Comman sense cards

[WatchTower]

Want a new DX10 card but want a card now. I think my 6800GS XXX will do me until vista and DirectX10 cards come about but if I had an older card and wanted something now to tide me over but didn't want to damage the saving for my future intel and DX10 card. The 7600 cards look flaming amazing for their money. They may be a budget card but the spescs on them cards for the money looks fantastic 12 pipelines this is the same as a decent 6800 card but the core and memory speed on them cards make them not only have muscle but they're look like fantastic value just look at this one

XFX GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PVT73G-UDL3) (GX-078-XF) for £129.19

- GeForce 7600 GT Core running at 560MHz
- 256MB GDDR3 Extreme Memory running at 1400MHz
- 12 Pixel Pipelines
- Designed For Extreme HD Gaming – Delivering Ultra Realistic Gaming Experiences
- Dual link DVI support
- SLI ready – Delivering upto 2x the performance
- Shader Model 3.0 Support
- True High Dynamic Range Rendering Support – Based on Open EXR technology

That bad boy would out perform my 6800GS XXX I'm sure and it cost less.

Is there something I'm missing here or are these the best Let me play games really well until DX10 comes out Cards or what?

 

[dale1uk]

TBH I'm not to sure. DX10 will be out at the end of the year, so thats what, 6 months down the line, and we all know how much can change in 6 months. In January I sold my 9800xt for a x850xt and was over the moon and thought hey this will last me an age, but then come March the x850 was being sold and got myself a x1800xt which I'm hoping will last me a bit longer.
All I'm saying is 6 months in the world of pc's is a long time and even then DX10 will not be fully used. I'd expect it to be another year before their more mainstream, by which time I'd expect the 7600 to be struggling quite a bit.

 

[Lanz]

`almost top range` cards like the 7900GT and the X1800XT have never been cheaper though, they offer substantial performance over the 7600GT for about £50ish more, I think if you can find the extra money for one of these, they are much better value.

Also, chances are the first DX10 cards will be top of the range, £350+ models, with the cheaper GT's etc coming later, so for a lot of people they wont be jumping on the DX10 train right away, so it might be better for them to get a better card than a 7600GT now.

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

Waiting for conroe are we?

 

[mmj_uk]

I've had my 7800GTX256 since like June/July '05, now that was common sense.

 

[titaniumx3]

I've read that the 7600GT has 128-bit memory bus; doesn't that make a big differene?

I can remember when the radeon 9700 pro came out, the 256-bit bus was talked about quite a lot and one of the reasons why the geforce 5800 ultra was such a failure.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

DX10 cards are around November, but you wont be buying one anyway as your sensible and waiting till theres DX10 stuff out that its actually worth buying a DX10 card for, and you know that by that time umpteen cards will have been and gone and the first ones in November will be distant memories.

 

[Global_Inferno]

If I were you, if your looking to spend in the £129 price range, keep an eye on the members market, for second hand 7800 GTXs and X1800 XTs.. I have seen them go as low as £140 so for the performance difference it's definately worth doing!

 

[kbc]

DX10 cards are around November, but you wont be buying one anyway as your sensible and waiting till theres DX10 stuff out that its actually worth buying a DX10 card for, and you know that by that time umpteen cards will have been and gone and the first ones in November will be distant memories.

As usual... soon as I buy a card, it becomes obsolete... at least not in performance terms. I've got a 7900GT and was probably better off with a 7600GT since I only play Source and you don't really need a decent graphics card for that. Maybe I should flog my entire system now and buy a new Conroe system.

 

[Lanz]

I've read that the 7600GT has 128-bit memory bus; doesn't that make a big differene?

I can remember when the radeon 9700 pro came out, the 256-bit bus was talked about quite a lot and one of the reasons why the geforce 5800 ultra was such a failure.

128bit bus is ok if you have fast core speeds, kinda like 350mhz with a 256Bit bus = 700mhz on a 128bit bus. The 7600GT has a fast core.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

As usual... soon as I buy a card, it becomes obsolete... at least not in performance terms. I've got a 7900GT and was probably better off with a 7600GT since I only play Source and you don't really need a decent graphics card for that. Maybe I should flog my entire system now and buy a new Conroe system.

True, but if you buya DX10 card its going to be obsolete with just an operating system to show for it, least if you get a DX9 card you have absolutely tons of games that use it.

 

[G.O.A.T]

128bit bus is ok if you have fast core speeds, kinda like 350mhz with a 256Bit bus = 700mhz on a 128bit bus. The 7600GT has a fast core.

GPU core speed is largely redundant, the 128-bit bus is to the on card memory. It's the memory speed vs. bus width ratio that affects bandwidth (and therefore speed.) Sorry if that's what you meant by core.