Can anyone recomend a decent graphics card for PC gaming ?.

 

Not sure on budget, but does'nt have to be the baddest most expensive card out there.

 

...or info on what sort of spec I should be looking at ?

i've got an Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB

best part of £360 tho but is a mental piece of kit.

anything like Nash's - Creative Labs, NVidia.

 

stay away from ATI like it was the bubonic plague.

hmm ATi's range is every bit as good as nvidia's.

I'd still go for an nvidia though, take a look here at the range

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/nVidia_Graphics_Cards.html

 

if you want to play any games worth playing then you'll want at least a 6600GT

from my experience the ATI cards are good, but compatability-wise they are a nightmare :(

a mate and i ended up buying (and refunding) no less than three ATI cards (two of one model and one of another) and swapping them between our PCs to try and get them to work. in the end i had to keep the card he'd purchased for his, and he had to keep the card i'd purchased for mine cos they wouldn't work the other way around :confused: :confused:

NVidia and C.L. never had a single problem :bow:

nVidia 6600 GT, It's fast enough for gaming, but still quite cheap. Oh, and you want the GT model, not the one without GT in its name.

if you have a dual sli equiped motherboard i can heartily recommend it not cheap but im sure you could get 2x6800gt's for just under £500 and run hl2 on the highest crank no problem at all and far cry looks stunning as does sh3

There's no real difference between the ATI and nVidia cards, certainly no big compatability issues. I've been using ATI cards for a good few years now (as have my mates) and the only problem I've had has been with the fan packing up on my 9800XT. Unsurprising, as it's old and is permanently running.

 

For performance on a budget, the ATI X800 range is my recommendation. Just be sure of your motherboard interface type before you go off spending! It'll either be an AGP interface or a PCI-E one, probably the former though, if it's not a new machine.

i have a high performance pc at home but skimped on the graphics card. i got an ATI X800 and it lets my pc down. i shouldve gone for at least the 6800 ultra.

 

you can't beat nvidia, and i shoulda known not to go for the ATI. my PC has a dual core 4400+ athlon processor, 1gb of ram, loadsa other wicked shit but the graphics card lets me down SO much.

 

shit-as score on 3d mark 05 :(

 

the 7800 ultra is the best you can get, about as powerful as two SLI'd (running two cards at the same time on one motherboard for double the power, effectively) 6800 ultras.

 

can't imagine how good an SLI setup with 7800s would be :D

 

-v-

there is only one card that offers both value for money and top quality performance

 

6800GT

 

try and get the PCI-E, AGP is about redundant now so thats the way forward

 

DONT get the ultra, u can clock the GT to ultra speed anyway

 

6600 is just plain crap in comparison

 

the 7800 is too expensive

 

ATI cards are very good but i think Nvidia are slighty better

 

i play games competitivly on a regular basis so i know my games ;)

 

what games are you looking to play on it?

 

RAM makes a HUGE diff, i run 2 gig of ram just to help BF2 run faster, the extra gig makes a massive difference :)

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/2005-17gpu.html

 

Hopefully that'll help you choose.

 

Ultimately, it depends on the age of the system you're installing to which card will be the best. Sticking a high-end, current gen card in an old system is just a waste of cash as the bottleneck is merely shifted to the CPU and memory thus negating any of the benefits of the top-end card. Of course, if it's just planned as a stop-gap until a new system is acquired, fair enough, although it's best to go for a PCI-E card rather than AGP, but the old system isn't going to have a PCI-E slot!

i have a radeon 9800 pro....and its still the *****x........pick them up dirt cheap aswell....

there is only one card that offers both value for money and top quality performance

 

6800GT

 

try and get the PCI-E, AGP is about redundant now so thats the way forward

 

DONT get the ultra, u can clock the GT to ultra speed anyway

 

 

I agree with this :nana2: would be a good value choice, did I mention I have the AGP Version :confused: :D

i have a radeon 9800 pro....and its still the *****x........pick them up dirt cheap aswell....

 

decent card but cant really compete with the other cards on the market

 

struggles with most games now when u turn the res up

 

i know 2 people with this card

 

both have switched to other cards, one has a 6800GT, the other has the new Asus card

 

:)

ok then.......

Sure, the 9800 can't match the current gen of cards, but for someone with an older system, or a casual gamer, it's still a cracking buy - will wee all over the current gen budget cards and equal a lot of the mid-range ones (provided it's coupled with a suitable rig) and an XT can be bought for the same price (or less) than the current gen budget ones.

i have a radeon 9800 pro....and its still the *****x........pick them up dirt cheap aswell....

