View Full Version : PC Graphics Cards
Don Sweey
12-11-2007, 19:58
For PC graphic card discussion and questions.
What's the best graphic card I can get on cheap with great performance?
Don Sweey
12-11-2007, 20:01
You need to specify what you want to do on your computer (if playing games, which ones) and how much you're willing to spend.
Don Sweey
12-11-2007, 20:22
I have no idea how much that money relates to here.
The G92 architecture nVidia Geforce 8800GT (512MB version) comes close to the 8800GTX and Ultra at resolutions possibly up to 1680x1050 but then the gap widens. It is as good as the 640MB Geforce 8800GTS and has made the 320MB Geforce 8800GTS obsolete. All cards except the 8800GT are G80 architecutre.
Now isn't a good time to buy though. ATi will announce/release on the 15th and nVidia on the 19th more cards. ATi's will be an intended rival to the 8800GT, likely sitting below their best current card the Radeon HD2900XT. nVidia are expected to announce G92 architecture 8800GTS models.
I also posted this a week or two ago:
For anyone buying components be aware:
The newly released 512MB Geforce 8800GT priced at around £170 is much better than the 640MB Geforce 8800GTS priced at around £240 and is a gaming card. The 320MB Geforce 8800GTS will no longer be manufactured.
The 8800GT is based on G92 architecutre, a 65nm process which makes it cheaper yet more powerful than the G80, 92nm architecture 8800GTS and is aimed at Vista, DirectX 10 users though it works perfectly fine in XP under DirectX 9 as one would expect. The 8800GT comes ridiculously close in performance to the stupidly expensive 8800GTX and Ultra until you game at a resolution higher than 1680x1050. The only time an 8800GT beats a GTX is for HD-DVD and BluRay playback as G92 cards do the decoding on the chip while G80 cards (GFX included) get the CPU to decode.
The 8800GT boasts 112 stream processes working at 1.5Ghz, far in excess of the 96 at 1.2Ghz on the 8800 GTS. The GTX which just shades performance at lower resolutions has 128 at 1.35Ghz. To compensate, the memory bus bandwidth is 256-bit on the 8800GT, 320-bit on the poorer 8800GTS and 378-bit on the GTX, hence the latter's performance gains at extremely high resolutions.
ATi are to release a new video card in around three weeks which could rival the superb price/performance ratio of the 8800GT and though new GTS releases with 112 stream processes are rumoured, if these remain G80 architecture they are unlikely to match the performance of an 8800GT.
Fun times ahead on the graphics front for PC users with the 9th series of Geforce cards just around the corner and looking fantastic.
MacBook Pro
12-11-2007, 20:33
* NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
This is what you need wan109
-=[101st]=-
13-11-2007, 00:45
the 8600 cards are pretty average, if you can afford a 8800gt then definately get that, if not the 8600 arent bad for the price.
However i'd wait a little longer and put together a money for a 8800gt if you're serious about wanting to play the latest games.
I'm pretty sure I'll be getting the 8800 GT now.
I've read what Sweey posted a few times already! :tongue:
Don Sweey
13-11-2007, 07:25
Pique, remember the dates above though: ATi expected to launch a new card on Thursday, nVidia next week. If nVidia launch a new GTS it will certainly cost more than the GT but it should still have a good price/performance ratio.
It should be expensive and I can't afford anything more than that.
* NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
This is what you need wan109
This is what you need Pique.
o0oGedo0o
13-11-2007, 12:47
i have a 7600 gs 512 MB, it's a decent graphics card, maybe not the best around but i read in a lot of reviews that it has the best performance/price ratio.
