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Help choosing Video Card?

H

hjoseph

Junior Member
Hello, new to these forums and recommended here by a friend. I have been looking for a new graphics card. Im currently running a late 2003 machine that was quite high performance then, getting rather dated now.

The system specs are rather old:
- Athlon 3000xp running ~2.24GHz
- ATi 9200 256mb All-in-Wonder
- 1gb ram, somekinda, too lazy to find out at the moment - some rubbish
- 160 and 40gb hds

Well they are the basics, just an AGP 8x mobo also.

Im on quite a limited budget and am looking for a graphics card update costing around

£100, delivered to UK. Really dont want to spend moreor than £120. Approx $180.

So far I have looked at:

ATi X1600 AGP variants (256mb):
======================
The AGP Sapphire X1600 on Lowest on Web
Not sure what these versions of the X1600 are like, or how they compare to a 6600GT?
6600GT?


nVidea 6800 range:
=============
http://www.pcnextday.co.uk/product_deta...5&productcode=1511-4070&group=AGPNV&pg - probably not great as it is the 6800LE version
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products...b=16271433148&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X

292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=100900 - this one I think might be quite good, probably one of the

last places I can find one though, was going to a buy a short while back, no idea what the

spec is like of this. Is it likely to be much better than a 6600GT, or worth it?
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products...b=16273387220&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X

292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=103056 - over my price range really, I wonder how it compares to

the V9999 though?

nVidea 6600GT's:
===========
http://www.lowestonweb.com/Products/Dis...asp?e=EEFE0D94-07F9-4E85-A4F0-966C0232

2360 - Just one of those 6600GT's probably a suitably priced option for my budget, not

sure how it weighs up against the X1600s.
http://www.techstore-online.co.uk/INU_p...cts/INU_ProdDetailsL2.ASP?ref=M7292102 -

Another 6600GT, doesnt seem to be in stock at the moment though, authough there are plenty

of 6600GTs in AGP about as far as I know.

So these are the main cards I have looked at so far, not sure if I need to look at some

like the ATi's X800 range, or similar. Could anyone please post Comments or suggestions of

which the best would be. Mostly in terms of value for money and one of the good cards. If

you really think that one of these stands out as a good buy, please say.

Any replies will be greatly apreciated.

Thanks

From looking at the preview, some links dont seem to work too well, but you probably have good knowledge about the cards here anyway, so please post passing on your expertise. 😉
 
Know, don't worry, I have looked around at many different places, just trying to ask which card is worthwhile, not really the place of purchase. 😉

I shall edit the last post to include more info and pricing as I dont think that all the links work properly.
 
Welcome to the forums!

With regards to your question:

The 6600GT is a solid, solid card. I've had it for a long time now and I think it's an incredible value. It can do HL2 at 1680x1050 on my Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW 20.1" Widescreen LCD on full graphics without a hiccup. You should be able to find it used for very cheap, too (especially if you're only looking for the AGP version). However, ATI has great lower-end offerings as well. It's up to you.

Do you have a big monitor running at a high resolution? Go ATI.
Want Pixel Shader 3.0? Go NVIDIA.
Want to overclock? Go ATI.
Want less heat/noise? Go NVIDIA.
Et cetera...

Hope this helps!
 
Thanks BOLt, great summary there and really helps. At the moment im tending towards getting an nVidea, however am not sure whether to go for the 6600GT or the ASUS V9999/TD/128. The V9999 version seems relatively cheap however I can only really find it at one place, ebuyer and it appears that there is only one left. I don't know if this card would be better or not than some of the 6600GT's. Could someone offer any advice on this. The Asus 6800 seems one of the only AGP 6800's for a reasonable price still around and by the looks of it the one on ebuyer could be one of the last for sale. I wonder if it is worth buying? It also states open box, so im not sure if it would be a return one or not.

So to summarise would it be better to buy a standard 6600GT from XFX/similar for around £100 or to spend £110 for the 6800. My only concern about the 6800 is that i am virtually blind about the performance. There dont seem to be many reviews of it, yet I have seen in other comparisons that the 6800 beat the 6600GTs in terms of antialiasing quite well.

Edit: Oh forgot to say I want to run 1280x1024 which is the natural res of my BenQ FP731 (17inch TFT)

My only other question is to do with power supply. Im not exactly sure what my current one is, so I might also have to purchase a new one to power the device, however I will probably just switch the card and then see if I do require a new one. Sometime I will have to find out the ratings and output of my current one.

Once again, thank you very much for the replies and for any further comments/suggestions. I really feel as though as I have progressed in my decision here. 🙂

Links to my different options. These should be working, the ones in the first post are a mess/half broken.
Asus V9999/TD/12
XFX 6600GT

or this other 6600GT, the other seems to be out of stock so may be a better solution.

Inno 6600GT

So I will probably buy one of those unless you have a suggestion to make or know of an equivalent ATi card that is good value.
 
Originally posted by: Nacelle
The x850xt has be on sale at differant places lately. It's faster that a 6800GT.
Click to expand...

Yeah, both those cards are really out of my price range. I intend to build a whole new setup probably early '07 so in about a year. Just want a card for my old AGP mobo that will enable me not to have a slideshow for the next year on most games I currently run, and to be able to run some new ones.

Any further comments if I should get the 6800 Asus V9999 or the 6600GT?

Also anyone know about power requirements for PSUs for either?

Thanks
 
Hi all,

Just found another option on dabs, looks quite good and I think I shall go for it. 🙂

6800 on dabs

Looked quite good to me and I hope that it outperformes a 6600GT.

Probably will by tonight,

Thanks for all the other replies.
 
true but it's still out of his budget

go with the 6800...i'm not sure what your brand is but if it's ASUS, i thought they only made motherboards....maybe you should go with another brand? if not, i guess it's fine
 
Yeah, thanks, I think I shall go with the 6800 from my previous post, the one before this one. Just need to order now, can't wait untill it arrives. 🙂

Thanks for all the advice, I ofcourse know the x850xt owns the 6800's but thats becuase of the price tag too :S
 
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