Girlfriend's Birthday >< Need help choosing a graphics card!

[Archaius]

Well...its that time of year again. Time for the dreaded gift shopping to begin. However, you may be wondering why this post is in this particular forum and not in the Real Life section.

It turns out that she and I share atleast one obsession: online gaming. Luckily for me (and not for her I suppose), her FX5700 keeled over recently...although it was due for an upgrade anyway.

Anyhow, I made a temporary fix with an old Ti4200 which was laying about, but with the games we play (mostly WoW, CS:S, AoE3, etc), its not exactly doing too well.

So, I've decided to buy her a graphics card this year. The rest of the computer isn't too bad: 3.2ghz Pentium, 1gig GEIL Value DDR400 RAM, Gigabyte Mobo (can't remember the exact model but its a socket 478 and AGP), Enermax PSU...and then there's the Ti4200...

The new graphics card needs to be AGP and the budget I'm working with is around £150. I have a PCI-E 6800GT in my computer and I think it does a great job with the games we currently play so I had a 6800GS AGP in mind.

However, I've only ever owned Nvidia cards so I'm not sure what the options are from ATi in that price range. Also, although I have nothing against second hand parts, I would like for her to open a brand spanking new piece of kit, so in this case it won't be option.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[FirebarUK]

If I were you I'd pick up a 2nd hand 6800GT.

 

[man_from_uncle]

You're a lucky man. I got my girlfriend a portable hard disk recently and she was wholly unimpressed by my romantic intention.

In terms of AGP cards the 6800gs is a pretty good bet. If you go with ATI you might find an X800XL in that range which would also be pretty decent but lack SM3.0 support. The other ATI option in the X1600pro 256 or 512. Neither are as good as the other 2 i just mentioned, but they are a bit cheaper and do come with the latest features.

 

[SteveOBHave]

haha, my girlfriend calls my computer "The Other Woman"... I am seeing a pattern here

You are lucky

 

[ajgoodfellow]

For £150 I'd go for a new 6800GS or a second hand 6800GT

The BFG 6800GS is pre-overclocked, performs on par with the 6800GT (as it's overclocked) and it's on offer for £130 inc VAT at the moment - great price for a great card (link)

ATI doesn't really have a great card for this price range at the moment. The X1600Pro is a little slower than the 6600GT so quite a bit slower than the 6800GT. The X700Pro is about the same and doesn't support the latest features

The X800GTO is about £120 but again, doesn't support the latest features and it's a little slower than the 6800GS

 

[Naffa]

I thought the X700 Pro was on par with the 9800XT?

 

[trojan698]

I'd go for a second hand 6800GT, someone is bound to be selling one in mint condition somewhere.

 

[PureAppleJuice]

Could easily get a 6800 GT for under £100 off the well known auction site

 

[richolmes72]

Could easily get a 6800 GT for under £100 off the well known auction site

Don't think so, i just sold my old card on our favourite auction site, a 128mb 6800GT for £122 + £5 delivery.

but to the op, a 6800GT would be a good buy and within your budget. If you really want to buy brand new, a 6600GT would be good, is the 7600GS out on AGP yet?

 

[ajgoodfellow]

The 7600GS is only on PCI-E at the moment and it's only about the same speed as a 6600GT

If he wants brand new he should get the 6800GS, particuarly the BFG one on special. £130 inc VAT and 6800GT performance