Don Sweey
13-11-2007, 20:18
512MB 8800GT benchmarks
GameSpot (http://uk.gamespot.com/features/6181908/index.html) (compared to 768MB 8800GTX, 512MB Radeon HD 2900 XT and 640MB 8800 GTS)
Tom's Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/29/geforce_8800_gt/page6.html#test_drive_unlimite d) (compared to 768MB 8800GTX, 512MB Radeon HD 2900 XT, 640MB 8800 GTS, 320MB 8800GTS, 512MB 8600GTS)
More news to follow in the next few weeks with the Radeon HD 3700 series being launched on Thursday and nVidia expected to launch their G92-based 8800GTS and 8800GTX. The forthcoming GTS and GTX are expected to obliterate the existing ones.
Nvidia was offering us only small bites around the perimeter of the GeForce 8 shortbread cookie, when what we really wanted was the dollop of strawberry jam sitting in the middle. If you imagine the most delicious jam in the world--made from ambrosia, beautiful strawberries, and hand-stirred by Oompa-Loompas--it would probably taste like a GeForce 8800 GT.
I love that bit. I've phoned a few 'computer shops' yesterday but none of them had the 8800 GT. I'll be phoning more of them today but unless I can't find the 8800 GT, what are any other cheap/good alternatives? There was a shop that had 256/320 mb 8800 GT, will that be good to play new games like Gears of War and the upcoming games?
Don Sweey
14-11-2007, 09:31
I love that bit. I've phoned a few 'computer shops' yesterday but none of them had the 8800 GT. I'll be phoning more of them today but unless I can't find the 8800 GT, what are any other cheap/good alternatives? There was a shop that had 256/320 mb 8800 GT, will that be good to play new games like Gears of War and the upcoming games?
What resolution are you going to be gaming at? I can't recall. If 1280x1024 or below, the 256MB GT might be fine but nobody is certain it is identical to the 512MB version. If gaming up to 1680x1050 you want the 512MB version only. Anything above and you're firmly in GTX territory. Some users claim they game at 1900-odd x whatever the other value is on an 8800GT but I think that's stretching the card. ATi release tomorrow...
I'll be gaming on a 17-19 inch LCD screen. :tongue:
NO ONE has the 8800 GT which sucks.
Yes ATI is releasing tomorrow but whether the bastards will have them, I don't know.
Don Sweey
14-11-2007, 10:11
You have to get them on pre-order. There are so many 8800GT's on pre-order that when new stock is arriving, it is all being despatched and still not clearing pre-orders. Overclockers UK were expecting lots this week so have a nose over there (http://www.overclockers.co.uk) but it'll be a similar issue. No website will say they have stock until pre-orders have been cleared.
There are concerns that although ATi's cards sound good, they've struggled recently with translating the on-paper impressiveness into the real world and that for this reason, nVidia haven't yet brought out the 9000 series - they don't need to. I'm no fan of ATi but their cards really need to challenge nVidia's properly or we consumers are going to be continually fed tiny revisions of existing hardware. I'm now toying with the idea of not buying a card until the 9000s are released and settled.
I live in Mauritius! which explains why I'm not getting 8800 GT anywhere.:tongue:
EDIT: Sweey, I managed to find a guy whose got a small company. I just talked to him. He told me he'll need to order it and I'll get it within a week.
I've posted what I'm thinking of buying in the Electronic Problem thread as this thread is for Graphics Cards.
o0oGedo0o
14-11-2007, 12:38
I live in Mauritius! which explains why I'm not getting 8800 GT anywhere.:tongue:
EDIT: Sweey, I managed to find a guy whose got a small company. I just talked to him. He told me he'll need to order it and I'll get it within a week.
I've posted what I'm thinking of buying in the Electronic Problem thread as this thread is for Graphics Cards.
Mauritius? weren't you with us in the same group in the african qualifiers?
I don't know Gedo. I've watched the(my) national team play only a few times, normally when I felt like sleeping and Liverpool isn't on TV.
I live in Mauritius! which explains why I'm not getting 8800 GT anywhere.:tongue:
Well, that sucks. I thought you were Indian. I even thought Sweey was, but.. he isn't.
