Graphics Cards

uch

Anybody recomend a decent Video card agp 8x for under €100 ??
Not too fussy about brand name but obviously no Rubbish.

Sleipnir

I Have this one on order form Komplett. 256mb RAM for under 100 yoyo's? Seemed pretty good to me!
Although, it has been on backorder for about a month now and is showing up as a "maybe in stock on 31-07-03"
Sapphire 9200 256mb

TheDuke

100 E's is being quite tight about it... treat yout self man!

I just got a Gainward GeForce FX 5600 Ultra 256 AGP x 8 for 200 E's (ex Vat) from Komplett.ie and it just rocks.

Check your computer spec - the mother board in mine only supports up to AGP x 4 - so the card isn't running at full speed.

If it is going to be a GeForce do not go for anything else than an FX. Also, go for at least a 5600 - I was told anything below that just istn't totally at the races - I also think that from the 5600 upwards the start to "propelry" supports DX9 - I am not an expert here, just passing on the advice I get when I looked for a card.

The Duke : ))

El_MUERkO

Yeah Nvidia are trying to confuse people by calling the FX's MX/budget offering the FX5200, do not be fooled.

That 5600 should run most of the niceness on HL2 as well

I'm a patient person so I'm going to wait till october and see if theres a pre-crimbo/HL-release price war between Nvidia and ATi :ninja:

uch

Thanks Lads I think I might go with Kananga's Idea.

ozt9vdujny3srf

PErsonally i think you should wait, but if you are buying now go for one of them sexeh ti 4200's which you can get for 120 euros

rabbitinlights

Would the cheap 256Mb cards (gainward/msi) out-perform more expensive 128Mb cards (creative/hurcules).

I have about E200-E250 to spend on a decent card,
Ive just built a system and i think my card is a bit of a bottle neck:

ABIT IC-7
P4 2.4Ghz (800Mhz)
2 x 512Mb corsair (Matched) Dual DDR PC3200
120Gb WD 8Mb
80Gb Maxtor
XP PRO
I have a 17in Hurcules LCD if that makes any difference?

GFX Card:

Hurcules TI200 64Mb (Titanium)

Can anyone recomend a really good card?

I watch a good few Divx throught the TV and play GTA/mafia/halflife quite alot.


Sean

Captain Trips

I'd go for a 9700Pro, prices have dropped nicely. Still a great card, unless you want to splash out on a 9800 or 5900, you won't get better performance. Probably aroudn 300 quid these days and TBH you get little return on a 100-150 investment and will never get to play the latest stuff. Basically like the post above - treat yourself!

TFT screens will never allow you to play smoothly until they get the update/refresh under 10ms at least. Imagine, a typical good TFT these days would be around 20-25ms. At the most, that's 40fps, but not taking into account the light up time (say 15ms) and the back to inactive time (takes longer to dissipate - would be around 25ms in this comparison). So you'd still be lucky to get 30fps on a top class LCD. If you want a demonstration, go to the Sont Centre on the corner of St. Stephens Green. They have a e499 TFT, 10-20ms refresh it says. Compare it to the CRT next to it (trinitron) and you'll see still some ghosting.

As an aside, I bought a TFT from PC World. Piece of ****. Returned it and picked up a 17inch Relisys which has a TRue-Flat Trinitron-esque screen. Works great and is crystal clear, and it was like 150 quid. I needed to replace my 19inch VX900 from Gateway (almost 4 years old).

You'll find little difference in smoothness of games and topend gfx cards if you are using a TFT screen. I am using 9700Pro BTW.

Col_Loki

If your thinkin around the €100 range, id definetly agree with Truckle. The Ti4200 will outperform the 9200, Fx5200 (by a big ammount) . Look at some benchmarks and you will be supprised. The 64Mb edition will perform a little better than the 128mb version & should be sufficient to play any of the top games.

Dont see much point in a 256Mb version, surely theres not a game that will require that ammount - mabye im wrong, feel free to enlighten me . Would go for a better GPU & less ram personally.

