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GFX CARD HELP!
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Member
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29. July 2007 @ 16:05 |
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Hi fellow afterdawners!
I live in the UK and i want to upgrade my gfx card so its capable of running most games at the moment at high performance. OK, so first let me tell you my budget, around about £120.00.
My system specs at the moment are:
XP professional sp2
1.00gb of ram - hoping to upgrade.
amd athlon 64 processor 3000+
nvidia geforce 6200 turbo cache 256mb
Motherboard Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Motherboard Model: GA-K8NMF-9.
any help is welcome. Thanks very much.
Ben.
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jazbebies
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29. July 2007 @ 16:20 |
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Hi,
I see you can take pci express 16x on your board. For the price budget you could pick up a decent ATI x1950pro 512mb which i have recently purchased for £110 from ebay, runs all my games i have on high fine. I was drawn between that card and the Nvidia 8600gts which i purchased also for my other computer, runs just as good if not sometimes better than the x1950pro.
But i have seen a few nvidia 8800gts cards go for around £140 on ebay which beats both of the above cards, but its a case of waiting for them to appear.
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Member
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29. July 2007 @ 16:51 |
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thanks alot for your help.
three quick questions:
1. when you say the nvidia 8800gts, i searched it and found a load off different products? 320mb? 640? thanks.
2. if you dont mind me asking, what games have you ran on high settings and with which cards. thanks.
and 3. how much ram do i need to run these types of games? more?
thanks alot.
Ben.
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jazbebies
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29. July 2007 @ 17:15 |
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The 320mb model i was referring to as the 640mb would be impossible to get for the budget.
I havnt run all my games since purchasing the cards but i have have smooth gameplay on RS Vegas, Quake 4 and GRAW (ghost recon advanced warfighter) all on maxed out settings.
If you can get at least 1.5gb of ram you would be good to go but 1gb is still enough to run the latest games out there.
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Member
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29. July 2007 @ 17:33 |
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well to tell you the truth, i was in particular lookign for a card to max out vegas! so that made my day! what card did you say would be good for it? all 3 or just the 8800. thanks. oh and when you said graw, was that graw 1 or 2?
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jazbebies
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29. July 2007 @ 18:17 |
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Take your pick either 3 will do job fine.
obviously they each have different price tags but what it comes down to is performance.
8800gts 320mb £170-200 less if ya lucky.
8600gts 256mb £130 inc vat & del
x1950pro 512mb £110 inc vat & del
Having not tested the 8800gts i couldnt comment on the performance, but by the specs ive seen its better than them two trust me lol.
The nvidia 8600gts i have is the limited edition model which has been severely overclocked 760/2350mhz 32pipes & has the HDMI port. Also can run directx10 games. uses zalman cooling.
ATI x1950pro handles fine with the games ive mentioned running at 580/1400mhz 36pipes also has twice the memory.
Bought both from ebay so can send links if required.
As i say all will work and the GRAW i was referring to was the first.
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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30. July 2007 @ 01:00 |
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Your processor will struggle to let you max out Vegas, that game's CPU intensive too.
What rating is your power supply? You'll be DOUBLING your power consumption when you add that Graphics card.
The 8800GTS is the best GPU out there, but considering you'll need to upgrade your power supply no matter which PSU you buy, you'll probably have to downscale things a bit.
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Senior Member
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30. July 2007 @ 03:49 |
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Sammoris, don't forget about the 8800 ultra, -that's the best card out there right now. (You can put 2 in sli too to make it way better)
Bennasher, I would go with the 8800gts 320mb (640 if you can afford it) you will get dx10 with that if you want to play upcoming games like crysis too.
As sammoris said, I think you might be bottlenecking the newer games with your cpu. Try to get a core 2 duo and then overclock it. I think you can get a lower end one for like 50usd and since they overclock great, you can make them be as fast as the 300usd ones.
8800gts (320mb, 640 for a tiny extra performance, and money)
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Member
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30. July 2007 @ 03:51 |
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ahh man! so what do i need to do and how much do you think itll cost!
thanks! oh and ive been hearing a lot about these directx10 cards, do you know what they are and if i should get them?
Also, i was looking on ebuyer for differnt gfx cards and i dont understand why there were i think 2 512mb gfx cards for around £60 each? what does that mean!? thanks alot. i think my psu is 230v?
and not to sound like a newbie but i dont really understand overclocking much.