What is the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport like? Have you been there? or were you born in the island?
The Macs doesn't sound like a bad idea, I'll be getting that this week.
Looking forward to using my flight simulator, finally.
It's a small airport. Nothing special really. My family is Mauritian but of Indian origin. I always thought you were 15!
Bare in mind that you won't be able to play PES and the like on a MAC unless you use a windows emulator. My elder cousin who's got a mac book uses/used a software to switch between OS. He had both mac and windows installed on separate partitions. I'll find out more and tell you about it.
Now enough of the off-topic. :offtopic:
It's a small airport. Nothing special really. My family is Mauritian but of Indian origin. I always thought you were 15!
Bare in mind that you won't be able to play PES and the like on a MAC unless you use a windows emulator. My elder cousin who's got a mac book uses/used a software to switch between OS. He had both mac and windows installed on separate partitions. I'll find out more and tell you about it.
Now enough of the off-topic. :offtopic:
I thought you were 13, I still think so. Ah, I've got a Macbook, but I'm getting the Macbook Pro. It's Bootcamp, the software that you need to switch OS.
Have you ever been to your motherland? or anywhere else?
Why not continue that via msn Dmitris? Mine is aristarchos@fastmail.fm
Don Sweey
15-11-2007, 20:12
nVidia Geforce 8800GT vs ATi Radeon HD 3870:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3151&p=6
nVidia have announced that the G92-based Geforce 8800GTS is expected to be available from December 3/4 and early rumours suggest that it will match the G80-based 8800GTX and Ultra. It is expected to cost around £210 but nothing is set in stone as yet.
How can someone determine that a graphic card is good?
More pipeline is better?
Don Sweey
20-11-2007, 09:40
No.
The Radeon HD 2900 has 320 stream processors (pipelines) and the 8800GTX which always beats it has 128. In addition, the Radeon HD 2900 has a core clock speed of 743Mhz and the 8800GTX a slower 610Mhz. The ATi card also has more memory bandwidth yet the memory clock speed is slower, the fill rate much slower, and it has 2/3 as many ROPs and half as many TMUs as the 8800GTX.
After all of that, take into consideration the fact that both cards deal with graphics in a different way, utilising their chosen processing path which is why ATi have more of some things and less of others and vice versa.
Finally, despite how things look on paper it is real-world performance which counts and while ATi appear to promise a lot from their cards on paper, the performance doesn't quite match up to it.
Confused? Good. It means I'm doing my job.
Stella Artois
20-11-2007, 10:39
Trust me, you are.
Don Sweey
20-11-2007, 11:30
nVidia announce 8800M series for notebooks; for those of you wanting to waste money on a high-end gaming laptop:
Nvidia has introduced its new top-of-the-range GeForce 8M-series mobile graphics processor, as forecast.
The GeForce 8800M GTX and the 8800M GTS both have cores clocked at 500MHz, but while the GTX incorporates 96 Stream processors - what Nvidia calls its unified shaders - the GTS has but 64. Both GPUs connect across a 256-bit bus to no more than 512MB of graphics memory, clocked at 800MHz.
The chips can use memory technologies up to and including GDDR 3.
The two GPUs can also be paired up within a suitable notebook enclosure to work together on rendering scenes using Nvidia's SLI technology. The chips support Microsoft's DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0.
Each has on separate, on-die video processing engine, the VP2, for handling HD codecs like H.264, VC-1, MPEG 2 and WMV 9 decoding. They'll feed dual-link DVI ports to support resolutions of up to 2560 x 1600, more than enough for 1080p HD, which the chips can also generate via analogue TV ports, should notebook makers include them.
Sweey, I'll be buying the 8800GT itself. I've got a question in mind though. After how many years would I need to change a graphics card then? Because spending roughly 160 bucks on a graphics card and needing to get another one after a year would be rather silly.
