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Graphics Card Advice

kiltman67

kiltman67

kiltman67

Associate
Joined
2 Aug 2006
Posts
63
I'm sure you get posts like this all the time but I was hoping someone would be able to give me some guidance on graphics cards as I'm pretty out of the loop. To put it in perspective the last time I was shopping for a graphics card from a performance POV it was a Voodoo 4 that I bought.

I've been getting back into PC gaming recently, using a Sapphire Technology X550 256MB which was bought more for the low price, good reviews and necessity than anything else. As I've been playing games which have been putting more demand on my card it's begun to get jerky.

As a rough idea of what I'm looking for I'd like the card to be PCI-Express and no more than £200, I want to be able to use two monitors and at least one connector has to be DVI. I have no preference about whether it's ATI or nVidia.

My system has a Core 2 Duo E6300 and 1Gb RAM (Though may be doubling it in the near future).

Thanks for the help in advance.
 
Another quick question...

I did a little research on some of the cards mentioned and saw that the 8800GTS and 8600 would support Direct3D 10, while the other two would not. Would it be worthwhile waiting for one that supported 10 or would I be perfectly fine with one that doesn't?
 
kiltman67 said:
Another quick question...

I did a little research on some of the cards mentioned and saw that the 8800GTS and 8600 would support Direct3D 10, while the other two would not. Would it be worthwhile waiting for one that supported 10 or would I be perfectly fine with one that doesn't?
Click to expand...
It would be better to have one that supported DirectX 10 than one that didn't
 
Even tho theres nothing out there yet that runs anything dx10. So dx9 card can be a good buy if cheap enough to be used as a stop gap till when dx10 is really needed. And by that time dx10 mainstream cards will be more affordable by then.
 
Does anybody have a rough idea when the 320MB 8800GTS's will be out? I've heard Mid-Feb mentioned but I don't know enough about the industry to know how likely delays are and if and how long the gap would be between US and UK release.
 
Well personally i doubt they will be out till middle of the year. They have good enough mid range cards even with the x1950pro out for ati. And the 8800 is the leading high end card at the mo so i dont see why they want the midrange 8800 out so soon. And of course everyone is using guess work for the prediction of in a month or two i think.
 
SkeeterPSA said:
Well personally i doubt they will be out till middle of the year. They have good enough mid range cards even with the x1950pro out for ati. And the 8800 is the leading high end card at the mo so i dont see why they want the midrange 8800 out so soon. And of course everyone is using guess work for the prediction of in a month or two i think.
Click to expand...

If it's likely to be the middle of the year then a stop gap may be the way to go. Though I would be hesitant to buy a stop gap now, just to have to buy another one later in the year when I could spend £80 more and get one of the 640MB which I presume I'd get plenty use out of. I'm pretty keen on getting a card which I'll get a couple of years out of before I have to upgrade.
 
to be honest I see no real point in spending the money on a new DX9 card.


If you are going to purchase a new graphics card, then either get a G80 now, or wait until the new R600 comes out, or the 8800 GTS 340 MB or 8600 Ultra is out.

If you buy DX9 now, you will only have another necessary upgrade in future when DX10 starts being more and more needed
 
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