What Gcard for around £100

_Jimlad_ · 23 Mar 2008 at 21:41

hi guys, hope someone can offer some advice, i'm building a new shuttle and want to order the bits on Monday/Tuesday. I'm a little stumped on the gcard.

I do play games but not the latest and greatest, i kind of have a rough budget of around £100 and it needs to fit in a shuttle and be pci.

what would you chaps go for with that sort of money?

DAnDan · 23 Mar 2008 at 21:46

I went for one of the OCUK 3870XT which are around £110 Inc VAT.

Can't knock it for the price, great performance for what I payed, card is not massive, although I have no experience with shuttles, so I can't comment on that.

Highly reccommended.

Darkwave · 23 Mar 2008 at 21:46

I'd like to second the 3870.

_Jimlad_ · 23 Mar 2008 at 21:49

was looking at the Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GV-RX385256H-B)

but i take it the 3870 is the next one up?

Darkwave · 23 Mar 2008 at 21:57

_Jimlad_ said:
but i take it the 3870 is the next one up?

Aye the 3870 is quite a stretch faster.

_Jimlad_ · 23 Mar 2008 at 22:00

sweet, just gotta work out if it fits in a shuttle, gonna post in the shuttle forum

Fire Wizard · 23 Mar 2008 at 22:06

Hello _Jimlad_, I personally wouldn't agree with DAnDan or Ulfhedjinn. In my opinion, the Nvidia 9600 series seem to be the best graphics card for around the £100 mark.

Have a look at a couple reviews for the Nvidia 9600 GT, this one by bit-tech and this one by Guru3D.

Edit - You may also find this review by Anandtech quite useful. It compares the Nvidia 9600 GT to the ATI HD3870 XT.

Darkwave · 23 Mar 2008 at 22:11

Didn't know the 9600s were that cheap. I'd go for those then!

_Jimlad_ · 23 Mar 2008 at 22:14

any idea which is the best value for money, they all seem the same(ish) also gotta check they fit in the shuttle, i will add the gcard to the shuttle thread.

to be honest would prefer nvidia as that is what my last 3 cards have been, but we are talking 4 years since i last brought one,

LoadsaMoney · 23 Mar 2008 at 22:16

Didn't know the 3870's and 9600 GT's came in PCI flavour.

Id get the 9600 GT, will easily fit in a shuttle, as its a single slot cooler, and not far behind the 3870, actually faster in some when AA's used.

(obviously he means PCI-E, i hope anyway

)

_Jimlad_ · 23 Mar 2008 at 22:26

yeah pci-e

- ok so which 9600 card, there are a few... i'm a noob here!

_Jimlad_ · 23 Mar 2008 at 22:37

was thinking about the Sparkle GeForce 9600 GT 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail?

jbloggs · 23 Mar 2008 at 22:47

Just bought a BFG Nvidia 9600GT OC 512MB, should be with me in a few days, so looking forward to see how it performs, read numerous reviews, especially in comparison to the 3850/3870.....was looking at the Sparkle 9600GT on OCuk, but eventually went for the BFG...

jbloggs · 27 Mar 2008 at 23:01

Received a BFG 9600GT OC 512MB today, not a bad card....12428 in 3DMark06.....@ 763/1003 (the other result of 11337 is @ stock clocks)....not as quick as an 8800GT, but then again not as expensive....

_Jimlad_ · 27 Mar 2008 at 23:13

yeah got my bfg, just waiting for my shuttle to arrive, looks like a tight fit

-iceblade^ · 27 Mar 2008 at 23:45

9600GT/3870.

9600GT if you value AA, 3870 if you don't.

that said, the OcUK Triplex 3870s are quite a bit shorter than the normal ones, and so ought to do well in a shuttle case... I have a 3870 myself and it's given me nothing but joy... so much that i actually named my PC after her

oweneades · 27 Mar 2008 at 23:58

jbloggs said:
Received a BFG 9600GT OC 512MB today, not a bad card....12428 in 3DMark06.....@ 763/1003 (the other result of 11337 is @ stock clocks)....not as quick as an 8800GT, but then again not as expensive....

Faster than my G92 GTS in 06 ( I am on a C2D)

EDIT: as for the op choice both the 9600GT and HD3870 are excelent cards for the price point however I would personally go for the 9600GT for the extra performance with AA.

_Jimlad_ · 28 Mar 2008 at 11:55

well my shuttle turned up, so will be fun seeing if the 9600 fits - dunno what to do if not

jbloggs · 28 Mar 2008 at 14:25

Very pleased with this BFG 9600GT, although I have one issue:

I have used a couple of different drivers, 171.16 (which is on installation CD) and 174.53 (in XP Pro (32 bit), but what I have found that is when I run a bench (@ stock & o'ced speeds), like Crysis or 3Dmark06, it will give a correct result after running it once AFTER a new driver install (having run Driver Sweeper in Safe Mode before each install), but if I try to run it again on that same driver, the result drop to 33% of the previous results.

It is fine when just used generally....

Is this issue simply driver related, and if so what is the best way to cure the problem, ie. so that I can run benches (one after another) and get correct results without degradation...?

Thanks.

jambus · 28 Mar 2008 at 19:08

one of the 3870's. Can get great price for performance ratio out of them.