Graphics Card (Approx £100)

[adam1v]

im looking for a go between graphics card for £100, i was just wondering whats the best i can get in that region?

I was looking at the Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3870 XT Toxic Edition which has very high GPU/Memory speeds compared to any other in that region.

Do you think this is a safe bet for a good card in that budget range?

 

[adam1v]

why is that? I cant see the specs are anywhere near them?

Bare in mind, this a graphics card until I can get my hands on an ATI 4xxx range card.

 

[adam1v]

Get the GT. I have the 2900Pro overclocked which is probably faster than the 3870XT at stock as well as have a 512bit interface and I see the limitations of one card. X2 3870 is a different story but it's too dear for a stop gap card.

Don't look at the Mhz and think that A is faster than B as it doesn't work like that. My 2900Pro can overclock to 850Mhz Core and 1000Mhz memory and my GTX runs at 620Mhz core, 1600Mhz Shaders and 1000Mhz memory. The GTX beats the AMD card time after time with AA enabled. Without AA then the 2900Pro is a contender but there are certain games that even without AA options the 2900Pro can't manage as well as the 8800GTX. Timeshift and Unreal Tournament 3 don't have AA options but the difference between the 2900Pro and 8800GTX is easily noticeable. The 8800GT with it's higher Core and Shader speeds really give this card a boost at lower resolutions. The 256bit interface doesn't really start to cause problems till you're at big resolutions with AA/AF enabled and even then it's title dependant.

Trust me. Get the 8800GT and wait until the 4000 series arrives from AMD. It's a better buy than the 3870XT. The 8800GT is slightly faster than the GTX at lower resolutions (I game at high res's) and the GTX is a better card than the 3870XT. So if you are running on a 22" screen with 1680x1050 then you will be hitting about GTX performances for just a little over £100. I love AMD but facts are facts and if you want a good recommendation then the 8800GT card is the one you want.

Thanks very much for your input, thats pretty much what I wanted to hear.
I will purchased the BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC2 512MB GDDR3 later on this week.

 

[adam1v]

Well, in my PC at the moment, im currently using an ATI X1900 XTX, which has served me well, i’ve had it for sometime now.

Ive been offered a good deal on my current PC from a friend, so i’ve taken him up and put the cash towards a brand new system. I now have everything except the graphics card:

Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme Edition QX9650 "LGA775 Yorkfield" 3.00GHz
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Reaper HPC
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular
Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU
Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
A few noctua fans and a zalman mushroom.

I don’t really know whats in store for the nvidia next gen card, but from what i’ve read the ATIs are really set to be something special (dual cores running over 1ghz each, 1024 ram running exceptionally fast, extra pipelines/stream processors etc), really makes me want one of these.

 

[adam1v]

Thanks JD, im deffo looking forward to finishing the system myself.

Do you know much about the up and coming ATI/Nvidia graphics card, do you have any plans to upgrade yourself?
To me, the new next gen cards seem to have the biggest jump in technology then we've ever seen in the last few years.

man this is so hard, its really knowing where to draw the line, because for an extra £30 I can get the XFX GeForce 8800 GTX Extreme 768MB GDDR3 .

I will take a look at my media center PC i think, if it takes PCI-E i might spend the extra money and swap it out.

 

[adam1v]

Im really not sure, I cant remember off the top of my head, its a 42" plasma though, im cant remember the native resolution (do you know?).

Im not even sure of the HTPC is PCI-E or not, its been a while since i look inside the case.

 

[adam1v]

It might be 1360x768 or 1920x1080.

With 1360x768 then I'd get the 8800GT. If it's 1920x1080 then the GTX would be the best buy.

I take it you have a 22" LCD for your PC?. If so and your Plasma is the lower resolution the the GT is a great choice and is the cheapest.

No, twin 19"s, as I do a reasonable amount of dreamweaver/photoshop type stuff.

I've never considered getting larger screens, whats your take on it? worth upgrading to duel 22"s?

 

[adam1v]

Ah cool.

Well I'd only upgrade your screens if you felt you needed to. If you're happy then there's no point really. The 8800GT will be good enough for your 19" screens as it would be for 22". The only problem here though is the new AMD/ATI 4xxx series you're waiting on. If today's 8800GTX/Ultra, X2 3870 and the 9800GX2 are a little bit wasted at 1680x1050 then how choked will the 4xxx series card from AMD/ATI be at this resolution if it's faster than the cards I've just mentioned and for ATI's sake it has to be faster?.

Do you mean the 19"s are choking/creating a bottleneck on the graphics cards then?
I would certainly consider saving for a 22" or duel 22".

 

[adam1v]

J.D, thanks for all your help so far, im nearly done lol.

Lets say I dont want to go any bigger than 22" (i dont think i have the room), and lets say I've just been given a few hundred pound as a tax rebate , which dual 22" monitor would you recommend for gaming?

The Samsung SM-226BW 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor look very impressive, a quality brand, high contrast and low ms, would you agree these are very good?

 

[adam1v]

*edit* im gobsmacked lol, searching for best 22" gaming monitor this monitor is in the first 10 links, I think this must be a good bet.

Whats the gaming likely to be on a widescreen of this size? am I likely to notice problems in BF2/CS/WoW etc playing games which are not designed for widescreen?

 

[adam1v]

26" lol, that must be fun for BF2!

226BW or 2232BW? I think the 2232 will be a good choice.