Iain Posted December 28, 2003 Share Posted December 28, 2003 Can anyone recommend the best card (and the best place to buy it) for my budget? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted December 28, 2003 Author Share Posted December 28, 2003 Forgot to mention, It has to have TV-Out (which I guess most have anyways) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+s55 Subscriber¹ Posted December 28, 2003 Subscriber¹ Share Posted December 28, 2003 Errm MSI - Microstar International have some good cards at goof prices Look at Nvivida Geforce FX 5600 (also maybe "ultra" edition of it card which might be slightly over ?100) Either that a Radeon 9600 (u might get a pro edition for under 100) These are the main mid range and most makers of these cards have tvouts on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted December 28, 2003 Author Share Posted December 28, 2003 How about an ATi Radeon 9200 256mb for ?70? Any good? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzla Veteran Posted December 28, 2003 Veteran Share Posted December 28, 2003 In the PC World sale you can buy a 9600 Pro for ?99: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw...gory_oid=-18248 Link might not work, website says out of stock but just go into a shop, it's been in all the daily newspapers. AGP: 8x/4x Memory: 128mb Clock speed: 325 mhz RAMDAC: 400 mhz Maximum Resolution: 2048x1536 Maximum refresh rate: 120 hz DVI: Yes TV-out: Yes DirectX 9.0 Support: Yes Open GL Support: Yes Edit, also available here: http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/in...oduct_uid=55196 They have a Sapphire 9600 XT as well for ?118: http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/in...oduct_uid=55188 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptiPlex Posted December 28, 2003 Share Posted December 28, 2003 EDIT G07 PWN3D :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted December 28, 2003 Author Share Posted December 28, 2003 OK, I'm a total newbie at this aswell, but the 128mb you just mentioned would be better than the low end 256mb I mentioned yeah? Also, the resolution... Would my monitor have to be able to handle it? I just have my standard Dell 17" CRT. Another question, this really is just for the 'odd' game, and the fact that I HAVE to get TV-Out anyway. Would there be a quality difference with the TV out between for example a 64mb and a 256mb card? Or nothing noticable? Are there any other aspects I need to consider before purchasing aswell? Like mobo etc? Newbie questions I know, but I've no idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
versiondub Posted December 28, 2003 Share Posted December 28, 2003 The 9600 is going to be better than the 9200. I have a 256 mb GeForce FX 5600, and it's worked wonderfully for all the games that I have (Counter-Strike, Max Payne 2, Halo, Call of Duty, NFS Underground). In my experience, I don't really notice any difference between 128 and 256 mb GFX cards, and for your uses, I'd say you should go with the 9600. THe things that really matter is the processor speed and the rendering speeds, which most of the time have nothing to do with how much memory the card has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
versiondub Posted December 28, 2003 Share Posted December 28, 2003 In terms of other things that you have to consider, make sure that you have an AGP slot (which most computers do), and that it's AGP 4x or 8x (8x is better). Most current gfx cards only support those two speeds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzla Veteran Posted December 28, 2003 Veteran Share Posted December 28, 2003 The 128mb you just mentioned would be better than the low end 256mb I mentioned yeah? By a country mile, the 9600 Pro and XT is a fantastic card and will slaughter the 9200. Also, the resolution... Would my monitor have to be able to handle it? I just have my standard Dell 17" CRT. We'd have to know model your monitor was before we could say, I'd imagine it goes up to around 1280 x 960 at a decent refresh rate and 1600 x 1200 at a low refresh rate. Another question, this really is just for the 'odd' game, and the fact that I HAVE to get TV-Out anyway. Would there be a quality difference with the TV out between for example a 64mb and a 256mb card? Or nothing noticable? There won't really be any difference as far as I know, but I mean if TV Out is all you wanted, then you can get a 9200 for far, far cheaper then ?70. You can get a Sapphire 9200 with TV Out for ?45, I dunno about game performance, I've not thoroughly read any benchmarks for it. I'd imagine it'll be quite a bit below the 9600. Are there any other aspects I need to consider before purchasing aswell? Like mobo etc? Not really, as long as your card has an AGP slot I think it'll be ok. What mobo do you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted December 28, 2003 Author Share Posted December 28, 2003 Yeah, I have AGP 4x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted December 28, 2003 Author Share Posted December 28, 2003 Cheers for the response dazzla... In response: The monitors current maximum res is 1280x1024 @ 60Hz on a 16mb card. The monitor is a "Dell E771a" 17" CRT. The PC has a 4x AGP afaik. That 64mb sapphire card you mentioned I can get for just short of ?30. Good price? No idea what mobo I have. How would I find out? In addition, is there anything my TV would need? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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