Recrmmend a £100 Socket A graphics card

[Animal]

HI all,

Can you recommend me a graphics card for a friend with a Socket A Athlon 2.0ghz setup? He is currently running a Geforce 128mb 4200ti which is a direct X 8 card. He is having trouble running Company of Heroes and would like to spend about £100 on a replacement that will run latest stuff. I'm totally out of touch with graphics cards, so wouldn't know where to start at the moment!

Many thanks guys,

 

[semi-pro waster]

I'd suggest his system overall is probably at least as much of a bottleneck as the graphics card which would make upgrading the graphics card on it's own a bit of a false economy since AGP is on its way out. However if he wants to persevere with the current system then I'd pick up a 6800 series card or an X800 series card any of which should come in the range £40-70 depending on the model. They will be bottlenecked somewhat by the rest of the hardware but it isn't that much cheaper getting anything lower powered.

 

[fornowagain]

Have a look round for a secondhand x800xt (platinum edition if you can find one), I've seen them go for that kind of money.

 

[Animal]

Thanks guys,

I thought peeps might suggest a whole system upgrade but he doesn't want to do that at the moment, so that's a big help knowing what's worthwhile getting with the current system

 

[Alexrose1uk]

Point out to him hes spending money on a dead system, money he could put towards one twice as powerful. I understand his reluctance, especially if its down to money, but if he can afford it and wants to play latest games, he really needs to look to put money into a machine thats not 4-5 years old. As said previously, if he sticks to gfx, the x800xt is the card to look for, even that is likely to be bottlenecked. Dependant on his system, it might be worthwhile buying some more ram second hand as well, if he wants to play modern games, 1GB is a must.

 

[TBirdUK]

I've got a similar socket A system, with an XP-M running at 2.5 with a 6800GT in it, I'm reluctant to get rid of it as it plays BF2 quite well - so it may be old but it still does the job

Think I'd spend a little money to up the RAM to a Gig though, for £100 should be able to get both!

D'oh, looking at his spec, how much RAM has your mate got? and can he clock his chip a little higher?

 

[Yrkoon]

the x800gto is a nice card for the price tho likely to be bottle knecked by the cpu a bit.

 

[melbourne720]

I've got a similar socket A system, with an XP-M running at 2.5 with a 6800GT in it, I'm reluctant to get rid of it as it plays BF2 quite well - so it may be old but it still does the job

Think I'd spend a little money to up the RAM to a Gig though, for £100 should be able to get both!

I heard the BF2 engine does much better with 2GB RAM - maybe something to consider?