Kali

Just watch out for power requirements on older PCs.. newer graphics cards require a bit of juice.. anyt PSU over 300W should be grand.

TheDuke

COL_LOKI wrote:

Dont see much point in a 256Mb version, surely theres not a game that will require that ammount - mabye im wrong, feel free to enlighten me . Would go for a better GPU & less ram personally.
_________________________________________________

Good question, I know mem access speeds are lower the higher the mem but
a) I wanted something that would see me through the next year and a half
b) it was actually cheaper than the 126MB version (strange I know)

Re a) keep in mind that a 64MB card is below standard at present with 126MB being the main stream requirements - so where will that be in 6 months time?

Anyhow... not disagreeing with your point at all but the above was the call that I made.

rabbitinlights - drop the LCD and go for a 17" (bigger) monitor, you will never get the refresh rates to play a proper session... although I do envy you cause those flat screen do look mega cool....

The Duke : ))

TheDuke

the answer is "I don't know" but what I do know is that I can run MOH and MOH SP at max settings for everything, including 1600 x 1200 and there is not a single gitter... nothing at all!

It is a smooth as butter... my previous cases was a GeForce 2 64MB.

So, at 200 E's this was a treat totally worth it.

I also upgraded the memor from 256MB to 768MB - its 233MHz DDR RAM though - my mother board would not support anything faster.

The processor is still the 1.8MHz Pentium 4

It amazes me everying single time after I upgrade my graphic card of how much of a game actually runs on it!!!

The Duke : ))

Sleipnir

well my 256 shipped yesterday evening thank God, I've been waiting for over a month!
I can see the point about choosing a better GPU over more memory but when you have a limited budget (as I did) I simply couldn't spend 200-300 on a better GPU. I had a 100 euro limit and this was the best card I could see for that price.
The point is that, although the graphics won't be as good as a higher end one, I won't have to upgrade again for a while. 256mb ram is more than enough for any game out there at the moment.
Strange thing is, the 256mb version still doesn't show up on Sapphiretech's website..........?

Another thing, I've heard that you can do a firmware upgrade on some of these card that changes it from say a 9200 to a 9700.
Any truth to this?

zAbbo

Originally posted by Captain Trips

So you'd still be lucky to get 30fps on a top class LCD.

Hmm care to back that up, i`m running quake3 capped at 76fps with onboard gfx on a hp Pav f50 (TFT)

Col_Loki

I can see your point about the 256Mb version Duke, mightent perform aswell as the cards with less ram & better GPU but atleast you wont have to upgrade it in a years time .

BadCharlie

Captain Trips
I had a gateway monitor also ev700 it died 3 years and one day after buying it. When i went to the repair shop there was lots of gateways monitors there that had the same problem as mine. It would do clicking nose but would not start up.

As for grapics cards i would go for the gf4 ti4200. Its the best card for the price out there i think. I have also noticed that some of the web sites where u buy video cards are running out of the gf4 and dont seem to be restocking them. I guess with the new FX cards they dont want to be selling old cards. But i pity all the people who are going to buy the fx5200 when the ti4200 is much better and in some case's will be the same price or cheaper. The only thing u be getting is the dx9 feature that will work on games that will be out very soon.

Giblet

Originally posted by bazH
Hmm care to back that up, i`m running quake3 capped at 76fps with onboard gfx on a hp Pav f50 (TFT)

I'm running Quake3 at 200fps, don't get the same refresh on monitor though!
Although the game feels smoother, the same fps on a CRT will show you the differences he is talking about.
TFT's are and probably always will be inferior to a good CRT.

Ryo Hazuki

Yeah, the 256mb 5600 Ultra is a beast, Running Q3 in 4x AA and 4x Anisotropic at 1024x768, easily getting 140Fps most of the Time, Maximum Detail.

Gets 200+ with no AA or Anisotropic.

