General Question regarding Graphics Card

I am thinking about buying a graphics card this weekend - a real good, high spec, top quality one; preferably the highest you can get (Im not sure whether its 256mb or 512mb) - thats why I need you guys to help me out here. The graphics card will be used for playing different games but mainly GP4 (You see I love playing everything in hi-res). So can you guys please advise on the best one to get and hopefully you will all mention the same one so I don't have to make a decision :P. The conditions are: It has to be available in the Uk because that is where I am and I don't care how much it costs because I am willing to spend anything. If you can give me the price that would be helpful too. Thanks in advance.

I bet Jean Todt or Ross Brawn will tell Rubens to give you his graphics card. :p

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REHAB IS FOR QUITTERS

What would you guys recommend to some of these?:

Geforce FX 5600 256MB 8X AGP
Geforce FX 5700 256MB 8X AGP
ATI RADEON 9600 PRO256MB 8X AGP

LOOOOOOOOL Vader

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theRacingLine.net
SportsCarArchives.com

Ive got a AMD 2200+, 512mb Ram. I had a Geforce FX5200 card but recently got a Radeon 9800 Pro. It did wonders for GP4. I run it at 1280x1024.
before at the back of the grid at silverstone it was about 150 PO just as the lights went out and then was around 100-120 PO during the race. After i got the Radeon i turned AA and AF to the max and without changing anything with my GP4 graphics file i got around 80-90 PO at the back of silverstone and then around 90-100 during the race. At Monaco at the back with AA and AF at max and rain on too. i get around 100 PO at the start which jumps around abit to about 150 then it settles down to 100ish during the race. Also Pitcrews dont cause much slowdown any more.
I havent got much other games that test the card but its quite a good card i think

Top of the range graphics cards at the moment are the:-

GeForce 6800 Ultra £350 - £400
Radeon X800XT PE (Platinum Edition) - £350 - £400

Either of these cards will blow any game out of the water. They're both 256MB. I prefer Radeons but there's an equal amount of people in the world who prefer GeForce's. Flip a coin really.

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Wow! I weren't expecting them to be that much - you must be rich - lol! The 3 i mentioned above i can get for about 85 - £100 at the computer fair by me that is on every saturday - (up to 50% off shop prices :P)

well you did say - and I quote - "I don't care how much it costs because I am willing to spend anything"

the very latest top-spec graphics cards have always fallen into that price bracket, and probably always will..

hehehe that made me laugh too sorry
best for you to go then is to get a card somewhere in the middle.
don't stare blind on the ram because on videocards it hardly means anything now.
eg. you won't notice any difference between 128mb 9800pro and a 256
all the tests show 1 or 2 frames advantage, but yet you pay much much more.
in some cases the 256mb are even slower, which has a cause but i won't bother you with that :P
now with the new generation of cards, the old 'top notch' cards have better prices. imho there are only 2 cards available which are interesting in that category.
if you like nvidia then go for the fx5900
if you like radeon then go for the 9800pro (if you go for this one make sure it has a 256 bit memory bus)
128mb will do! believe me. by the time games demand 256 mb to run smoothly, the card itself will be slow anyway.
if you are not sure, then try to google on it

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I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy

If you are looking around the £100 mark the best you'll find brand new is the 9600XT - you can't go far wrong with that for the money.

You won't regret it.

GeForce 6800 Ultra £350 - £400
Radeon X800XT PE (Platinum Edition) - £350 - £400

Either of these cards will blow any game out of the water. They're both 256MB. I prefer Radeons but there's an equal amount of people in the world who prefer GeForce's. Flip a coin really.

Best prices I have found was £340 for the X800XT and £380 for the 6800 Ultra. Both have similar outputs and on the various scoring programmes they came out about the same, virtually no difference on average.

However the 6800 is much bigger in size so has no chance fitting into a shuttle PC or a midi sized tower or one thats full to bursting. It also needs its own power supply I believe or if it doesn't it need a PSU above 550W. Its very power intensive and apparently very noisy.

The X800XT is exactly the oppsite. Its small, doesn't need a mega PSU and is quiet. Plus its cheaper and easily available.

The radeon seems like the better overall card to me.....



