Grachics Card Advice

[Geo]

Hey guys, well basically I'm either going to buy a new Graphics Card, or a new Monitor.

Fortunatley I know quite a bit on monitors and what makes a good one etc, but when it comes to GPU's or whatever, I'm completely oblivious.

Well, not completely.

Basically, I was under the impression that the VRAM solely determined how good your GFX card was... I now know differently.

Without listing technical specs, well you can, but can you provide me comparisons that make sense. E.g. this one will run 'Game X' on High with 4x AA at a decent frame rate. It makes more sense to me than 'this one has pixel make good-er 2.0 and over 9,000MHz'

I'd like to be able to run games like Far Cry 2 on High, at 1440x900 or something. I know it's a limited budget, but it's all I can afford really.

I currently have an ATi X1600, with 256MB VRAM. It can run Far Cry 2 on Low/Med at 1440x900 but if I up anything else or add AA the frame-rate drops.

So...
Budget: $100-125
Must be: Better than ATi x1600
Able to play new games on High settings (Not Very High)
Supoort DX10
Would be nice: Dual DVi

Please help. Anyone.

[guysullavin]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130360
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814162007
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130330
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814500018

take your pick

[Geo]

I was hoping for advice, like what are they capable of etc.

[guysullavin]

oh... dont look at me, i'm just suggesting those

[JunkfoodMan]

Newegg doesn't deliver to England =\
If I were you, I'd get the ATi 4850.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Componen ... ctId=33743

Its probably the best bang for the buck you'll ever get. It has amazing benchmarks for many games. I have an nVidia 8800GT 512mb, and I can play Far Cry 2 at around 45 FPS all ultra high settings, 1680x1050. Since the 4850 is quite a bit better than the 8800GT, I wouldn't be surprised if it could play the game at all ultra high settings, 1440x900, with a constant 60 FPS.

Edit: and I'd get it quickly. Notice the special offer only has two purchases, or It's back up to £140 inc. VAT.

[Geo]

My budget is about £50-£80... thanks anyway lol, it does look good.

[JunkfoodMan]

I'd pay for it anyway. It really is the best value you'll get, for about £40 extra.
And I thought your Budget was £100-£120 >_>

[MoDFox]

...
Budget: $100-125
...

Dollars. Also... Junkfood is probably right, if you can scrounge up a little more money it seems like its worth it.

[Geo]

I can't. I wouldn't set a budget limit if I didn't need one.

[Cryticfarm]

Well then your probably stuck with a high quality 8600 GTS.

[JK-47]

I'd go with the 9600 GT.
I have absolutely no complaints about it yet. As far as capability goes, I can run Crysis on high, and any other game for that matter. It does support DX10 (If you're on Vista of course).
It's a great card, and it's pretty affordable as well. If you're wanting to stick to a low-cost, high-end card, I'd go with this.

Edit: I forgot to mention, most of them are pretty large. So make sure you have enough room in your computer. If you'd like I could upload a picture of mine to give you an idea.

[shadowkhas]

It depends, what JK-47 means I think is that some versions are double-wide in spacing. If you have two slots right next to each other, you won't be able to fit anything in the adjacent one.

[Geo]

Interesting. Yeah, some photo's would be nice... and maybe dimensions, if you know them?

Thanks in advance.

[Cryticfarm]

Well graphics cards kinda depend, cause some have bigger heat sinks then others which generally take up the room.

[JK-47]

It's just a really long card. A lot of people get that with the 9600's. I'll get some pictures and dimensions when I get home.

[shadowkhas]

This is what I mean by the width:
Normal.
Doublewide.

[JK-47]

Yeah, mine isn't really wide at all.

Pics:



(Click to make bigger)



It's 9 1/2 inches long, and a half inch thick.

Mine is 512 mb of GDDR3 memory, you have to have PCI Express 2.0 (Pretty sure you will), 650 MHz. It's SLI ready as well, in case for some reason you want two of them.
It's probably not as great as the 8800, but it's pretty close. I can still play all the newest games, and I didn't have to pay as much, so I'm happy.
As far as ventilation goes, it stays pretty cool. It has it's own built in fan (like every other card..), and that eliminates most of the heat. I also have two other fans in my computer, and that generally keeps it the same temperature as anything else in my computer.

[Geo]

Sweet.

How good/capable is this one?

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149184

[Cryticfarm]

That's a good card too.