Which Graphics card for £150

[Johnsons16]

I am looking to upgrade my graphics card from a 6600LE and was wanting to know what to go for, I have a budget of £150.

It will be used mainly for gaming, BF2 and such like.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[semi-pro waster]

Is it AGP or PCI-E? That will significantly affect the advice you get. If it is AGP then I'd probably go with a 6800gt or X800XT, both of which should be available for ~£80 or less secondhand. If it is PCI-E then either a 7900gto/gs or an X1950pro are within the £150 budget. Either would give you a huge jump in performance but the PCI-E cards obviously much more so.

 

[decrypt3r]

if its AGP my old card is a X800 Radeon 256mb GTO (AGP)

and this plays bf2 and bf2142 at medium settings easily

if you wana buy cheaper than anywhere else PM me

 

[semi-pro waster]

decrypt3r, two problems here, one is that PMs are disabled on this forum and secondly there is meant to be no trading outside of the Members Market(which incidentally appears to be broken at the minute).

 

[decrypt3r]

sorry im new hear

and ive been picked on all day for signature regulations, rule breaking

ive had it with u lot

"cough" email = [email protected] "cough"

^_^

 

[4T5]

^^ 25000+ people happily surf/browse within the rules here and you can to if you Read them Properly.
Welcome to Oc to the pair of you.

O.P.
Post your specs then a card can be better matched to suit your requirements.

 

[Darg]

7600GT AGP. Around £120. Fantastic card, it can play Oblivion at max settings w/hdr on 1280x1024. It will handle BF2 and 2142 at max settings no problem.

 

[PrinzEugen]

Agree with the above - it's more or less on a par with the normal 7800gs and a fair bit cheaper - the 7600gt it is!

 

[oweneades]

7600GT AGP. Around £120. Fantastic card, it can play Oblivion at max settings w/hdr on 1280x1024. It will handle BF2 and 2142 at max settings no problem.

errrrrr don't wish to be the bringer of bad news but there is no chance a single 7600GT can run oblivion on max* settings at 1280x1024 with HDR, at least not with playable framerates.

(*by max I assume you mean all sliders to the right with no tweaks).

BF2 and BF2142 I will agree on, they run fine maxxed out at 1280x1024.

EDIT: The mid range card benchmarks wouldn't load for me but I found this:

That is everything maxed with HDR (outside being foliage). A 7900GT manages only 17.2FPS, A 6800GT only manages 7.8FPS. Not exactly playable.


Now for indoor areas with HDR:

Looks like it will fair a bit better in doors but not so well outdoors.

No doubt you can get it playable but certainly not at max settings.

 

[WatchTower]

This Week only
BFG GeForce 7800 GS OC 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail
£164.49

A little over what you wanted to pay but looks like a bargin.

 

[Darg]

Well I have my 7600GT overclocked quite highly. I don't have self shadows on which takes a chunk out of FPS on any benchmark. Personally I think that the self shadows in oblivion are completely borked anyway and make the faces look horrible.

I am pretty sure everything is at its highest. I have played around with the .ini to help loading times and so on but they were mainly memory and thread settings. I have all reflections on for the water tho which should bring my FPS down quite a bit.

I'll check next time I play but I'm almost positive everything else is on highest settings. Maybe my conroe helps me get a bit better FPS then the cpu they used in those benchmarks?

Playable for me in a game like oblvion is anywhere around 25. I have noticed some slowdowns around oblivion gates so I am thinking of turning a few settings down a little but I'm not powerful enough to go through any gates yet (running OOO3).

 

[1mm3]

I think the EVGA GeForce 7900 GS 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail is perfect for the resolution you are gaming at. £138.64

It is a newer chipset compared to both 7600 and 7800. Use the toms hardware guide at http://tomshardware.co.uk/site/vgacharts/index.html to compare the different cards giving you objective results on which is better in which games. Note - does not include bf2, however gamespot and firingsquad recently did graphics card benchmarks to see performance in bf2142 (which uses modded bf2 engine)

http://uk.gamespot.com/features/6160425/index.html?tag=features;title;2
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/battlefield_2142_mainstream/
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/battlefield_2142_highend/
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/battlefield_2142_cpu_shootout/

Choosing EVGA would also allow you to use the STEP UP programme upgrading to a better GFX card within 90 days if you like.

1mm3

Edit: the x1950 pro is similarly priced and beats it hands down, even im in 2 minds as to whether i go for evga and buy 8800 within next 90 days OR go for something better value for money NOW eg. x1950/msi 7900gto (i want to game at 1680*1050)