What graphic cards today ?

[Adrien C]

With the coming of GTA, along comes the time to change video cards...

A couple of years ago I used to be on time with the graphic cards market, now I'm just out of the loop.
I want to spend around 100- 150 Euros on the card. Apart from advising me on some cards in that price range I also have a couple of questions :

I read all new cards are DDR3, can I install them even if me memory is DDR2 ?
I see they now sell 1 gig cards; worth it ? Real gaming difference ?
What brands should I avoid ?

Thank you in advance guys.

 

[Asus]

Without knowing your system specs I would say check out ATI's 4850 for <$200 (USD) which is an awesome card. OR for $200-300 check out ATI's 4870 or Nvidia's GTX 260. Nvidia just has older tech in the <$200 price range (9800,8800) and for their performance their price is a bit high compared to the newer ATI stuff. Nvidia's new GTX series WAS over priced at first but prices have dropped a lot to match ATI's new stuff.

The kind of memory in your system (DDR2) does not matter for the video card. The only thing that matters regarding that memory is that it is the right type for the slot it goes in on your PC. That's it. The Video card has it's own memory built into the card. Not removable and does not have anything to do with the rest of your PC.

512MB is fine for video card memory. If you want more speed out of a card then get a higher model (4850->4870) and don't go for the same model with more memory (4850 w/1GB). They won't sell the fast cards with less memory than is needed (4850 w/128MB).

Popular brands
Gigabyte
MSI
Asus
VisionTek (ATI only)
Sapphire (ATI only) <also makes ATI branded cards for ATI
EVGA (Nvidia only)
XFX (Nvidia only)

 

[Adrien C]

Thats helps a lot, thanks Asus.
I forgot to give you my specs :

Intel Pentium 2.8 Ghz
2 gigs ram
230 Volts.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

get a new pc

 

[Asus]

What kind of video card do you have right now?

get a new pc

Agreed. The CPU is too old to consider upgrading to today's cards. That CPU will hold performance back enough not to see any worth while increase over an older card.

 

[MRG]

I do love my Sapphire 4850 & so i'll advise you to get one. I reinstalled "Mass Effect" earlier today & played it for the first time since I got the 4850 on my birthday this past July. I did not know just how much my old 6800 Ultra was holding me back graphical effect wise. It's honestly as though i'm playing a new game. There is that much of a difference.

-MRG

 

[Eejit]

Wait, 230v PSU? That might need replacing too.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

like I said, if he's got that setup, he'll need to replace everything to get gta4 to work reasonably (or at all). g-card, cpu, memory, psu. This is assuming GTA4 will be like the latest games' requirements which are pretty damn high for minimum.

 

[Asus]

Wait, 230v PSU? That might need replacing too.

230v is one of the 2 standards. It isn't how much Watts the PSU provides.


You would want to look at the sticker on the PSU inside your PC and tell us the total WATTS (not peak) that it can deliever and also how many AMPs are on the 12v+ chart (20a? 30a?)

 

[Adrien C]

Ok guys you convinced me to upgrade. Here what I have in mind :

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850
or
GeForce 9800 GT - 512 Mo GDDR3

Mother Board :
4CoreDual-SATA2

CPU:

INTEL Core 2 Duo E8200 - 2.66 GHz

I don't have the AMPs on my PSU. For the WATTS it says : 115 WATTS max (Total output continous shall not pass 250 W)

Edit : Found a Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3 GHz . What do you think ?

Im not really sure about the CPU, shall I get a better one ?
Thanks for the help guys.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

either is fine, depends on your budget, get the better one if you can.

 

[Adrien C]

What would you recomend between : NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB and a Asus EN9600GT 512M ?

 

[Eejit]

230v is one of the 2 standards. It isn't how much Watts the PSU provides.

v, w - almost the same

 

[Omnomnick]

Intel Pentium 2.8 Ghz

HOLY MOTHER OF HELL D:

New CPU would be more important!

 

[Asus]

I don't have the AMPs on my PSU. For the WATTS it says : 115 WATTS max (Total output continous shall not pass 250 W)

And a new PSU! (400-500 watts from a good brand. or 600watts from a cheap-readytoblowup-PSU brand)

 

[99.vikram]

Start with the CPU, then memory, and finally PSU and Graphics card together.
If you have money for all the upgrades right now, that's even better!

 

[Adrien C]

Ok that as well. Now I have this two finalists :

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or Asus EN9600GT 512M ?

Any idea ?

 

[MRG]

Ok that as well. Now I have this two finalists :

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or Asus EN9600GT 512M ?

Any idea ?

I love nVidia & even named a kid after them (not really) & over the years I have owned several nVidia products that were awesome. However, since you asked, I will onceagain state for the record, that you need to go with a Sapphire HD 4850. This card is a monster performance wise. sure their drivers are not always the best, but my god, it's a powerful card for the low price you pay.

Just my opinion for what it's worth, which is prob. not even .02 cents....

However, if I had to choose between those 2 cards only, then I would go with the 8800GT. The 9600GT is a great card in it's own right, but not as good overall from the benchmarks I have viewed. Of course neither card can touch the HD 4850 in terms of price or performance.

-MRG

 

[Asus]

You can find 9600GT's after rebate for pretty cheap. A number of specific 8800GT models have been discontinued from different companies. The others remain too high of a price IMO. Even though that card performs better than the 9600GT, it's value hasn't kept up.

The 4850 is an awesome value. Almost as low as price as the 8800GT's and way higher performance.

Although if you wanna be really cheap, ATI just released the 4670 which is based on the tech in the 4800 cards. It performs as fast as the 3850 (ATI's 2nd best card last year) but very low power usage. Would be decent at current/future games at 1280x1024.