hermes Posted December 10, 2004 If I theoretically was totally poor, what graphic card should I buy if I at the same time wanted one? The most for the price kind of stuff - and cheap...! ??? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JimmyTheFish Posted December 10, 2004 How cheap? You unfortunately just missed out on some hot black friday sales (I got a GeForce 6800 for $200). I am sure you could get a Radeon 9800 for around $150, and their are also the new budget cards, going for 150 to 200. Shop around. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Twilo Posted December 10, 2004 Ditto, yeah. You'll generally get the best value by buying one of the previous bunch of cards (particularly the Radeon 9800 Pro's or XT's. XT is usually better). These nicely cover all the DX9 stuff all your favourite games will use, and are pretty nippy too. 128MB models go for ~€200 from good retailers (ie not PC World Waterford). 9600's go for half that; if you're getting one, make sure it's 256MB to make up for the older technology. You can typically get these with TV-Out and all kinds of other nonsense, which is gravy. Sapphire do a 9600XT 256MB with TV-Out for <= €150 Those also come in SE models, which cost less but are rubbish Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
manny_c44 Posted December 10, 2004 Actually 256 MB 9600pro is pretty useless, and will run a frame or two slower than a regular card, unless your going to play with large uncompressed textures in games like Doom 3 (which will be pointless with a 9600pro) there is no benefit. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Twilo Posted December 10, 2004 Actually 256 MB 9600pro is pretty useless Beats anything else you'll get for 100 squids. Options, people! options! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SiN Posted December 10, 2004 sometime around last year i bought a geforce fx 5200 for C$ 90 ... excellent value IMO. the card has really got a bad wrap, it performs pretty well. i can imagine there are better cards out now for around the same price, so shop around ... u should be able to find a decent budget card. SiN Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Simon Posted December 10, 2004 I got a Radeon 9600 Pro 256MB a few months back for £75, the 9800 Pro was £140. I just had to upgrade from an ageing Radeon 7200 and work within a budget of under £100, so that was really my best option. I wasn't convinced that twice the price = twice as good an upgrade anyway, but maybe I was wrong. No problems yet, but I've not really pushed it, at all - look at the games I'm playing right now in my sig. This will probably just about manage Half-Life 2 but I've not got that game yet. I guess Doom 3 would suck on it, but I can't really be bothered to try that one anytime soon. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hermes Posted December 10, 2004 Allthough it would be cool to be able to run every game on the marked - it doesn't really matter it wont run doom very well. My current card is a geforce 4 mmx shitcard - that doesn't support shaders and even have some problems running pirates. When you card is having trouble with a firaxis-game then you know our in trouble..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JimmyTheFish Posted December 10, 2004 Until recently I was rocking the 9600 128mb I got a year ago for $50. Played HL2 fine all the way through in 1024x768 with all the details maxed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Metalmickey Posted December 11, 2004 Just bear in mind that the 'pro' 'XT', or 'Ultra' bits actually make a huge difference. E.g. a 9600XT is way better than a plain 9800. The GeForceFX range I honestly don't think is that great apart from at the higher end, like FX5800 Ultra, FX5950, or thereabouts. Also, wrt memory, sometimes you'll find equivalent looking cards for the same price, but one has 128Mb and the other has 256Mb. In these cases, the 128Mb one may have significantly faster memory than the 256Mb version, and may even give better performance apart from games with massive amounts of texture detail like Doom3, so check the memory speed as well as just the size. The guys I know with 9600 and 9800 pros/XTs are all very happy, so I'd go with that. If you have a bit more money, I reckon a 6800GT is pretty good value, as they almost always overclock to 6800Ultra speeds anyway with no probs if you don't mind a tiny bit of settings testing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thrik Posted December 11, 2004 I got a 6600GT a few days ago, since my ti4200 has been pissing me off with its random crashing during HL2 and various other games. Anybody have idea of what kind of overclocking potential this thing has, if any? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erkki Posted December 11, 2004 My 9600Pro (128 MB) plays half-life 2 just fine, but Doom3 was kind of slow. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kolzig Posted December 12, 2004 I got a 6600GT a few days ago, since my ti4200 has been pissing me off with its random crashing during HL2 and various other games. Anybody have idea of what kind of overclocking potential this thing has, if any? Hmm, what do you mean by random crashing ? I've got a ti4200 for about 2,5 years and never had any problems with it, if you don't count a recent thing with the newest drivers and Flatout 1.0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thrik Posted December 12, 2004 It'd crash out with a DX9 error of some sort at random. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hermes Posted January 3, 2005 Ok, so I bought a radeon 9600 PRO - which was what I could get for the money I had.... And suddenly dancing in pirates seems easier - hurray - and POP_TSOT is now running fluid - yhuu - so all around happy... Thanks for the advice guys.... (what?) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
