Doing out my shopping list for a potential 64bit Shuttle rig, and I'm a bit out of touch with the graphics side of things these days.

Reckon my budget is

SWMBO is enjoying a PCI-e X800 256 HIs card...although on motherboard defaults it was unstable as hell, so a quick overclock and it's all fine...a fine surprise after previous hair loss oc'ing

Dx9 compliance I think is a given on a pci-e card, but if it's not then avoid as if it's not dx9 it's not going to be any use after saturday.

Good to hear

Just been looking at X700 cards - either Sapphire X700 256MB DDR3 at

Some argue that 256 are a con, SWMBO's is presently set quite hard and is playing EQ2 at 20-40 fps with 100+ meg free on the card.

Depends how you like your candy I guess.

Some times the lower specs are as good just firmwared into dumb mode. One of the ATi TV in out cards was a classic last year, the "full" card was 100 ish more for a firmware patch, both would clock about the same etc, so it was a no brainer to get the lesser spec one.

Have a google on hexus or forums, I can never decide so only ever look at ati...

Yep, I know what you mean. Sounds like a repeat of what I did to a Radeon 8500 card I had a few years back

Will have a check on Hexus, cheers. But that X700 Pro looks good enough to be added to the shopping list ATM

Steve

Its worthwhile shopping around as both Sapphire and Powercolour have now released X800GT cards (much better than the X700) which retail for a smidgeon over

If your looking for the best card to match your budget then I would look nowhere else other then the 6600GT. Bang for buck nothing can touch it and should see you through for quite a while. I dont have one myself, but it's certainly the route I would go down with that type of budget in mind.

Most of the magazines have this at the top of their lists for people with an eye on their pocket.

Check them out

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/6600_GT.html

EDIT: I too am using a 9800pro and have been for some time. Although its serving me well Just lately a few games have been testing it. Black and white 2 for instance starts to crawl after a while.

Graphics cards, graphics cards graphics cards! I use an elderly ATi card with 64Mb ram (4x AGP). It drives my display at resolutions beyond what is comfortable to read at full clour depth. Why want more? If you want to play games get a GameCube or XBox (which cost less than one of these fancy graphics cards and allow you to play games without messing your PC up).

Graphics cards, graphics cards graphics cards! I use an elderly ATi card with 64Mb ram (4x AGP). It drives my display at resolutions beyond what is comfortable to read at full clour depth. Why want more? If you want to play games get a GameCube or XBox (which cost less than one of these fancy graphics cards and allow you to play games without messing your PC up).

I disagree, but then again im sure others would disagree with me. Games are far more playable on the PC, i bought an xbox, and for anything other than car games or football games its crap, I like to play FPS games, and if you compare PC Call of Duty, to the XBOX Version it is night and day.

I ended up paying

If your looking for the best card to match your budget then I would look nowhere else other then the 6600GT. Bang for buck nothing can touch it and should see you through for quite a while. I dont have one myself' date=' but it's certainly the route I would go down with that type of budget in mind.

Most of the magazines have this at the top of their lists for people with an eye on their pocket.

Check them out

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/6600_GT.html

EDIT: I too am using a 9800pro and have been for some time. Although its serving me well Just lately a few games have been testing it. Black and white 2 for instance starts to crawl after a while.

He speaks the truth, 6600GT (and I am an ATI fan through and through) is best bangs for bucks right now. I just sold a 6800GT with unlocked pipelines (so it was in effect an ultra) for

Graphics cards, graphics cards graphics cards! I use an elderly ATi card with 64Mb ram (4x AGP). It drives my display at resolutions beyond what is comfortable to read at full clour depth. Why want more? If you want to play games get a GameCube or XBox (which cost less than one of these fancy graphics cards and allow you to play games without messing your PC up).

Come on ..... battlefield2 online full detail with 64 player maps, that good it gives me flashbacks

Can't do that with low end cards or x-box's

I disagree, but then again im sure others would disagree with me. Games are far more playable on the PC, i bought an xbox, and for anything other than car games or football games its crap, I like to play FPS games, and if you compare PC Call of Duty, to the XBOX Version it is night and day.

I ended up paying

Not everyone would agree.

thats why i said.....

but then again im sure others would disagree with me.

And i agree its a good thing that developers are held to the confines of the console, but pc gamers do-not have to change cards all the time, I for instance used to run an FX 5700 nvidia card which wasnt too expensive and played Call of duty/Battlefield/Doom 3 all with ease, admittedly i had to throttle the gfx back a little but none the less it worked,

It was a matter of choice i paid a bit extra for my card, knowing that this card would last me a good couple of years until it was well and truly outdated, plus i play in a high ranking uk clan in the COD League and i felt the better gfx would improve my gameplay. not everyone wants or needs this level tbh.