Don Sweey
06-12-2007, 10:29
Sweey, I'll be buying the 8800GT itself. I've got a question in mind though. After how many years would I need to change a graphics card then? Because spending roughly 160 bucks on a graphics card and needing to get another one after a year would be rather silly.
Make sure its the 512MB version.
The card should last a couple of years to be honest. The G92 architecture 8800GTS is being released now and early reviews show that it only just outperforms the GT which is a let down in respect of what people were hoping for.
Personally I'm still waiting for February's release of the 9 series but the rumour amongst consumers is that the 9800GT and GTS are going to be minor tweaks of their G92 architecture 8800 counterparts. That being the case, you wouldn't be going too far wrong with the 8800GT and ATi's inability to truly challenge the 8800GTX and Ultra means that nVidia aren't being rushed into producing more powerful graphics cards.
Yeah, thanks for the heads up man.
Yesterday Tom's Hardware, found pictures of the new G92 architecture graphics card from nVidia.
That's how it looks like:
http://images.tomshardware.com/2008/01/05/geforce_9800gx2_front.jpg
http://images.tomshardware.com/2008/01/05/geforce_9800gx2_front.jpg
http://images.tomshardware.com/2008/01/05/geforce_9800gx2_connectors.jpg
http://images.tomshardware.com/2008/01/05/geforce_9800gx2_top.jpg
http://images.tomshardware.com/2008/01/05/geforce_sli.jpg
We know that the 9800GX2 has 2 printed circuit boards (PCBs), as did the 7950GX2 in its time, two graphics processing units (GPUs) using 65 nm nodes (most likely G92s with 128 stream processors), 1 GB of memory (512 MB for each GPU) and two DVI outputs.
We don't know yet if the GeForce 9800GX2, which is supposed to be 30% faster than the 8800 Ultra, will support Quad SLI configurations.
The expected price: around $449 US. Expected announcement date: February 14, 2008.
I'm so glad my EN8800GT isn't so big. It is only a slot big, that's one of the reasons I love it! :tongue:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/05/exclusive_nvidia_geforce_9800g x2/
Don Sweey
07-01-2008, 20:35
The supposed "real" D9E (G100) specs of forthcoming nVidia cards:
55nm
~1800 transistors
DirectX-10.1
650 MHz core clock
1000 MHz memory clock
512-bit memory bandwidth
1024 MiB GDDR3
384 shader processors
The 9800GX2 (don't buy one!) is a G92 the same as an 8800GT but GX2's are two cards plonked together on one board which run as a single card unless a game is written for SLi - and as far as I'm concerned SLi isn't worth it. The 9800GTX which I likely won't buy (I never go for the absolute best card due to the relatively short life-span) is rumoured to be G100 but with the GX2 coming in Feb/Mar I'm not sure quite when the 9800GTX is meant to be arriving - and nobody is certain it'll be G100. Hmmmm.
The 512-bit memory bandwidth sounds lovely as does the 1GB memory.
I'll stick with my 8800GT for quite a while. I don't think there's much difference with the actual high-end GeForce cards and 9800GX2, :erm:.
That is a very good deal. Anyone looking for a new graphics card, I'd say go for it! http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/142746/inno3d-8800gt-g92-512mb-256bit-gddr/
The new GeForce 9600GT is out. Looks like it has a great price to performance ratio and makes the 256MB 8800GT a useless buy.
http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=3&id=2491
Here's the XFX version of the card. Methinks the box looks sexy.
http://www.hardwarezone.com/news/view.php?id=10028&cid=6
Ive just bought a new DELL XPS420 with a 8800 gt card, its great BUT playing pes 6 with vista there TERRIBLE screen tearing. Forcing Vsync to `on` makes no diffrerence. Does anyone know how to solve this? is it a vista or driver issue and will it be rectified with SP1? thanks for your help
Am I seeing things, mrbob7, or did I not say the 256MB 8800GT?
P.S: I own the 512 MB 8800GT.
