[sonicfoot]

I going to be upgrading my graphics card pretty soon, and I wanted to know which graphics card would be best for my system. I was VERY dissapointed when I bought my current graphics card, so I dont want to make the mistake twice. My specs are below. Im currently checking out a Gecube Radeon 9600pro for £99.

 

[MaZa]

9600Pro is decent choice for budget card, but your system can already handle best graphics card currently out there, Nvidia 6800 GT or Ultra. 9600Pro is already getting old so you would only end up buyng new in year or two. Best choice would be probaply Nvidia 5900XT (gainwards 256MB goldensample versions) or ATI 9800Pro. Price isnt horrible, and still speed is far above 9600Pro, so they wont get as old so quickly.. They still cant compete with 6800GT, but it costs twice more anyway. If you want to play much in future aswell, get 5900XT, 9800Pro. Buy 6800 if you really want to play fastest as possible with greatest graphics like doom3 games. For not-so-hardcore playing and PSX/N64 or similar emulation, 9600Pro is wise choice.

 

[fivefeet8]

I suggest you get the 6800 non ultra. Some are going for as low as $250 US now. Or wait for the retail 6600gt/x700xt which will cost $200 US.

 

[MaZa]

standard 6800 has only 128Mb memory, (not a big deal now except in texture memory hogging games like Doom3) and special 256MB versions cost close to 6800GT, which is much faster thanks to bigger memory bandwidth.

 

[sonicfoot]

Well, I checked it out and I found that I could get an Asus V9999 Ge/Td 256m Fx6800 for £310 whilst the GT/Ultra versions go up to £450. oO
I coundnt find Nvidia 5900XT as they only had FX cards up to an MSI FX5700 but I was able to find a Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb for £160 and a Radeon 9800XT 256mb for £260.

Unfortunately my budget to spend on a graphics card was £120 maximum but I might be able to squeeze in enough for Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb for £160 :heh:

Do you think it would be better for me to wait a bit more and save up for a Nvidia 6800 card???

 

[Kane]

You can get the 6800GT for under 300 quid from novatech.....
Basicaly it depends on whether or not you want the near double performance or not.

 

[Raziel]

I'd say wait.

 

[ice]

id say wait for the new midrange x700 660 seris also its looking like the vanilla 6800 is going to be replaced by a 6700 NV41 core (current buzz on the net)

 

[MaZa]

DEFINETLY wait. Buying already-soon-to-be-old card just makes you feel dissapointed within year. Its also more costly to buy cheap card every year than one great card every 3 years.

 

[Ali]

Riva TNT will rock ur PC man, wait for it to be released.
Oh damn! I forgot I was in 2004

 

[KanedA]

realz funny ali
anyway back to topic, of course wait a while (x-mass are coming
and or course your mobo supports 8x AGP?

 

[hnayoung]

Wait, definitely wait. I have a radeon 9800 overclocked and it still stuggles on games like Counter-Strike Source (which uses the HL2 engine). I have to tone down all the eye candy to play at stable frames. And I feel short changed playing games that have the potential to look so good but I'm playing them with graphics that look like Playstation One...it sucks. Save up for the Nvidia 6800 ultra/gt/whatever, they all are good. I'm sooooo disappointed with my ati card...I wish I had my old Voodoo5 5500 back...sigh. Oh well. Allz I know is I'm saving up to get rid of my Radeon 9800 as soon as I can.

 

[sonicfoot]

hnayoung, what settings do you play Counter-Strike 2 at?

By the way I found a PixelView GeForce FX 5900 XT(Not Sure) Golden Limited for £150. Is that good?

Here's a pic of it from Guru3d:
http://www.guru3d.com/admin/imageview.php?image=3084

 

[hnayoung]

sonicfoot, I play counter strike source with settings:

Model Detail: Medium
Texture Detail: Medium
Water Detail: No Reflections
Shadow Detail: Low
Vsync: Disabled
AF: Trilinear
FSAA: None
Directx: 9.0c
Resolution: 1280x1040 (my monitor's Native resolution)

I use these settings to keep a constant frame rate of 60 fps wherever I am on the map or how hot the situation gets.

When I bump up any of these settings, espescially the shader, I'll get 60 fps if I'm just standing around, or if the action isn't heavy at all but certain parts of the map with a lot of stuff, it slows down to 30 fps and when fps starts jumping around it really ruins your gaming experience. No fun at all, and I die more.

My computer specs are more than enough to run the game properly so I know it's my video card that's causing the slow downs....seriously I've set all the counter strike source settings on the highest to see what it would look like and it's absolutely beautiful. But with my settings it looks like an emulated playstation game on my PC.

So, anyways, I'd wait. Save up and by the time you have enough I'm sure some other card will come out making the Nvidia 6800 much more cheaper than it is.

Oh yeah, and i forgot to mention, I'm really disappointed with ATI. They were better than Nvidia when Nvidia was making those awful FX cards but now Nvidia is better. For sure. I can go into detail but I feel like it will get off topic. If you're interested PM me.

Anyways, good luck.

 

[Modem1]

On topic: I'd recommend the one I have. Works great!

OT - CS: HAS SETTINGS? How odd, no previous HL had them... *looks* wow, it does. Wish my damn cable modem wasn't acting up. Every server I join I get no less than 100 ping on average, with lots of lag spikes. Seems that it audodetects stuff. 6X AA 4X AF... reflect world(?) and everything else at high is what that appears to be for me. Hmmmm. seems fun, but my damn modem needs to be fixed before I start playing seriously. Damn thing. Tried it with 40 or so people, and it seems more fun than the original CS. Better looking, too. Yay source engine.
Modem

 

[Leiw]

don't buy ati cards

that's my opinion

 

[KanedA]

lol Leiw be carefull with saying this kind of direct thoughts you could be :damnyou: (at least you have vvery good explanation for this (which AFAIK don't exist) for something like that personally I don't have 'anything' to ATi cards but I also prefere nVidia

 

[Player-X]

Wait for the ATi 9800XT gets cheaper in a few months

 

[sonicfoot]

*Sighs*....I hate waiting.....does anyone know when GeForce 6600 cards come in the UK? All I can find are the GeForce 6800 cards.

 

[Kane]

£220 for the Leadtek 6800NU http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?LEA-FX6800