Soccermanager & LOTR - Battle for middle earth II which aren't that demanding at all, well BFME more so...

But i reckon that once his rig is built that he will start to get more into pc games & will want better graphics, hence why i'm asking for advice on a card that would suit his needs & the price to be in the £40-£50 range...

Any help would be much appreciated, Suggestions Welcome!
Cheerz

 

[classicVin]

i myself love my x1950pro, why dont you point him in the direction of a famous auction site i'm sure you kind find one for around £40-50 for a 512mb version !

goodluck

 

[Leethal]

...

I'm feeling the X1950 Pro love , the card does RoCK!
I've had mine for 6months now & it runs awesome.

that is a good idea, might aswell look on the "famous auction site" as i might be able to pick one up for £40-£50 hopefully...

 

[Jon1818]

7900GS? I dunno off hand.

 

[Combat squirrel]

3650 is ideal, my 256mb card runs oblivion on max and 1920x1200 quite easily, very very playable

 

[spicypixel]

3650 might be in the price bracket, its HTPC functions might be useful, that said the 4xxx series will knock its price down some more soon. Though the X1900 is good too .

 

[classicVin]

by the looks of things you could get a x1950 xtx off of the famous auction site, Which would be awsome !

 

[Leethal]

would be nice to get that one for him, i'd even get that for myself if i had the dough , but the last sapphire one on auction sold for £81 & a connect3d one went for £56

Maybe it would be wise to go with the 3650 then as he is into oblivion & that is the type of games he likes, that and GTA IV whenever that is released on pc

I just can't get it out of my head that it's DDR2 & not DDR3

 

[ukbrainstew]

would be nice to get that one for him, i'd even get that for myself if i had the dough , but the last sapphire one on auction sold for £81 & a connect3d one went for £56

Maybe it would be wise to go with the 3650 then as he is into oblivion & that is the type of games he likes, that and GTA IV whenever that is released on pc

I just can't get it out of my head that it's DDR2 & not DDR3

There are plenty of GDDR3 3650's around, not on here but you can pick up a 512MB GDDR3 version for about £55, and that would be my pick. The fact that its power draw will be very, very low and that it has HD decoding are big plusses in my eyes.

 

[Leethal]

ye, i know that they exist but i just meant that there isn't one in the £40-£50 price range... hehehe

Maybe i should search further-a-field & see the cheapest i can get one for...

Might be a good idea like spiceypixel said & to wait for the 4xxx price drop