I have no idea what your are seeing. I own the 512mb GT
Don Sweey
24-02-2008, 22:28
This really isn't the place for your question to be completely fair but I can't think of any solution other than changing your monitor's refresh rate.
Back on the intended topic in-hand, nVidia continue to release their 9-series cards with the 9800GX2 on March 11. It is essentially two 512MB 8800GT's together which act as a single card for games not written for SLi and obviously as a 2-in-1 solution for SLi games. In late March the 9800GTX will be released (believed to be an overclocked 512MB 8800GTS) followed by the 9800GT in early April. Nobody is impressed.
Those of us who didn't buy an 8800GTX or Ultra when they were first released are now eating our words as they almost certainly remain on top into the second half of this year, two years after their release which is virtually unheard of.
a 8800 gt card, its great BUT playing pes 6 with vista there TERRIBLE
I said that because I thought you responded to my initial post with that. :mellow: I understood after seeing the thread you made. ;)
Back on the intended topic in-hand, nVidia continue to release their 9-series cards with the 9800GX2 on March 11. It is essentially two 512MB 8800GT's together which act as a single card for games not written for SLi and obviously as a 2-in-1 solution for SLi games. In late March the 9800GTX will be released (believed to be an overclocked 512MB 8800GTS) followed by the 9800GT in early April. Nobody is impressed.
Those of us who didn't buy an 8800GTX or Ultra when they were first released are now eating our words as they almost certainly remain on top into the second half of this year, two years after their release which is virtually unheard of.
Nobody in general, but, I am! I'm fucking glad there aren't any major changes or I'd wave goodbye to playing games on high settings.:tongue:
How about making a 'Electronic Advice thread' and indexing most if not all of the problems listed in this thread. I'm well aware it is huge task but if everyone gave a hand, the job could be done. It will be much easier for people to search.
Don Sweey
08-03-2008, 20:27
25/02:
Don't you mean indexing the problems from the Electronic Problem thread? :>
If someone wants to do it and then PM or email me with it all done, that'd be good. I've been meaning to sort out a few things as I've had three or four instances where I've not been able to find an old post and therefore had to type for ten minutes to walk someone through all potential fixes to a problem they're having. Not fun.
08/03:
Goodbye PhysX hardware:
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6157&Itemid=1
Not a shock.
Not a surprise really. Why would a gamer want a PhysX card when he has a dual/quad core that does the job pretty well.
If we were still in the ages of single core processors, I think it might have worked.
EDIT: http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6162&Itemid=65
That cooler on the MSI 9600GT would help for some good overclocking.
Don Sweey
04-04-2008, 10:03
10/03:
Not a surprise really. Why would a gamer want a PhysX card when he has a dual/quad core that does the job pretty well.
If we were still in the ages of single core processors, I think it might have worked.
Jesus, a slight lack of knowledge there :doh:
The processor does not do the physics calculations as quickly as a graphics card will. Graphics cards have/will have GDDR3, GDDR4 and GDDR5 RAM which can/will be used to perform the task. It is more a case of the seperate PhysX cards being too costly when they were launched and not enough games taking advantage of them in any case. Graphics cards will integrate physics processing removing the requirement for a seperate physics-only card.
nVidia bought AGEIA and have now put an end to their products. This will ensure that physics are dealt with in the way nVidia have always intended - with a PPU (physics processing unit) on the GPU. The downside is that without sufficient bandwidth the graphics card will not be able to do its present job quickly enough as the same bandwidth will be used for physics calculations.
Whether we like it or not, this is the direction in which graphics cards are heading. It is also why we've now seen three-way SLi motherboards...two graphics cards used in SLi and a third, dedicated to physics, joining them
EDIT: http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6162&Itemid=65
That cooler on the MSI 9600GT would help for some good overclocking.
Not a top-end gaming card though so still not worth buying for games unless money is tight. In fact, even then it may be better to go for an 8800.
