Best Graphics Card - On A Budget

[Westyfield2]

Building my little Bro a decent gaming rig on a tight budget,
What's the best PCI-Express card available for under £150 (the closer to £100 the better.)

My thought had been a OcUK GeForce 7900 GS 512MB - Retail (GX-045-OK) £140.99

Please don't say anything around this budget will be better than my £360 BFG 7800GTX 256mb.

 

[Westyfield2]

7900gs is very good value for money especially the 256mb version, but i would much rather recommend a 7600gt which costs £88 all in.

This one?

 

[Westyfield2]

If you can stretch your budget a bit then the X1900XT is on special offer this week for £165.

This one?

will be better than your 7800GTX in most games and is £135. It's a great card for the money.

 

[Westyfield2]

What CPU does he have? No point getting a behemoth if his CPU / RAM isn't up to it.

Will be on a A64 4000 (currently in my rig)

Eek don't let those memory eating gremlins in my house!

Looks at numpad, notices easy mistake, edits OP to hide the evidence

 

[Westyfield2]

The target is BF2, COD2 at good resolutions (as close to mine, all maxed out, as poss).

Idea is a good system for now, that can be upgraded when needed.

 

[Westyfield2]

i have a 3 year old niece and she always messes up the pc thats been built for her. once you build it and put all the crap on it. make sure you image it so rebuilds can be done in a fraction of the time.

He's never actually spooned any of our comps ever, including his current one (2400, GeForce 4).

 

[Westyfield2]

post rest of system specs inc psu etc then can fine a more appropriate option for you.

The only sure things are 1gb ram (I'll persuade an upgrade to 2gb, BF2) and A64 4000.
PSU will be 400w.
And there won't be much (if any) overclocking.

 

[Westyfield2]

Would the X1900 XT 256mb really be better than my BFG 7800GTX 256mb?

BFG 7800GTX 256mb
460MHz Core Clock (G70 I Think)
24 Pixel Pipelines
256mb 1300MHz+ GDDR3
8 Vertex Shaders

Connect3D X1900 XT 256MB
625MHz Core Clock (R580)
48 pixel shader processors
256MB 1450MHz GDDR3
8 vertex shader processors

TY
Ed

 

[Westyfield2]

So, now I've stopped being distracted by tempting upgrades to my 7800GTX, Back on the OP of a good cheap card (defo under £140)
Must be good for COD2, BF2 and BF2142. But without being expensive or better than my 7800GTX.

So far the three ideas are: 7900 GS 512MB £140.99, 7600 GT 256MB £88.11 and 7900 GS 256MB £119.84.

 

[Westyfield2]

X1800 if ATI

7900 GS 256MB £119.84 if NV

The 512mb isn't worth the extra unless playing in widescreen.

And if completely un-biased...

 

[Westyfield2]

why not buy a x1900xt for him ,and then give him your 7800gtx? - your get better performance, and he will be happy with that card

Buy me a X1900XT, sell him the 7800GTX hmm.

Scurries off researching ATI's in X64...