Graphics card for ~£70

alexakasloth · 30 Jun 2007 at 14:48

What card would you get for this price? I'm spec'ing up a system for a friend and I was thinking the x1650 pro, or possible the Sapphire HD 2600 pro (512mb). Either this or a 8600gt?

The only thing is I'm not sure of the performance of the 2600.

Which one you get for this price?

snowdog · 30 Jun 2007 at 15:01

8600GT, not the 1650 pro in any case, its about the speed of a normall geforce 6800....
Either the 8600gt or the hd2600, unsure myself wich ones better.

hp7909 · 30 Jun 2007 at 15:03

Gaming? If so, either 8600 GT or HD 2600 XT.

EDIT: Review of the XT here

alexakasloth · 30 Jun 2007 at 15:04

hp7909 said:
Gaming? If so, either 8600 GT or HD 2600 XT.

He does a bit of gaming, not sure which games though. He mostly uses the pc for sounds recording for bands and that sort of stuff.

MoD_Callidus · 1 Jul 2007 at 06:20

pre owned 1800/1900XT mehinks

pegasus1 · 1 Jul 2007 at 09:05

IF he wants brand new then 8600GT can be had for around that and they perform very well once clocked (and these really do clock very well).

alexakasloth · 1 Jul 2007 at 09:37

Think he wants a new system, good to know they can clock well. Think we might be trying some overclocking on it

jrodga2k5 · 1 Jul 2007 at 10:02

Yeah the 8600gt will be your best bet at that price just now

they are really good cards as they overclock well!

maddness · 1 Jul 2007 at 12:35

preowned x1800xt 512 *cough* FS *cough*

LoadsaMoney · 1 Jul 2007 at 14:07

8600 out of those, they obliterate the 2600's, they are ******* terrible cards them.

Good review here

hp7909 · 1 Jul 2007 at 15:33

Funny how the 'tone' towards 8600GT has changed

You can get a X1950GT for around the price of 8600GT

jaykay · 1 Jul 2007 at 15:36

The 2600xt is very competetive to the 8600gt but not the gts.

Cyber-Mav · 1 Jul 2007 at 15:36

hp7909 said:
Funny how the 'tone' towards 8600GT has changed

iv been saying its a good card the day it came out.

shame took and even worse card to show the whole world the 8600gt's true colours.

jaykay · 1 Jul 2007 at 15:38

Im just wait for nvidias gap filler between the 8600gts and 8800gts 320mb.
As both 2600xt and 8600gts suck.

alexakasloth · 1 Jul 2007 at 18:56

jrodga2k5 said:
Yeah the 8600gt will be your best bet at that price just now they are really good cards as they overclock well!

Nice to know, thinking of getting the silent pipe gigabyte version myself.

He's currently on a 9800pro so it will be a good jump!

Cyber-Mav · 1 Jul 2007 at 19:27

$loth said:
Nice to know, thinking of getting the silent pipe gigabyte version myself.

He's currently on a 9800pro so it will be a good jump!

it will be a massive jump. also no point getting a silent one if its gonna cost a lot more over a normal one. the trick with the 8600gt is to get the cheapest one you can find. also you can put on aftermarket cooling such as vf900cu if you need to. id just get something like an expertvision card that has a better stock cooler on it as standard.

silversurfer · 1 Jul 2007 at 19:47

What percentage would the 8600gt overclock by typically?

alexakasloth · 1 Jul 2007 at 19:47

Cyber-Mav said:
it will be a massive jump. also no point getting a silent one if its gonna cost a lot more over a normal one. the trick with the 8600gt is to get the cheapest one you can find. also you can put on aftermarket cooling such as vf900cu if you need to. id just get something like an expertvision card that has a better stock cooler on it as standard.

It's only £10 more than the OCUK version (gigabyte), but still cheaper than the asus and BFG cards. And the point of the system i'm making is silence

Cyber-Mav · 1 Jul 2007 at 20:06

a very slow moving fan is hadly gonna be heard and will often offer loads more cooling over passive cooling solutions.
but depends on what your after really

LoadsaMoney · 1 Jul 2007 at 20:12

hp7909 said:
Funny how the 'tone' towards 8600GT has changed

It hasn't, they are totally **** as well, but the best out of those mentioned.

jaykay said:
The 2600xt is very competetive to the 8600gt but not the gts.

Not it isn't, in that review i linked to the 8600 GT is spanking the 2600 XT by up to 20fps in some, GT is much better.

Serious Sam 2 for example

1024x768 2600 XT = 94, 8600 GT = 132

1280x1024 2600 XT = 69, 8600 GT = 94

1600x1200 2600 XT = 50, 8600 GT = 66

1920x1200 2600 XT = 49, 8600 GT = 65

and it goes on, Stalker, BF2 etc... the 2600 XT just gets murdered by up to 20fps.

Taken from Anandtech's final words from their 2600/2400 review :-

'In fact, AMD went the other way and released hardware that performs consistently worse than NVIDIA's competing offerings. The only game that shows AMD hardware leading NVIDIA is Rainbow Six: Vegas. Beyond that, our 4xAA tests show the mainstream Radeon HD lineup, which already lags in performance, scales even worse than NVIDIA.'

Its the same everywhere, absolute terrible cards, all thanks to AMD.

No high-end competitor, and no mid/low-range competitor either, Nvidia just wiping the floor with them on all fronts, OEM market is the only AMD/ATi saviour, its all they got.