20/03:
The 9800GX2 has been released. Its performance really doesn't make it a worthwhile purchase due to the ridiculous price of it.
The 9800GTX which everyone is waiting for has been moved back a week - to April 1st! That card will tell everyone a lot...are the 9 series cards really all going to be recycled 8 series architecture maxed out or do they actually have a serious advantage to them?
ATi are also lowering the price of their 3870 cards with some believing this is a move aimed at clearing old chips before they release their R700 architecture.
23/03:
I've just seen the official specs for one of the 9800GTX cards and there is so little increase from previous cards that this should be considered a non-event as expected :doh:
Hopefully AMD/ATi will bring out their next big thing soon AND it puts a fire under nVidia because if not, we're going to be waiting a long time for improved graphics cards.
02/04:
The Geforce 9800GTX came out yesterday. Really not worth purchasing for anyone using an 8800GTX, GTS or GT. Rumours are that a 9900GTX and GX2 will be released in two or three months. I never buy a GTX as I don't game at over 1680x1050 and my PSU doesn't have two six-pin power connectors. I've had a GX2 before and frankly its too expensive for what it provides - SLi support but only in SLi-enabled games...which isn't enough games. I await the next GT or GTS.
10/04:
Graphics card "league table" as at mid-March:
9800GX2
HD3870 X2
8800Ultra
8800GTX
8800GTS 512MB (G92 Revision)
8800GT 512MB
8800GT 1GB
HD2900XT 1GB
HD2900Pro 1GB
HD3870 512MB
9600GT 512MB
HD2900XT 512MB
HD2900Pro 512MB
8800GTS 640MB
HD3850 512MB
8800GS 384MB
8800GT 256MB
8800GTS 320MB
7950GX2
HD 3850 256MB
X1950XTX
X1900XTX
X1950XT
X1900XT 512MB
7900GTX
X1900XT 256MB
7900GTO
7800GTX 512MB
7950GT
X1950Pro 512MB
X1950Pro 256MB
7900GT 512MB
8600GTS
X1800XT 512MB
7900GT 256MB
X1800XT 256MB
X1900GT
X1950GT
8600GT
X1900GT Rev2
7800GTX 256MB
7900GS
7800GT
X1800XL
7800GS
X1800GTO
HD2600XT
X1650XT
7600GT
HD2600Pro
X850XT/XTPE
X800XT/XTPE
6800Ultra/EE
6800GT
6800GS
X800XL
X850Pro
X800pro
X800GTO/GTO2
8500GT
X1650Pro
X1600XT
7600GS
HD2400XT
X800
6800
X800GT
7300GT
X1300XT
X1600Pro
8400GS
6800XT/LE
6600GT
HD2400Pro
X700Pro
9800XT
5950Ultra
9800Pro
5900Ultra
9700Pro
5800Ultra
9800
9800SE 256bit
S3 Chrome S27
X700
9700
5900
5800
X1300Pro
6600
5900XT
X600XT
TI4800
TI4600
9600XT
TI4800SE
X1550
X1300
5700Ultra
9500Pro
9800SE 128bit
X600
9600Pro
TI4400
9500
6600LE
X1300SE
5700
7300GS
9600
7100GS
6200
TI4200
X550
5600
5600XT
9550
9600SE
7300LE
5500
X1050
X300
7300SE
9550SE
9200Pro
9000Pro
Matrox Parhelia
8500Pro
GeForce3 TI500
8500
8500LE
5200Ultra
9200
9250
GeForce4 MX460
5200
9000
9200SE
GeForce3
GeForce3 TI200
GeForce4 MX 440
7500
GeForce2 Ultra
GeForce2 GTS
GeForce4 MX 420
Radeon (later renamed Radeon 7200)
GeForce 256 DDR
Voodoo5 5500
GeForce2 MX 400
GeForce 256
Savage 2000
GeForce2 MX
Radeon VE (later renamed Radeon 7000)
Voodoo4 4500
Matrox G400
TNT2
Rage128 Pro
Voodoo3
TNT
Rage128
Savage 4
Matrox G200
Riva128
Intel i740
Rage3D Pro
Voodoo Banshee
Voodoo2
Riva
Rage3D
VooDoo1
Taken from here (http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17860755)
That 9800 GTX is a disgrace. :)
http://img481.imageshack.us/img481/3507/humorkb5.jpg
9900?! :huh:
Don Sweey
05-04-2008, 10:45
9900?! :huh:
02/04:
The Geforce 9800GTX came out yesterday. Really not worth purchasing for anyone using an 8800GTX, GTS or GT. Rumours are that a 9900GTX and GX2 will be released in two or three months. I never buy a GTX as I don't game at over 1680x1050 and my PSU doesn't have two six-pin power connectors. I've had a GX2 before and frankly its too expensive for what it provides - SLi support but only in SLi-enabled games...which isn't enough games. I await the next GT or GTS.