I think the PC/Console debate simply comes down to control for me, i prefer a mouse and keys to a joypad anyday, especially on fps, two thumb sticks and a crosspad with 4 buttons at the side and two triggers, or the keys w,a,d,s,q,e and a couple of mouse buttons, My preference is the PC everytime, but as i said that is MY opinion

thats why i said.....

And i agree its a good thing that developers are held to the confines of the console' date=' but pc gamers do-not have to change cards all the time, I for instance used to run an FX 5700 nvidia card which wasnt too expensive and played Call of duty/Battlefield/Doom 3 all with ease, admittedly i had to throttle the gfx back a little but none the less it worked,

It was a matter of choice i paid a bit extra for my card, knowing that this card would last me a good couple of years until it was well and truly outdated, plus i play in a high ranking uk clan in the COD League and i felt the better gfx would improve my gameplay. not everyone wants or needs this level tbh.

I think the PC/Console debate simply comes down to control for me, i prefer a mouse and keys to a joypad anyday, especially on fps, two thumb sticks and a crosspad with 4 buttons at the side and two triggers, or the keys w,a,d,s,q,e and a couple of mouse buttons, My preference is the PC everytime, but as i said that is MY opinion [/quote']

Of course it comes down to choice. I like the look of the new control device that Nintendo will supply with their next gen console. Personally I always hated playing games with a keyboard. That goes all the way back to my ZX Spectrum. I have always found that it encourages software writers to make the controls to complicated. When it comes down to it I prefer games where you just contol the direction you move/look and have 1 or 2 other controls. You tend to get more of these with the consoles for obvious reasons. Only game(s) I play on the PC now are the classic Doom titles. Shame you can not seem to use the mouse to control the game under Windows XP as you could with DOS or Win 95 (what I had when I originally had Doom). I like(d) because its controls are so simple.

Still each to their own.

He speaks the truth, 6600GT (and I am an ATI fan through and through) is best bangs for bucks right now. I just sold a 6800GT with unlocked pipelines (so it was in effect an ultra) for

...

And just for interest im still using a 9800Pro as I have jet to see it struggle with anything ....

Try F.E.A.R. :(

My 9800Pro will soon be retired as I've just ordered a GeCube X800GTO for

You can get some passively-cooled GF6600 for about

Try F.E.A.R. :(

Mine ran the demo version fine :confused:

I'm surprised you only get 1600 in 3DMark05 as mine gets around 2900 with a modest overclock and even at stock settings gets around 2300 (XP2500Barton)

Well, I ran 3DMarko5 with Azureus chugging away in the background (takes up ~70Mb of my 512Mb RAM) and a bunch of other background stuff too - figure that when I actually sit down and play a game, my PC is usually doing a similar amount of activity - but obviously there is a performance hit. And I have only a 2Ghz Northwood P4...soon to be a 3200+ A64 with 1 Gig RAM, I think the X800GTO is about right for that, could spend more but think the CPU would bottleneck pretty quickly.

I can run FEAR at 1024x768 with lots of stuff turned right down but it looks pants, the alternative is stuttering and stalling when going round corners, which spoils the suspense a bit

Well' date=' I ran 3DMarko5 with Azureus chugging away in the background (takes up ~70Mb of my 512Mb RAM) and a bunch of other background stuff too - figure that when I actually sit down and play a game, my PC is usually doing a similar amount of activity - but obviously there is a performance hit. And I have only a 2Ghz Northwood P4...soon to be a 3200+ A64 with 1 Gig RAM, I think the X800GTO is about right for that, could spend more but think the CPU would bottleneck pretty quickly.

I can run FEAR at 1024x768 with lots of stuff turned right down but it looks pants, the alternative is stuttering and stalling when going round corners, which spoils the suspense a bit [/quote']

theres a Sapphire X800 GTO2 that is effectively a locked down X850xt PE... so a simple bios flash will turn this

You can get some passively-cooled GF6600 for about

OK, how about this one: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=200305 ?

I like XFX cards. They're good performing and well put together.

Dual DVI and passive cooling and a bit cheaper too Shame it's out of stock atm... :(

Looks good that one, cheers

Steve

This is my passive cooling

Keeps the office warm in winter as well if you have an hours gaming to make the cpu / gpu sweat