Which Graphics Card?

Sorry to start another one of these threads, But I could do with some assistance on buying a new gfx card.

My budget is low as always, I'm looking to spend anything up to and including £60. The good news however is unlike before I now have a PCI-E x16 slot!

The games I play are rFactor, Grand Prix 4 and F1 Challenge.

My current graphics is an integrated Intel 895G gfx chip.

My PC Specs:

Windows XP Home Edition SP3
Intel Pentium D 3.00GHz
500GB HDD
4GB DDR2

Any recommendations? Thanks in advance!

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/16/2009 10:46PM by iCeMaN pAuL.

Can u stretch to £67?

This is probably the best you can get [www.scan.co.uk]

I don't think my PCI-E slot is 2.0, would that still work? or is PCI-E 2.0 different?

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All PCI-E 2 cards just clock back to PCI-E 1 speed if your mobo only has that, so it will work



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/16/2009 11:46PM by mika19b.

Ah great thanks mate, I'll wait a few days to see what else people come up with! Or wait to hear more thoughts on that card you've pointed out...?

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Just make sure whatever card you choose will be handled by the PSU. It's always the biggest sucker of power, so that's something else you need to evaluate.


mika19b Wrote:
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> All PCI-E 2 cards just clock back to PCI-E 1 speed
> if your mobo only has that, so it will work

Just to clear up, the only difference between PCIe 1.x (most commonly PCIe 1.1) and PCIe 2.0 is bandwidth. The existing limitations of PCIe 1x, 4x, 8x, 16x and 32x (the latter not often seen on a consumer product) remain - the chipset can just use more lanes. To all intents and purposes there is no speed difference at all, and it is all backwards compatible (though not to the original PCI of course).

Think of it as a sieve. You get more holes in a bigger sieve, but the liquid doesn't pass through any quicker - it can just deal with more at a time. You'll notice no difference between PCIe 1.1 and PCIe 2.0 unless you're running multiple high-end cards (such as 2 top graphics cards and a 4-figure RAID controller together). It's of no concern to Joe Public at all.

You could get a PNY 8800gt for $120, dunno how much that is on pounds but not too far off I think? I will be gettin one most probably this week. So far I have been using a PNY 8500 gt and it runs all of GP4 mods at constant 40 to 50 fps and I have a weaker pc than yours, got it for just $50 so that is as cheap as you can get.

how does this gfx card compare to the card mika pointed out in the 2nd post?

[www.overclockers.co.uk]

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2009 08:56PM by iCeMaN pAuL.

iCeMaN pAuL Wrote:
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> how does this gfx card compare to the card mika
> ppinted out in the 2nd post?

As the price suggests, it doesn't, and by a long way. The 2 results on the left are for the GDDR2 version, the one second from the right is for a GDDR3 version (which is clearly the better of the 2) but they're both destroyed by the HD 4670 on the far right. Ignore the 3DMark results at the top of the page and move to the non-synthetic benchmarks starting with Crysis.

RAM on a video cards means exactly nothing at this price range. A 256mb version of the same card wouldn't be any slower than a 1gb version - certainly not more than a couple of percent anyway.

If you're going to consider an NVIDIA card, you're should only be looking at the 9600GT really. If absolutely strapped for cash, a 9600GSO.

In order of performance, lowest to highest:

XFX 9600 GSO XXX - £68.99 + del (struggling to find any decent deals from respectable etailers on GSOs, so unless you can find one for less than £60, it's out. There are a few on Google Shopping, but none from etailers I've heard of)
PowerColor HD 4670 PCS Edition - £63.99 free del
Gainward 9600GT Bliss Edition - £71.50 free del

thanks for that info gav, looks like the card mika posted is going to be the one to go for

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You do realise the eBuyer one is £12 cheaper when you factor in shipping, yeah?

i do now!! XD

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Well I bought yesterday a BFG 9800GT for $140 and I have to say I am very pleased by it's performance, Crysis runs at constant 30 to 45 fps on high settings with 1280x768 resolution and it runs just as well on medium settings at 1280x1028. It only needs 400w of power so it is very efficient in that regard as well. March 3 can't come soon enough, hurry up Empire Total War.

Considering a GTX 295 doesn't use 400w, I wouldn't call your 9800GT too efficient.

Just to make sure - my monitor plugs into this kind of connector:



So will this [www.ebuyer.com] type of card be ok for my monitor to plug into?

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It looks like that card only has 2xDVI connectors if that picture is accurate. The card will work, but may not come with the dongle necessary (they normally do though). Anyone you know who's got a recent graphics card will be able to give your theirs, or alternatively they cost about 32p from any local store that have anything to remotely do with PCs.

The product page on the Powercolor website shows an adapter included (the red one), but they're not always accurate (particularly for European markets, though I don't know if PowerColor are one of the manufacturers to skimp).

Ok thanks gav, one review of this card on ebuyer says it DOES come with a dongle, but even if it doesn't I'd soon pick one up elsewhere.

So unless another card comes to light I'll be going for that one!

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Ooo one thing, it says the PowerColor HD4670 supports DirectX 10.1 but would it run ok on 9 as I'm currently on XP not Vista?

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Yeah, it's all backwards compatible.

Only thing I'd check is that newer ATI cards (HD 3000 series onwards) run GP4 OK. I've seen nothing to suggest it won't, but the game is bloody old now, so it would be best to check.

gav Wrote:
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> Yeah, it's all backwards compatible.
>
> Only thing I'd check is that newer ATI cards (HD
> 3000 series onwards) run GP4 OK. I've seen nothing
> to suggest it won't, but the game is bloody old
> now, so it would be best to check.

My Radeon 4870 512MB run's the game fine with no problem, so all the lower spec card's should too