 

 

 

yep i got the iceq version cost 98 notes from overclockers

9800 pro.... it plays battelfield 2 no problem , what motherboard you got , does it use agp or pci-e??

for sum1 with older systems then fair play

 

the questions was best card for gaming :p

 

nothing wrong with the 98 pro, i m8 had one in a shuttle, got so hot it was unreal!! (lack of space)

 

it depends on what cash u have, can ur mobo support PCI-E or AGP etc

 

it all depends how far u wanna take ur gaming

 

if u want to get in to clans and clan war leagues then sumthing like a 6800 will last u ages

 

having said that, sum of the top gamers play with good cards but with graphics on min

 

all about the frames per sec u get (for FPS games anyway)

 

Swings and roundabouts :)

the motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 AMD Athlon XP-A 3200+.....plays games very smoothly and at a hi res....

hmm ATi's range is every bit as good as nvidia's.

I'd still go for an nvidia though, take a look here at the range

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/nVidia_Graphics_Cards.html

 

if you want to play any games worth playing then you'll want at least a 6600GT

 

So Clarkster San is the NVIDIA GeForce 6700XL with 525Mhz processor and 128MB PCI Express x16 bus concept and Super Fast GDDR3 memory at 1100Mhz any good then? Just interested as that's what my new Medion will have hopefully if I get one on Thursday from Aldi.

 

My Bro said to forget memory though on graphics cards he said the processor is more important which kind of makes sense to be honest.

i'd imagine its pretty good, being between the 6600 and 6800 which are both good.

He is absolutely right, memory means jackshit on a graphics card, so long as its at least 128mb thats enough, its the GPU you should pay attention too, and ignore the clock speeds, they are irrelavent, every card is different. Theres no such thing as a good cheap card.

i'd imagine its pretty good, being between the 6600 and 6800 which are both good.

He is absolutely right, memory means jackshit on a graphics card, so long as its at least 128mb thats enough, its the GPU you should pay attention too, and ignore the clock speeds, they are irrelavent, every card is different. Theres no such thing as a good cheap card.

 

Cheers kidda!

Hi Dave, as recommend the nVidia 6800GT card is a good value awsome choice a bit like a Z!!! If your mother board support PCI Express then go for that version as it will be far quicker than it's AGP varient and don't forget nVidia is the choice of graphics manufacturer for Sony's up and coming PS3!!! ;) That's one way to look at it, look what the console manufacturers have used... Nintendo = Ati

Let me correct you there Jon, the PCI-E version of the 6800GT will be NO faster than the AGP version. That card doesnt even get close to the bandwidth limits of AGP8X, PCI-E won't make it go any faster, its just a gimmick to make people buy new motherboards. Its backfiring a bit though, ATi have plans to release their current gen cards in AGP form to boost sales.

 

Oh, and the Xbox360 uses an ATi GPU, and my early predictions are that x360 will absolutely wipe the floor with PS3 when it comes to sales, not only because it is being released in a few days and PS3 doesnt even have a confirmed launch date, but the PS3 will be significantly more expensive.

PCI-E a gimick?

 

eh?

 

PCI-E is the way cards are going

 

it DONT make u buy a new board, getting a new PCI-E board will future proof yourself as like i said AGP is about redundant now, most people are going PCI-E when they upgrade (nvidia anyway)

 

i was looking for a AGP version of the 6800GT but decided to build a new system with PCI-E because the AGP version of this card is getting rare. (needed a new system anway :)

 

as for card memory i personally would not touch a card with less than 256 meg

 

CPU does make a difference but to be honest with the new generation of games that are out now i would take a 256 meg card over ANY 128 meg card now

 

Ram plays a HUGE part in gaming

 

just look at BF2 for a prime example ;)

system RAM maybe, not so much graphics RAM.

 

And yes, PCI-E is a gimmick, even a 7800GTX wont max out an AGP interface. You say its future proofing, but seriously, by the time theres a GPU which actually needs the extra bandwidth of PCI-E, you will be needing a new CPU too, and you can bet it will not be using socket 939 (socket 754 was a prime example of this) so you will need a new motherboard anyway, hence you never needed a pci-e board for use with a 7800GTX or any current gen card (the exception to this being SLi, but hardly anybody uses SLi anyway).

 

edit - i forgot to mention, you of course WOULD need a PCI-e board to use a 7800 card, but ONLY because they are not made in AGP form, funny how that works isnt it ;)