Whats the best graphics card

[tolmie]

Hi everyone, iv just ordered a new pc from dell, its pem 4, 3GHZ, 512mb with a ATI 300se express card, i know this isnt a great card so im looking for advise, i dont really want to spend more than £150, so what card do you recommend and wil i be able to play HL2 with the 300se at all.

Cheers

 

[iamaelephant]

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=6

 

[Dr0ndeh]

9800 pro.

 

[Alieni²]

5800 Ultra

 

[Fatality_]

9800 pro.

 

[cod56]

The chepest fully direct x 9 compatable card available to you. I would suggets for that mony a 9800 pro. Steer clear of the Nvidia cards as in all the benchmarking i have seen they could only run the game in direct x 8.1.

 

[antiliphe]

I quote:

9800 pro.

 

[Beazil]

pardon my ignorance (I have a 9800 pro) but isnt a 300se express faster? Or at least as fast?

 

[redrain85]

Isnt that X300SE Express a PCI Express card? Then that means a 9800 Pro will be useless in his system, because it's available in AGP only.

Having a PC with PCI Express really limits your graphics card choices at this time.

 

[Ragingsamster]

actually it limits your "low cost" graphics card choices. If I had the money a X800XT PE would be in a PCI-E slot on my new mobo, that is IF I had the money

 

[johnnypoopoopant]

he has a express cards guys...i don't think you can find any card better than a 300 se for less or the same as 150

 

[Beazil]

I'm just curious though; is it faster than the 9800 pro? Sorry for the repeat.

 

[redrain85]

I would say it will be slightly slower than a 9800 Pro. It only has 4 pipelines. And the SE probably means it has a 64-bit memory bus (instead of 128 like on the 9800 Pro).

 

[Beazil]

Thanks redrain. I thought for some reason that I was reading a review yesterday (guess I'll have to look it up) where it actually did aa at higher resolutions faster. I could be wrong though.

 

[redrain85]

Ouch, scratch that. The X300SE is actually a lot slower than the 9800 Pro. It's the equivalent of a Radeon 9200 in performance. Eek.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/powercolor-x300se_15.html

 

[Beazil]

Good thing no-one goes shopping on my advice! *whew!* (Thanks again redrain )

 

[Acert93]

If 150 pounds is ~ to $25-$300, I would suggest one of these (in order):

6600GT
X700XT
X700Pro

The 6600GT seems to be the better overall card right now (that may be due to drivers) BUT the X700XT outperforms the 6600GT in CS:S in areas, and vice versa--to close to call. You would really need to look at benchmarks (link below) and see what resolution you will play at and compare.

The 6600GT and X700XT are pretty close in DX9 games, but the 6600GT does much better in OpenGL games (Doom3, MoH, CoD, etc...) You may not find the X700XT as it is VERY hard to find, in that case I would suggest the 6600GT over the X700Pro.

The real question is (1) What settings do you play at and (2) what games you play.

Here is a link with CS:S comparisons. Check the resolutions you will play at:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/counter-strike_source_2/default.asp

Tomshardware.com has a comparison of the X700 and 6600 series cards. I would check that also. Honestly, the cards are both great.

Good luck and good gaming!

 

[YamatoTwinkie]

The 6600 and x700 might be out if his PCIe is x8 instead of x16, as many x16 card do not fit in x8 slots.
Tolmie, would you mind finding out if your motherboard has an AGP slot, and the specification on your PCIe?

 

[Dynasty]

rofl americans....*sigh*

anyway, for £150 you CANT GET THE BEST CARDS. soz its harsh but true. NVIDIA's 5900xt is worth £120 and so is the RADEON 9800pro. i would personally go for the 9800pro because i have on and i run cs:s on 80-120 fps with my settings...and yours are higher lol...

havent seen the NVIDIA at work, but most games are built to perform well on a NVIDIA card.....LMAO!! and they usually fail.
i still strongly recommend the 9800pro.

but the choice is, as they say, yours