Best cheap card

[Burumbar]

Looking for a cheap PCIE card to run current games at 1024x768. Don't want to spend a lot as its just temporary but want things like FEAR etc to run reasonably well.

Any help appreciated.

 

[mortals]

what would you call cheap?

£80-90

7600GT ? £90

or go for a second hand x800 or something for a bit less

not sure it would run fear that well tho as I've not tried fear

 

[melbourne720]

How cheap is cheap? If we are talking sub £100, then OcUK GeForce 7300 GT 256MB GDDR3 (or the superclocked one with the decent heatsink for £20 more) is probably the way to go. A friend of mine volt-modded his and he is getting very payable frame rates, certainly at that resolution.

I'd get the 7300 GT DDR3 with the Zalman heatsink, and push the core a bit more.

 

[Burumbar]

Up to £100 I guess. Was thinking a 7600 myself.

 

[mortals]

I think the 7600GT is pos the best for the money.

Isn't the 7300GT about half the speed

I was going to get a 7600GT when I bought my core2duo, but opted to spend the extra for a x1900xt

 

[Burumbar]

Yeah sounds about right. Its only a stop gap for my lad as I'll pass my 7800gtx down to him when the 8800's are released next month.

 

[melbourne720]

Isn't the 7300GT about half the speed

My friend's 3d mark results of his volt-modded 7300 GT DDR3 that he got for £60 or so:-

6600 Marks in 05
Over 15000 Marks in 03

Not sure what speed you can get on a 7600 GT, so you could have a point...

 

[mortals]

My friend's 3d mark results of his volt-modded 7300 GT DDR3 that he got for £60 or so:-

6600 Marks in 05
Over 15000 Marks in 03

Not sure what speed you can get on a 7600 GT, so you could have a point...

I think thats close to a stock 7600GT, but not sure whether it would be worth the hassle of voltmodding and overclocking to achieve it

The stock results on the 7300GT on reviews I've seen seem to be 3000 - 3600 on '05?

Just read a review with fear benchmarked on 1024x768 on a AMD64 4000+, medium quaility.

7600GT = 80.7fps
7300GT = 59.0fps

on that same system 3dmark2005:

7600GT = 5917
7300GT = 2941

But that ocuk one seems to be advertised as GDDR3 (normal ones seem to be GDDR2?) so could be good for the money (if you are going to overclock) but then again it's only £10 less ?

 

[melbourne720]

I think thats close to a stock 7600GT, but not sure whether it would be worth the hassle of voltmodding and overclocking to achieve it

Hassle? Maybe. Fun? Absolutely!

But that ocuk one seems to be advertised as GDDR3 so could be good for the money (if you are going to overclock) but then again it's only £10 less ?

There is a big difference between the GDDR2 and GDDR3 models of 7300 GT

If you went for the £58 7300GT GDDR3 then voltmodded it you'd save yourself £30...

 

[Hamoodii]

7600GT is a top card I'll get it, OC it a bit, and a volt mod it then rub off graphote when you wanna sell it

 

[melbourne720]

7600GT is a top card I'll get it, OC it a bit, and a volt mod it then rub off graphite when you wanna sell it

That would be sweet...

Agreed, do that