Whats the best graphics card to get for around £150

J

jamesdean

Guest
Hi

Whats the best graphics card to get for around £150, I have a really bad one at the moment, my system is.

Asus A7N8X Mainboard
Athlon XP 2600+ 333 FSB
2 x 512MB PC3200 Non-parity

Would really appriciate some advice or links to reviews, thanks !
 
J

Jonty

Guest
Hello :)

There are quite a lot of threads covering this already, so you may want to try searching this forum. Personally, I'd try and get hold of a Radeon 9500 Pro card. These should come in at around £135-£150 and provide excellent performance considering the cost. The Radeon 9600 Pro may also be worth considering, although, despite the numbering, it tends to be slightly slower than the 9500 Pro, but as such it costs a little less.

From nVidia, the GeForceFX 5600 Ultra should come in at around the desired price bracket. There's an updated 'flip-chip' version due for release soon, which should provide a significant performance boost over the existing cards. There is also a mainstream version of the 5900 Ultra card planned, but as yet there is no firm date for release, and pricing is likely to be slightly over your desired budget.

If you let me know what card(s) you may be interested in and/or any particular manufacturers you prefer, I'll try and find some reviews and prices for you.

Kind Regards
 
T

TheJkWhoSaysNi

Guest
Geforce 4 Ti4800 should be under £150 now

http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-info.asp?quicklinx=2CNV

And i dont know what the difference between Ti4800 and Ti4800SE is maybe someone else can explain..

http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-info.asp?quicklinx=2LJP

and another one:

http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-info.asp?quicklinx=2FMC


You could go for a Radeon 9500 Pro, but i dont know how well they perform compared with the Ti4800 and they're about the same price...

i'd check out www.tomshardware.com for benchmarks and stuff...
 
J

Jonty

Guest
Hello

Just to clarify, as was highlighted in this thread, a GeForce4 Ti 4800 is merely a GeForce4 Ti 4600 with AGP 8x support. The GeForce4 Ti 4800 SE is a GeForce4 Ti 4400 with AGP 8x support. Performance wise, a Radeon 9500 Pro should keep up with a 4800SE/4400 card, if not beat it in most tests. When antialiasing and anisotrophic filtering are enabled, the 9500 Pro should even out perform a 4800/4600 card. It should also be noted that, although the GeForce cards are very powerful, they do lack more modern features such as full DirectX9 support.

Kind Regards
 
T

TheJkWhoSaysNi

Guest
Jonty beat me to it :p

As for the FX 5600 Ultra are you sure it will be so cheap, the 5800 Ultra currrently on dabs (Sorry, revision to do, dont really have time to check other shops) is priced at £374.00 and if i'm not mistaken, the 5600 Ultra is only 1 step down...
 
J

Jonty

Guest
hehe :) In answer to your question, the 5800 Ultra is like gold dust, as only a few thousand were ever made, and most of those went on preorders. The 5600 Ultra is, in comparison, far more widely available. Prices range from around £140-£170, depending on whether you purchase the 128Mb or 256Mb model, or whether you choose a card which has been modified, or whether you choose a package with a good bundle etc. Although, as you say, it's only 'one step' down in the product range, the card is nevertheless aimed squarely at the mainstream market and thus performs as such.

Good luck with your revision
 
E

Embattle

Guest
Once it starts appearing the 5900 should become widely available, esp compared to the 5800.
 
J

Jonty

Guest
Originally posted by Embattle
Once it starts appearing the 5900 should become widely available, esp compared to the 5800.
Click to expand...
Spot on :D hehe. I believe the 5800 (non-Ultra) cards are fairly easy to get, it's just the 5800 Ultra which is hard to get hold of (for the reasons highlighted in this funny meeting). As for the 5900 (NV35) cards, there should be three releases, each staggered in terms of features/price. Thinking of upgrading, Emb? :)

Kind Regards
 
E

Embattle

Guest
Not yet, thinking of waiting until the next gen cards start getting some coverage. I have been tempted by the Radeon 9800 Pro, esp since I found it online at dabs for £314 :)
 
J

Jonty

Guest
I can't say I've ever heard of that make, but if the picture is accurate, that looks like the standard ATi reference design, so if all is as it seems, you shouldn't go far wrong :) Of course, all be extra careful when bidding for anything such as this; and be sure to check out the seller too.

Kind Regards
 
C

.Cask

Guest
Yeah the seller looks very good, plenty of positive feedback and replied to me saying he had already sold 10 of the cards, so any problems should have showed up.

I'm just wondering if I'd be better going with a normal retail Ti4800. Think the radeon just has the upper hand in speeds though.
 
J

Jonty

Guest
Well (and you know how much I love nVidia :D) I'd personally choose the Radeon 9700 Pro. Between that and a 4800/4600-8x card, the Radeon will be the stronger of the two on just about every test, except those where nVidia have been traditionally stronger. So power is on the Radeon's side. Price wise, this auction price probably comes in marginally cheaper than a good, retail, 4800 card. With regards features, ATi's card is the more advanced of the two, and whilst I still don't care for the appearance of ATi's drivers, they are now far better than they've ever been in terms of stability and optimisations.

If you were to compare a retail 9700 Pro with a 4800 card, the price would mean things would be a little less one-sided. But as things stand, the ATi card looks by far the better buy.

Kind Regards
 
C

.Cask

Guest
Hmm well I bought it the price just seems to good.

Expect me posting here in a few days with another tale of woe :(
 
J

Jonty

Guest
Originally posted by .Cask
Hmm well I bought it the price just seems too good. Expect me posting here in a few days with another tale of woe :(
Click to expand...
hehe, don't say that :p Just out of interest, you are aware of the power requirements of the Radeon 9700 Pro? Namely, the card needs to be connected directly to your computer's power supply unit (PSU) (cable bundled with card). As such, you really need a good 300W PSU, if not higher. On Shuttle systems and the likes can really get away with anything lower than that.

Kind Regards
 
C

.Cask

Guest
Mines 350W, only got it a year ago so don't think I'll have a problem with that.
 
C

.Cask

Guest
Wow! Really impressed so far. I bought it on Ebay at 3:30pm and had it before 9am the next day. The card was unboxed and had no manual/drivers or anything but what can you expect for £165. The guy had burnt some CD's with all the programs that I needed and had no problems at all setting it up. 13,200 3D marks without fiddling with anything.

I don't expect to get any support if the card breaks down but the whole reason I bought this card was because I didn't want to wait for Asus to fix my Ti4400 anyway.

I'm gonna pimp his homepage because I was so impressed with this guys work.

http://www.kl1128.fsnet.co.uk/
 
J

Jonty

Guest
Glad everything's sorted out :D Just out of interest, are you running the Catalyst 3.4 drivers? If not, then you might want to upgrade for even greater performance and stability.

Kind Regards
 
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