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Best card for £200?

sjt269

sjt269

sjt269

Associate
Joined
11 Dec 2004
Posts
1,979
So, I've got the go-ahead to buy a new PC. I'll probably have the obligatory spec-check thread in General Hardware fairly soon, but for now, I'm after some specific graphics card advice.


This week is a holiday, so if I get the bits this week, I can build the PC and have it together by the weekend. Otherwise, I'm going to have a bit of a wait to build it, since my weekdays are pretty busy and are only going to get worse. But any other weekend should be okay. I guess what I'm saying is that I'd much prefer to buy now and get a PC up and running while I've got free time, rather than leave it til I'm swamped under with work.

Now, I know the X2950 is coming out soon, and the new 8800s, but in real terms, are these likely to perform better than the current cards in equivalent price brackets? I'm not looking for top performance, I just want a decent card that can handle modern games, but it will really annoy me if the current card prices drop like stones in a few weeks time.


I was looking at getting the X2900 Pro, and then clocking it up. I've seen some people have flashed theirs to XT, but I'm not comfortable with that procedure, and I'd rather just overclock. Is an overclocked Pro comparable to an XT, or is there a compelling reason to flash it?


Alternatively, I could wait a few weeks and pick up one of the new 8800s or the new Radeons, but pound-for-pound, what option will is likely to be best value? I know no one can predict what the cards will do etc, and predictions vary wildly from 'there will be no difference' to 'the new cards will wipe the floor with the old ones'. Differences like 5% mean nothing to me - I just want a good card for the money. Is the X2900 Pro the way to go?


(the other option was to get an X1950 Pro for £80ish and then maybe upgrade in a few months if I feel the need, but this seems a really long-winded approach)



Thanks in advance
tTz




PS: oh, yeah, games I'm likely to be playing...it's just going to be the usual suspets, to be honest. Plenty of older stuff that my current system can't run too well, but also some of the newer stuff like UT3, possibly Crysis (can't make up my mind if I like the look of it) and of course the Orange Box (which I know runs great on lower cards too). My screen is a 17" at 1280x1024.



:edit:

Every time I've put 'X2900', I meant 'HD 2900'. I am a noob, hear me roar!
 
flashing the pro to an XT gives you voltage controls in ATI tool, for £200 the pro is the card to get, clocked to XT speeds it will outperform the GTS 640mb and will clock a lot further
 
I'd wait til the end of the month, see what the new 8800's are like.

Tis only a couple of weeks.
 
I've also just realised that the motherboards I was looking at support Crossfire, so I could even get one X1950 Pro now, and another later, if I needed more power. Alternatively, the HD 2900 Pro seems to be calling out to me. I'm an ATI user just now, so I've got some slight pangs of loyalty towards them. ;)
 
Get a 2900 Pro now, then if you need more power you can pick one up later.

The alternative is to get the X1950 Pro and wait for the new cards.
 
I am in the same spot. 2900Pro without a doubt however i am waiting for the new cards as Hex mentioned. Remember "good things come to those who wait" ;)
 
The new cards will consume a lot less power but I doubt it will be a lot faster than the current cards as they're all based on the same architecture. So you're not losing out much if you go for a 2900pro now. But of course if you can afford to wait a few more weeks for the new cards then do that.
 
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Consuming less power would obviously be a plus, but I've been informed elsewhere on these boards that my 480W PSU will be enough for a 2900 Pro, so it's not a hugely big deal for me. Unless 'a lot less' is going to work wonders on my electricity bill. :p
 
Well the cards next month will come with single slot coolers and only require 1 PCI-E connector I think, so you get the picture. Won't make that much difference to the bill though :p
 
Actually, the power connector business has been worrying me a bit - I've got an Antec Neopower, which I *think* is a modular PSU...now, chances are the PCI-E connector isn't plugged in, and I've got no idea where the box of cables has gone. And if I need two molexes to connect to one PCI-E adaptor thing, then I'd need four to connect to both sockets, and I dunno if I've got that many to spare. :(
 
Difference is, we now know what to expect of performance from the R600 stuff, where as before it was largely assumed R600 would be on par or beat the gtx (which it didn't for those who don't know).

I just hope the 2950pro/xt or the 8800gt/new gts will be able to run in my Asrock 4CoreDual motherboard.

Matthew
 
Well I've just upgraded from my X1900XT and I'm very happy. I didn't think I was going to be but at the price it was well worth chancing it and it paid off.

I do have to say that adding AA in some titles drops FPS (CoD4 Demo so far as I've not played much since adding the Pro) but still well playable. CoD4 I just stuck it up to 2048x1536 with no AA and it was brilliant. If it starts to slow down at that resolution then I'll just stick it to 1920x1440. Bioshock ran brilliantly. World in Conflict was a good improvement over my x1900xt. UT3 is perfect. Not tried MOH Airborne yet but it ran quite well on my old card so I expect that to run great. Not really tried anything else but from what I have tried I'm pleased.

The 2900Pro overclocks for fun http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10273584&postcount=132.
 
Yeah, I've seen the stuff on the overclocking thread already. Honestly, I can't see the new cards making much of a difference to me...definitely not in performance anyway*. As I've said, if the prices plummet, I'll be a bit annoyed. Of course, now that I've said that, Sod's Law will come into play and prices will drop like stones. :p


*Clarification: if it's playable, I'm happy. Minor differences in FPS don't interest me tbh.
 
Lets all be honest, the only real benefits we are hoping for are cheaper cards and higher overclocks :D

Matthew
 
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