New Gfx card.

[RandomBastard]

I need a new graphics card, my geforce 4 ti4400 is no more. I'm looking for something in the range of £150 and would prefer nvidia. Currently looking at http://www.xfxforce.com/product_view.php?sku=PVT35LNA for £148, so ideas?, comments? suggestions? all would be welcome. ta.

 

[RandomBastard]

Oh and i was also looking at this un http://www.asus.com/products/vga/v9950ge/overview.htm

 

[Custodian]

FX5900 XT should be well under £150 I think, seeing as Rad 9800 Pro are now that price and are better cards. Should be able to get them around the £130 mark I would hope. They are decent cards, certainly much better than your old one. If you can get a FX5900 for under £150 then even better as it is a slightly better card than the XT (cut down) version.

 

[Pro]v[etheus]

Very good price for this 5900XT http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=3970&GroupID=338

 

[Uriel]

If it *has* to be Nvidia then get a 5900XT or preferably a 5900, although the latter seem to be in short supply. If it doesn't, then get a 9800 Pro. I went from a Geforce Ti 4200 to one of those and whilst the speed increase in directx 8 games isn't amazing, newer stuff like Far Cry/Halo runs waaay better. Also, I can now run games with 4xAA and 16xAF without the whole thing slowing to a crawl.

Tbh, both the 5900 and 9800pro are fine cards. They're both stuck around the £120-150 mark and the performance lead of the radeon is, iirc, pretty low and, in the main, limited to D3D apps. A lot of people feel inclined to stick with one manufacturer but given the above I'd recommend simply picking the card that gives you the most extras (software, VIVO, overclocking stuff) as there's not much between any of the cards at this level.

 

[Doomy]

I just got mysellf a 5900 (Leadtek 350) from pc world at £95. There was around 8 left and all were in shabby boxes (obviously some kind of clearance) and i am VERY happy with it. Was going to get a 6800, but are they even out yet? £95 is a small stop gap price imo, and for instance Thief 3 at 1280x1024 4x aa and max detail runs smooth as silk in my p4 2.8 c setup.

Im sticking with nvidia just because i want to, no real reason other than its what ive always had. The ATI cards look pretty darned fine too tho.

 

[Yoni]

I changed last year from a ledtek ti4200 to an Hercules 9700 pro and I have to say I was amazed at how much better it was.

I am completely converted to ATI I have not had any problems whatsoever with it dispite what you may hear infact I have had alot more problems with nvidia than with this card.

Try ATI you won't be disappointed

 

[RandomBastard]

You say that yoni, but of course a better card is going to show a performance increase! (no comparison to the competing nvidia card there) i'm sticking with nvidia because they have never posed any problems for me, so stick with the devil you know and all that.

 

[smurkin]

Was going to get a 6800, but are they even out yet?

Yup, just about ...

review of reatil card here:

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjM1LDE=

 

[Danya]

FX cards are very slow in newer games like farcry compared to 9800 series cards (bad ps2.0 implementation). It's something nvidia have largely fixed in the 6800 cards luckily.

 

[smurkin]

FX cards are very slow in newer games like farcry compared to 9800 series cards (bad ps2.0 implementation). It's something nvidia have largely fixed in the 6800 cards luckily.

plus, far cry 1.1 has now got ps3.0 (the glove is now on the other foot )...funnily enough doesnt improve perfromance much....benchies over at anandtech.

 

[Danya]

If anything ps3.0 should be slower than 2.0 (2.0 is certainly a lot slower than 1.4). The only reason to use it is if ps2.0 doesn't contain the features required for a particular shader. Most shaders will be written in HLSL or Cg so it's normal to compile them for the lowest level of pixel shaders that will support them, not the highest.

 

[Doomy]

"I recently purchased a Graphics card from your Northampton store and i have a serious issue id like to resolve. What i bought was a Leadtek A350 TDH FX 5900 for £92.75 (30%off discount). I bought this model as I was aware that the XT version of that range has much lower clock frequencies and is generally not as good a card.

Installation was fine, games didnt to run quite as smoothly as i would have expected so i presumed that a system format was in order and did so.

After a while of not being overly impressed i started to do some research into my card and I discovered that other people with the same machine setup as me are experiencing much better frame rates ( a pentium 4 2.8 c ) and having games run much smoother. I started to think there was something wrong with my card.

This is the model : http://www.leadtek.com.tw/3d_graphic/winfast_a350_tdh_1.shtml

I also noticed that my clock frequencies did not match that card. The above card has 400 Mhz DDR and 800 Core Mhz, mine has 300 and 700 respectively. In fact the timings of my graphics card matched the XT version so i looked into the possibility of me having the wrong card and sure enough I do.

This is the card i have : http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/winfast_a350xt_tdh_1.html except its in the non XT's packaging. I did wonder why my card didnt have the full heat dispersal cover : http://www.leadtek.com.tw/3d_graphic/image/winfast_a350_tdh_2.jpg . My card looks like this http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/image/winfast_a350xt_tdh_2.jpg .

Basically I am furious because i have been sold the wrong product in the right box and will have to travel 20 miles again (I dont drive) to get the right card or to be told that my mother has to be present seeing as she paid for it on her credit card as i didnt have my wallet there at the time. Shes has also just had a lumpectomy operation and will not be in a driving mood for a while.

I apreciate mistakes can be made but what id like to know is what I should do about this and what steps to take."

Thats an email i just sent PC world. Bastards gave me a slower card. Who reckons ill be fruitful with that?

 

[Custodian]

I sent PC World a few emails over the past 3 weeks and not had even an acknowledgement, let alone an answer.

So don't hold ya breath.

 

[Doomy]

I sent PC World a few emails over the past 3 weeks and not had even an acknowledgement, let alone an answer.

So don't hold ya breath.

Yeah i am still waiting for a reply. Im pissed off that its just a day and not even an automated mailer saying that they *are* going to look into it.

So i went into the store after explaining for 30 minutes about my problem with the card and they were quite useful really but unfortunately they didnt have anything else in store to replace it and they actually quarantined the 7 other cards they had in stock (heh) as they all had what i thought, and now the northampton branch think, that they are indeed gf fx5900xt's. Maybe someone could help here?

If they would read my post and check the urls i provided and then look at my almost identical to the XT card - http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~ninjap/Card/ and see what they think, i would be much appreciated. I have the fx5900 back and should hear back from them on monday.

Its strange that when i go to properties on the card (i have installed coolbits) and choose manual overclocking and the in the drop down menu i choose performance 3D, it suggest i run the card at coreclock mhz at 489mhz and mem clock at 869mhz. It also lets me use those settings and run aquamark and 3dmark03 without overheating.