Which graphic card to buy

Craigy · 06-10-2005, 21:58

Well i know you guys have never told me wrong so im sure u'll help me out again.
My radeon 9800pro has just stopped working, not sure why but i keep getting ati recovery messages when playing hi-powered games, I'v tried everything to fix it and have had enough. So i am gonna get a new graphic card, i dont want to spend more than £100 and even that is pushing it so what would you recommend? -getting the same card again now its dropped in price
-or is there something a lot better for just a bit more or same money?

I just want to be able to play halflife2 at a decent framerate at 1024x768 on full settings like i could before the card stopped. I have this card (the bottom of the page)

AKITA · 06-10-2005, 22:19

Hi there if all you want to do is play those games then get a 256mb geforce graphics card from maplin electronics they are on offer which should start sunday but if you go to the hillsborough branch they are starting it tomorrow due to a stock take on sunday so they will be closed and i think they are around £90 which is a bargin and they are wicked cards, also ask the staff for mor info they are nice people.

xafier · 06-10-2005, 22:28

for that price range you can't go wrong with an Nvidia 6600GT 128mb card

its what I've got, it'll beat the pants off your 9800 pro (i know cus i had one before it and it also died on me just outside warrenty... arghhhh)

Fuzzbuzz · 06-10-2005, 23:14

huh.. i was told to avoid geforces as ati's were better. Or was that just a fan boy speak. So how much better is this 6600GT? will i notice a difference or is it just a 2-3 fps increase? and i dont need pci-express do i? i dont have that....

(just looked on the maplin webpage and it says nothing about an offer)

if its really that much better it looks like i'll be going to maplin 2morrow.

OOPS THIS IS CRAIGY ON FUZZ'S ACCOUNT, SISTER MUST HAVE SIGNED IN WHILE I WENT TO EAT

AKITA · 06-10-2005, 23:21

ATI are better for graphic applications and geforce are better for games also ati have there own connection for s-video out unlike geforce which are standard

segasonic · 07-10-2005, 10:21

I agree with xafier, I treated myself to a Leadtek Winfast 6600GT 128MB AGP 8x and it's fantastic. You can pick em up for under £100 now.

Get the latest drivers and the coolbits regkey to enable overclocking within the driver and NOTHING will touch it at the price!

Guderian · 07-10-2005, 12:23

Agreed - GeForce 6600GT. Whoever told you to go for ATi instead was talking out of their......
Look at TomsHardware.com for benchmarks and bar charts showing Frames Per Second rates of all the cards on the market.
For your price range, 6600GT is the one

Craigy · 07-10-2005, 14:16

thanks guys, where would be the best place to get one? i cant find one for under £100 ¬_¬

AKITA · 07-10-2005, 18:36

you will not get a gt 6600 for under £100 so again get the 256mb card from maplin.

segasonic · 07-10-2005, 18:46

Are you wanting AGP or PCI-e Craigy?

128MB Leadtek WinFast A6600 GT TDH 6600

PCI-e, £98.11

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=174842

AGP, £101.46 ( I have this one)

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=175048

EDIT: D'oh! Just noticed you said AGP lol, you'll have to go slightly over £100, but trust me, it's worth it.

There may be somewhere cheaper than Scan, I just did a quick search.

steev · 07-10-2005, 18:48

Quote:

Originally posted by AKITA
you will not get a gt 6600 for under £100 so again get the 256mb card from maplin.

256MB what though? At Maplins prices it's going to be a 6200 or something...

Craigy · 07-10-2005, 20:09

yea i went to maplins today and they only have 6200 and im under the impression they aint too good...

I think i might have to spend more than i wanted to but i guess its worth it in the long run.

steev · 07-10-2005, 20:12

They're naff, 4 pipeline, bottom bin GPUs...

You're better off with a vanilla 6600 for £65 ish...

Ebuyer have a couple of 6600GTs for under £90 + VAT, but they're still being absolutely crap with deliveries at the mo'

If you really can't spend over £100, how about this?

Craigy · 07-10-2005, 20:18

oh, was just about to order off ebuyer. Might go for the scan one now

is there a lot of difference between a 6600 and a 6600GT? and how much diff is there between my old 9800pro and a vanilla 6600?

phew i sure am asking a lot of questions tonight.

segasonic · 07-10-2005, 20:23

IIRC the GT has more pipelines, but the main difference is clock speed.

6600 - 300MHz core, 350MHz memory clock.

6600GT - 500/900

My GT clocks at 570/1004 on autodetect overclocking, it would go further.

Craigy · 07-10-2005, 20:26

GT it is then

thanks guy, lets hope this really makes a difference with hl2 and doom

segasonic · 07-10-2005, 20:31

Bookmark this page, it'll come in handy

http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/a_coolbits/

Craigy · 07-10-2005, 20:39

done - this aint gonna invalidate my card and melt it now is it?

steev · 07-10-2005, 20:41

Nah, that comes later...

Cheers for the link btw...

Seriously though, if you're not sure about overclocking, then don't

segasonic · 07-10-2005, 20:51

Like they say on the site, they can't be held responsible if you turn your card into a bubbling mess, it's unlikely to happen though.
The pics on the site are from an old driver, the current ones have an autodetect function that will test your card and automatically set an overclock it can handle, I've had no problems with it.