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Budget card, £110 Thoughts

wibble1

wibble1

wibble1

Associate
Joined
18 Aug 2006
Posts
136
Location
East London
Hi all,

Trying to spec my self a budget system and going through each part trying to find out whats value for money and will last me for a while.

I haven't decided on all the spec's but the system will most likely be E2180 or E4500 with 2GB value ram.

With that in mind, I've looked at the following cards,

BFG GeForce 8600 GT OC ThermoIntelligence 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI

BFG GeForce 8600 GTS OC2 ThermoIntelligence 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

The GT has Core 565Mhz/1400Mhz GDDR3 and the GTS has 720Mhz/2220MHz GDDR3.

I've done some research into the ATi 3850HD range and haven't seen any great feedback of people? i.e when you turn AA on games the card will slow down and suffer?

HIS ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail

This card has a core speed of 668MHz and mem speed @ 1655MHz
Is the massive increase in speeds in the GTS worth it?

I've read in the "***The AGP & PCI-E Graphics Card Buyers Guide***" that:

*** Naff NVidia DX10 Card Warning***

Sadly the 8600 GTS has proven to be a bit of a let down in the frames per second department. Even Gibbo can’t recommend them, and they loose out to the x1950 Pro in DX 9 games.

The sticking point appears to be the 128Bit memory interface – NVidia has now released the 8800 GT with a 256bit memory interface, which supersedes this card in every area.

Just to be absolutely clear:-

8800 GTX/GT/GTS – good for games
8600 GTS – bad for games
Click to expand...

Does this mean I should steer away from the 8600 range?

Which option would you recommend to me?
 
The 3850 makes the 8600 cards look like crap. If you want to spend less, you can buy a radeon x1950 pro or 7900 GS (if not from here, they're easy to find) and they'll still outperform the 8600 cards.

Seriously, the 3850 is probably the best card for that money you will find. If you can afford to get the 512MB version of that card, all the better.

HOWEVER, the 8600 cards are soon to be replaced by the 9600 GT which for all intents and purposes has specifications that put it to be twice as fast as the 8600 GTS, but nobody's sure how it'll compare to the 3800 cards.
 
for 110, i say the 3850 is the way to go, it easily beats the 8600s. for the cpu, get the e2180 with the artic cooler pro 7 or tuniq tower and overclock it as high as it will go.
 
would I be able to run Crysis ok?

I read a buyers review and it said they saw some lag when shoving AA on in Crysis etc...
 
Deffenitly 3850 pro :).

You wont be able to play crysis at all with AA, not even the GTX's can at high resa even 1280x1024 its laggy with AA so dont worry about putting AA on.
 
Okay great! :-)

Think I'll shove this one on my list then:

HIS ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI
 
wibble1 said:
Okay great! :-)

Think I'll shove this one on my list then:

HIS ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI
Click to expand...

Ohhh wait, the 256mb of ram at 1680x1050 will cut performance in those games especially crysis, you'll need the 512mb one.
 
sr4470 said:
Or he could just turn the resolution down, as the HD3850 struggles at 1680x1050 anyway...
Click to expand...

Turning res down on an LCD screen, some people dont like to do that.

Hmm actually yes it looks like it might struggle at 1680x1050 all high in crysis as gurusan he'll know more since he has one and overclocked it to hell and back.
 
Hmmm.... thats gonna hurt my budget majorly... :| Only wanted to spend around £110 (max £120)

damn pc upgrades, they always start out really cheap and keep getting more expensive lol!

I might be able to afford the:

PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro Extreme Silent 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) @£123.36 , but will no longer be on special by the time I get around to ordering my PC, which will be in the next couple of weeks...

I might just stick with 1280x1050... (would be a cheaper option :-) )

Have a NEC 20WGX2 monitor.
 
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