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budget video card

M

Martyuk39

Member
I'm building a budget system for someone. Ideally I'd want to spend no more than £70 (what's that...about $130). Now I've quite happily run HL2 on my laptop with a mobile Radeon 9600 - perfectly playable. So as long as it's better than that - I'm building a desktop system, and will probably run at higher resolutions etc.

Thoughts, having read the various guides here I'm thinking of an Nvidia 5700LE-based chipset. Possibly one of the 2 below (I'll be buying from www.microdirect.co.uk since I'm round the corner from the shop)
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=7747&GroupID=27
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=7748&GroupID=27

There's about £14 difference in price - one's 128MB and the other 256MB. Will that make much difference? I'm probably making a Sempron system, unless they'll stretch to an AMD64 system. I've questions there too, but I'll leave that to a different part of the forum.
I'd appreciate any comments on my possible selections, and any other ideas people may have.
Thanks
Martin
 
If you could find a used Radeon 9700 pro that would be a really good option.

EDIT: maybe look around FS/FT forum for a while... I've seen them go for about $110

if not, maybe ebay?
 
Thanks - I do like that card. My main card at home is a mere 9500 Pro that's soft-modded to 9700. I'm watching a few 9700 Pro's on ebay - I think over here that they might be too expensive but we'll see.

I'd quite like to buy a new card with a proper warranty though, seeing as it's for someone else.
 
please god no. the 5700le cant crack 750 in 3dmark05 most of the time.
256mb ram makes no difference. the chip cant utilize it all.
go 9700pro used. on ebay, it's about $100.(or go 9500 and soft mod it.)

edit: also, the fx line cant run hl2 correctlyin dx9 mode. has to do dx8.1,
and image quality suffers due to the optimizations.
 
I don't want to buy second hand since I'm building for someone else - too many hoops to go through. So say I go up to £90 - about $170 new.
I can get:
FX 5700LE
9600 Pro (not as good as my 9500 Pro)
GF 6200
GF 6600
9600XT
What would be the recommendation? It doesn't have to be stunning graphics - I don't even really know the effects of playing Half-Life 2 in DX8 instead of DX9.
Thanks
 
id say go with a GF6600GT, spend an extra $40 for a quality part.

But if you're on a tight budget...

Im guessing this is an AGP card. hmm you could also go with a 9800SE ($140) and try to softmod it to a 9800pro. A lot of people have had success with that.
 
Originally posted by: SalientKing
id say go with a GF6600GT, spend an extra $40 for a quality part.

But if you're on a tight budget...

Im guessing this is an AGP card. hmm you could also go with a 9800SE ($140) and try to softmod it to a 9800pro. A lot of people have had success with that.
Click to expand...

 
Thanks - the 6600GT is overkill I think - it'll cost about the same as the rest of the hardware put together. I know, I can't have my cake and eat it. But it appears that if I want to spend less than £80/$150 then I'll either have to buy second-hand or put up with the limitations as a result. I was hoping to find the best within the budget for HL2 though.

I've just learnt something - every now and then, my screen at home resembles a chessboard. If I just switch it off and forget about it, it normally goes away. Having looked around at soft-modding as a result of the earlier post, I think it must be related to that. Hallelujah - it had been bugging me for ages, that one. Now to find out what to do about it...
 
If you're building this system for a gamer, your best bet at that price "about $170 new" would be a 6600GT. Might be a few $ more than he wants to spend, but would be well worth it.
 
So you're comfortable buying a budget card and then trying to softmod it into a better one, but you're not willing to buy off ebay to get a card to run at its default speed?
 
Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
So you're comfortable buying a budget card and then trying to softmod it into a better one, but you're not willing to buy off ebay to get a card to run at its default speed?
Click to expand...

The 6200 even at it's stock config and speed is still a great card for it's price. The fact that it can be softmod'd and overclocks well is just a bonus.
 
Originally posted by: carlosd
Just get the 6600GT, forget about 6200s are crap.
Click to expand...

A little rough, and not entirely true, but if you're going to be doing any real gaming, it isnt going to be with a 6200 😉 (softmodded or otherwise) Go with the 6600GT if you can afford it, or better yet, look for a used Radeon 9700 pro or 9800 pro in FS/FT. Cheers! :beer:
 
Yeah...if you're gonna play HL2, you need a radeon cuz the FX series suck...THOUGH i have seen a way to change some config file settings for HL2 that tells it that you're playing on a radeon 9800, which instantly makes the game run better, look better, and even play in DX9 correctly...

but i still heard they run like crap on dx9.....so yeah dont get those.

I would recommend the 6600gt...its worth the extra...it'll last ALOT longer then a 9800 also, because of Shader model 3.0...if not, you could get a 6200 and try to softmod it and OC it (it gets 3000 in 3dmark05 that way) or just a 6600

you choose, i wouldnt settle for anything but the 6xxx series
 
Originally posted by: hans030390
Yeah...if you're gonna play HL2, you need a radeon cuz the FX series suck...THOUGH i have seen a way to change some config file settings for HL2 that tells it that you're playing on a radeon 9800, which instantly makes the game run better, look better, and even play in DX9 correctly...

but i still heard they run like crap on dx9.....so yeah dont get those.

I would recommend the 6600gt...its worth the extra...it'll last ALOT longer then a 9800 also, because of Shader model 3.0...if not, you could get a 6200 and try to softmod it and OC it (it gets 3000 in 3dmark05 that way) or just a 6600

you choose, i wouldnt settle for anything but the 6xxx series
Click to expand...

I think you meant anything but the 5xxx series. That's what I would have said.
 
Martyuk39, Will you be needing an AGP or PCI-E card. Not sure but I think the 6600 only comes in PCI-E. If I missed it above, sorry.
 
Thanks for all your help guys. The system is AGP - I'd love a 6600GT and it is available on AGP but it's too expensive. At the start of the thread I said that I'd played HL2 on my laptop with a mobile 9600 GPU - not brilliant, but the game is still brilliant, and plays fine. When I next upgrade my own system I'm going for PCI-E, SLI, starting with a 6600GT without question. But that's in the future. As for this system, the rest of it is costing under £200, about $350. I don't want to mod the GPU, contrary to a previous post. I just want to know which is the best out of a particular range of cards, eg 5700LE, 5700U, 9600, 9600XT, 6200. I want one that is comparable to or better than the mobile 9600 GPU on my laptop and then the customer will be happy.
Thanks
Martin
 
Thanks - particularly for posting the link to the HL2 GPU roundup. I'd been looking for that. Now I see why people were saying to get a 9700/9800 Pro second-hand.
Thanks once again
 
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