Sleipnir

received my Sapphiretech Atlantis 9200 with 256mb DDR this morning.
Have to wait until this evening to try it out though arggghhhh!
One small thing that annoys me is that it doesn't come with a fan. There's holes in the board for a fan alright but there doesn't seem to be anywhere to attach the power.
I have a fan on my old card, Can you just attach the fan cable to one of the MB fan connectors?

El_MUERkO

yeah, look for them on overclockers.co.uk then try find it for cheapr somewhere else

weemcd

ive got about £200 to buy a card. what would you recomend to me? i like the idea of 256mb, cos' it will last very long, to the point were you need 256mb ram to play games,which is a long way off but will some 256mb cards have loadsa memory but poor speed?., i dont often upgrade my pc ( i have no job and am only 15) i also need a hard drive, but will 200 stg stretch for two high quality products? i only need quite a small hd 30 gigs is more than enough. ive lived with 8 gigs for soo long.

thanks in advance

weemcd

ps. what new pc did you get bazH?, you told me one day u were gettin a shutle.

jesus_thats_gre

i like the idea of 256mb, cos' it will last very long, to the point were you need 256mb ram to play games,which is a long way off but will some 256mb cards have loadsa memory but poor speed?.,

Whats the point in getting a low end card with so much memory. Anything between 100 and 200 euro is considered a budget card and will realistically have a year or so life in them. If you want a card that is going to last 2 or 3 years, you are going to have to spend big bucks and go with some high end ****.

Webmonkey

I agree there with jesus_thats_gre,

You could have all the ram you could imagine on a card but what does it matter if your card can't process graphics?
Get a good card, 128mb ram sohuld be enough. You'll be grand if you have a good bit of ram on your pc

Sleipnir

You're dead right guys, you do get a better graphics card the more money you spend on it! Unfortunately having a house, two cars, a girlfriend and an 8 month old son precludes me from spending more than 100 euro at the moment!
The issue here is not
"how much money can you spend on a card"
but rather,
"what half-decent card can I get for 100 yoyo's"
In my opinion, the card I got is a pretty good one considering the budget constraints. Not brilliant, but it'll do for the moment.

BadCharlie

The buyer said he could get the 256ram video card for a price that was cheaper so why not. Also i have a geforce 2gts which is an old card. And i have to say its still working very well on games today. I wont be upgrading it for a long time, And yes i have clocked it to give me that extra bit.

jesus_thats_gre

Fair enough, but the simple fact of the matter is. If you buy a card for 100 squids or so, you will be buying another one in a years time. Simple as that really.

TheDuke

I would even be more to the point and say that if you're going to spend 100 E's you may as well not buy one at all - unless you are still stuck with a Voodoo or TNT card.

200 E's is the main market area and gives you a good choice - then the high end is at 500 to 600 E's - and these are the ones which'll be 200-300 in six months time.

In all my time in the hardware market it is always best to buy in the middle.

Anyhow, can't force you like... this is how I go about my purchases... find the middle of the market and go for the best deal.

The Duke : ))

[DF]Lenny

You should be able to pick up a gf4 and a hd easily enough and probably still afford some extra ram(you did say 200 STG?)btw i'll sell you my old 64mb gf3 for 50euro's-runs even new titles like unreal2 ok in 1024x768.

weemcd

were gf3 and 4 are harder to buy online

TheDuke

jeesus guys... do not go for a GF3... or 4... :eek: GeForce 5600 or higher... anything else is a waste of money.. this way you'll also get to have DX9 support...

The Duke : ))

Raz

You don't get too many HDDs below 40Gb these days.
A 40Gb drive will cost you in the vicinity (sp?) of €60 while an 80Gb drive will cost about €85-€90 (I've no idea what that converts to in sterling, sorry) It's much better value to buy a large HDD as opposed to a small one.
It would also be much better value to buy a GFX card for €100 that will last a year as opposed to one that will cost €600 and last 3 years. Thats €100 a year versus €200 a year. Value is what you should go for, if possible, instead of just cheap.