WilliamsF1 Supporters

AMD Athlon64 3400, 512mb Corsair XMS3200LL memory, Asus K8V Deluxe mobo, Powercolor Radeon X800 Pro VIVO, 160G Maxtor HD, Soundblaster Audigy, Windows XP SP2.

Well if i were buying any card right now, it'd be a 6800 GT - they beat the X800 Pros, and come damn close to the XT in most games. Pls, good price / performance - best of the new cards at least.

For 100 pounds, the 9600XT probably is the best, but if you could stretch to £130 - 140, you could get a 9800 Pro, which is a MUCH better card.

I bought a 9700 Pro off ebay for £72 and it runs gp4 perfectly at 1024x768 (mniitor limit), with 16x FSAA and 8x AF (or the other way around, whichever it is), and that card is the old version of the 9800 pro essentially. So if you're willing to get a not nw card, some real bargains can be had (9500 Pro around £50 - better than 9600XT usually, 9700 Pro £70 - 75).



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She says brief things, her love’s a pony
My love’s subliminal

Which is the latest to have come out - the 9600XT or the 9800PRO (I think i am setting my sights on this card)? But the main thing I want to know is, with these will i be able to play GP4 with everything in hi-res. And, is the 9800PRO 256mb and AGP? Also while im online, can some one please tell me where I can get some really nice, good 3D Rims for GP4. Thanks in advance.

Get a radeon 9800SE All in wonder.
I`ve got mine strapped to a AMD 64 3200 Gp4 every thing on max FPS 38 PO 105 at start of race settles to 77-83 during no glitches (At least until i finish typing This). Great for all current games MOH COD look brilliant.And you can watch TV record onto hard drive like Video great for copying old F1 races to DVD.
Highly recommended.

Hmmmm, the 9800 pro is a much better card than the 9800 SE. Not to take anything aaway from it, its a good card, probably 9600 Pro speeds, but the 'SE' means half the memory bandwidth of the full 9800 Pro, which is a real weak point.



The 9800 Pro is the best all rounder for its price, and you will be able to run gp4 full details etc - as I doo with my 9700 Pro, but remember the framerate is dictated by yoour cpu, so you wont get higher FPS, but yoou will be able to run full AA and AF on top of what you curently do.

I recommend www.overclockers.co.uk for gettng the card, they do a nice Sapphire 9800 Pro Lite Retail for not too many notes, as well as a Powercolour one for a lot less, but they're a bit dubious in ters of build quality, memory used etc. Basically, avoid powerclolour because it might be a 128 bit memory bus, not 256bit. That doesnt mean 128mb of ram - they all have that, and dont bother with a 256mb card.

Asus, Sapphire, ATI, Gigabyte and Hercules are all good brands.

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She says brief things, her love’s a pony
My love’s subliminal

9800se is slower than 9600xt.

What would you say to this then qwerty:

Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI - Lite Retail (GX-017-SP)

The X300 and X600 are out now to compliment the X800 in the new range of Radeons.

Check them out first.


WilliamsF1 Supporters

AMD Athlon64 3400, 512mb Corsair XMS3200LL memory, Asus K8V Deluxe mobo, Powercolor Radeon X800 Pro VIVO, 160G Maxtor HD, Soundblaster Audigy, Windows XP SP2.

The X600 is just a 9600 I think

Plus its PCI E only.

To that I would say: awesome - that's the exact one I was talking about!

Well, its the one that is Price: £119.95 (£140.94 Including VAT at 17.5%)


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She says brief things, her love’s a pony
My love’s subliminal



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/2004 03:20PM by -qwerty-.

-qwerty- Wrote:
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> Well if i were buying any card right now, it'd be
> a 6800 GT - they beat the X800 Pros, and come damn
> close to the XT in most games. Pls, good price /
> performance - best of the new cards at least.

What you fail to mention is that it was on an open gl game which was sponsored by nvidia. Put all of the ati tweaks on which have been found so far and the XT will crush the gt.



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Mich@elSchum@cher Wrote:
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> What would you say to this then qwerty:
>
> Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI
> - Lite Retail (GX-017-SP)


I've got a radeon 9800 pro myself. Good card.

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