Yep.
I was talking about the image I found and posted. It is edited, surely?
It is similar to one of the 7900 cards...
Don Sweey
06-04-2008, 10:09
I was talking about the image I found and posted. It is edited, surely?
It is similar to one of the 7900 cards...
Chances are its a 9800...or 8800. After all, the 9800 is a recycled 8800.
I.N Extasy
24-07-2008, 19:29
If anyone gave a shit; Ati have made two new cards, the 4850 and 4870 which had an outstanding price to performance ratio, which led to nVidia drastically lowering the prices of most of their cards.
Nice, to see Ati making a move. I wonder what the two of them have in store for next year.
Don Sweey
27-07-2008, 13:56
Thanks to ATi, nVidia have been forced to drastically reduce the price of their GTX260. At launch, the HD 4870 undercut the GTX260 by about £60 and was faster in almost every game. I've bought a HD 4870, my first ATi card ever, and don't regret it.
The HD 4850, available at around £110, is an exceptional card for its price. The HD 4870, typically £170-190, is hugely overclockable (as is the HD 4850) and can run games such as Race Driver GRID at 1920x1200 with an FPS of over 50 and as much as 100 using 8xMSAA. nVidia brought the GTX260 out at around £250 and the GTX280 at around £450. Both ATi cards support DirectX 10.1, as did the HD 38XX cards but nVidia's cards only support DirectX 10. This isn't a major issue at present due to the lack of games supporting DX10 but shows future-proofing.
The GTX280 remains the fastest single graphics card but only starts to pull away at a distance when gaming at 2560x1600 which is the native resolution of a 30" monitor.
Add to that the fact that SLi (nVidia's dual-card technology) far inferior to CrossFire (ATi's dual-card technology) and you can buy two HD 4850's for under £240 and two HD 4870's for under £400. The GTX280 costs £300-400.
nVidia have announced a big surprise in September which there are rumours about. Thanks to AMD, though, prices are continuing to fall and PC hardware has already blitzed "next-gen" console hardware.
PESFan92
23-10-2008, 12:10
I need a new graphics card. I play Flight Simulator X and i want a new graphics card, so i can play it with all settings set to Ultra-high and not have any lag.
Anyone know a good one? price is not an issue, but would be nice if its below £300.
Don Sweey
23-10-2008, 12:25
I need a new graphics card. I play Flight Simulator X and i want a new graphics card, so i can play it with all settings set to Ultra-high and not have any lag.
Anyone know a good one? price is not an issue, but would be nice if its below £300.
The very top cards tend to be under £300 now. I believe the latest top-end cards are the ATi Radeon HD4870X2 and nVidia GTX280. Both require two 6-pin PCI-E connectors on your power supply.
You might want to look into that a tiny bit more as I've not paid attention to the market for a couple of months.
vBulletin® v3.7.1, Copyright ©2000-2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.