Looking for a decent Graphics Card.

Linkdude

I currently have a Radeon 7000, which is apparently 32MB (at least according to Halo). I'm just looking for a good cheap graphics card that gives a half-decent performance when it comes to games like Halo PC. (It looks horrible on my computer). I'm don't really have any deep knowledge of graphics and such, I do know my sister has a 128MB Card (NVidia) and it looks great on that.

I just want to know where to get something that's not too costly (seeing as I don't really have any source of income, being 14 and all) but still gives a good performance.

TomCo

My personal opinion would be, depending on your budget, -

€150~ Nvidia 6600Gt
€250~ Nvidia 6800Gs
€350~ Nvidia 7800Gt

Steffano2002

I guess you have an AGP system then? What motherboard do you have? I'll be selling an nVIDIA GeForce FX5600 (256MB) soon if it works on your motherboard and if you're interested...

K.O.Kiki

Firstly, buy online -- shops will rip you off. Most everyone on boards uses www.komplett.ie.
As for cards to get:

• ~€50 GeForce FX5500 128mb, or find something second-hand
• ~€100 Radeon 9600Pro or 9600XT (XT preferably)
• over €100, refer to TomCo's post (although there is no such thing as an AGP 7800GT)

The other thing is to refrain from buying a PCI graphics card; don't get it mixed up with PCI-e (PCI-Express)

TomCo

Its amazing how quickly Ive forgotten about AGP. Apologies.

Anyway, I was having a look and you can get an X700Pro for pretty close to the same as the 9600XT.
Which seems like good value.

K.O.Kiki

TomCo wrote:

Its amazing how quickly Ive forgotten about AGP. Apologies.

Anyway, I was having a look at overclockers.co.uk and you can get an X700 AGP delivered for just under €130. Which seems pretty good.

Nah, the 6600GT would blow it outta the water.

TerrorFirmer

Don't forget that if it's a PC that had a 32mb 7000 as standard, then the rest of the spec if going to be fairly weak, so anything like a 6600 of any model would be an absolute waste.

I'd estimate that unless someone built you a cheap pc and skimped on the gfx, you are probably more or less running a 800mhz - 1ghz system or so....?

I have a Radeon 7000 as well in an old computer, it runs even games that came out during its lifetime brutally. Even Geforce/Tnt2 cards that predate it perform better...

If you are running an old PC, I'd recommend you get something like a Geforce 4 of the 64mb or 128mb variant, which if picked up second hand should only cost you about 20 quid and runs games like Halo grand, as long as the rest of the computer is up to the games requirements.

Linkdude

MobileInfantry wrote:

Don't forget that if it's a PC that had a 32mb 7000 as standard, then the rest of the spec if going to be fairly weak, so anything like a 6600 of any model would be an absolute waste.

I'd estimate that unless someone built you a cheap pc and skimped on the gfx, you are probably more or less running a 800mhz - 1ghz system or so....?

I have a Radeon 7000 as well in an old computer, it runs even games that came out during its lifetime brutally. Even Geforce/Tnt2 cards that predate it perform better...

If you are running an old PC, I'd recommend you get something like a Geforce 4 of the 64mb or 128mb variant, which if picked up second hand should only cost you about 20 quid and runs games like Halo grand, as long as the rest of the computer is up to the games requirements.

My PC was built to be custom, so they may have just thrown in any ol' graphics card. My PC Runs at 2.5 GHz.

My PC meets all the minimum requirements for Halo.

I have no idea what card will support which, I'll have to get my Dad to take a look into them.

TomCo

Its a decent pc, stick a 6600Gt in there.

TerrorFirmer

Linkdude wrote:

My PC was built to be custom, so they may have just thrown in any ol' graphics card. My PC Runs at 2.5 GHz.

My PC meets all the minimum requirements for Halo.

I have no idea what card will support which, I'll have to get my Dad to take a look into them.

Good lord, what spanner put a 32mb Radeon into a 2.5ghz machine.......?:D

Anyway, as Tomco said, its a decent PC. Even if the RAM is low, it can be easily upgraded, so it could be cheaply made into a decent gaming pc.

If you don't have much money I'd really go for a second hand 9800 pro or 6600 - bout 100 quid - runs games nicely at the moment. You could even get something like a 9600xt second hand for about 50, also a nice card that'll run games from about 2 years ago fantastic, Halo Included. It all depends on what sort games you intend playing.

I assume you have an agp slot given there's already a R7000 in there, unless someone stuck it in a regular pci slot.

K.O.Kiki

You're all forgetting that it may be a Celeron running at 2.5!! In which case, the 6600GT is wasted...
extra RAM is always good. But a slightly upgraded GPU is probably better here... check the For Sale section (link), or post in the Wanted section (link).
Or Option c) -- get an Xbox!