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Member
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30. July 2007 @ 03:56 |
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Member
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30. July 2007 @ 04:27 |
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I also think i may be able to stretch my budget to around £160-170. If that helps me gt anything better - what do you guys think? do i need a new cpu, powersupply, ram ect.??
Thanks.
Ben
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jazbebies
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30. July 2007 @ 04:31 |
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The processor you got there is the same i have in my laptop and apparantly equivalent to a 3ghz which is good enough to run these intense games to a certain extent. before you think about upgrading it, its best to purchase your gpx card & psu first as your gonna have to purchase them anyway. that way you can test out the gaming performance of your athlon64 3000+.
If you have a psu thats say below 400w then you will definately have to purchase a better model with more umph. preferably a good branded name such as antec and thermaltake with 500w +
Here are some item numbers to the cards i purchased from ebay.
130134897356, 170133325561
Them two cards from ebuyer you posted are very low spec to this day as the spec of them will struggle to run the latest game such as vegas. so they are cheap for a reason. plus the second link is an agp version which isnt supported on your motherboard.
Directx10 is something which is just coming into the world of gaming and to have a card ready for it is a bonus as therefore it will save you having to upgrade like 18months down the line. You would definately see the benefit of the nvidia 8800 series of cards from now and in time to come.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 30. July 2007 @ 22:49
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Member
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30. July 2007 @ 04:36 |
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the two ebay things you just sent, are they two good ones that i should think of purchasing, will they be able to run new games e.g. vegas,and will they need t obe overclocked (whatever that is!) thanks.
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jazbebies
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30. July 2007 @ 04:42 |
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Yeah they both are capable without overclocking, as you see the 8600gts has been overclocked already by the manufacturer so you wont need to do it yourself. but i have managed to push a bit more out of it to an extent that if it was pushed up some more it would come unstable.
I would say they are both a good example of a mid range card that can handle current released games at a reasonable spec & price.
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Member
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30. July 2007 @ 04:48 |
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ok, so if i find a 8800gts 320mb that will allow to max out most games, and so will the two you jsut showed me - but they are 256mb. so what do you all advise i do. and how much rougly is a good psu?
thanks alot.
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jazbebies
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30. July 2007 @ 04:58 |
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If you can afford to get a 8800 series card then you should as it will last for a long time yet and can support latest directx10 games.
The two i posted are decent cards for a budget, the nvidia has 256mb and the ati 512mb.
For a good psu your looking at £40 inc p&p for a thermaltake 500w on ebay, but depends if your gonna add alot more hardware to your pc, you'll then may need to splash out a tad more. But you should be safe with a 500w on your setup.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 30. July 2007 @ 13:07
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AfterDawn Addict
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30. July 2007 @ 07:11 |
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I wouldn't recommend buying a PSU off ebay. I know most sellers are reputable, but if you get a dodgy unit you could destroy your PC. A decent PSU from a major retailer like Scan is about £50, but if you want to max out Vegas, that depends on the resolution you run it at. If you have a standard 17" or 19" monitor then you'll be running 1280x1024, which an 8800GTS will just about be able to handle. Above that though, and you'll be wanting more.
If you find an 8800GTS for £120 though, you let me know, that's half the price they should be.
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Member
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30. July 2007 @ 10:32 |
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so basically what i need to be looking at is geting
a new psu,
maybe another 512mb - 1gbg of ram
and either a 8800gts 320mb or a ATI RADEON X1950 or a 8600 GTS or a 8800 640mb??
for my budget of £160-170, waht do you thing my best option is.
also, can anyone explain how to and what exactly is overclocking.
Id like to thank all of you for your help so far its been great!
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AfterDawn Addict
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30. July 2007 @ 10:42 |
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I think you'll have to go with an 8600GTS, an extra gig of RAM and a new PSU. You won't be able to make all three upgrades and get any of the other cards for that budget. Sadly this means you won't be able to max Vegas.
As for overclocking, we have a dedicated thread for it, see there.
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Member
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30. July 2007 @ 10:57 |
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ah, thats kind of annoying! so teh card you say i should get - the 8600, thats 256mb right? and another gig of ram. ok. thanks alot, if i have anymore problems ill post. thanks.
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AfterDawn Addict
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30. July 2007 @ 11:12 |
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AND A POWER SUPPLY.
That's critically important. And it's an 8600GTS, specifically.
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Member
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31. July 2007 @ 15:53 |
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ok, i know this might be a bit random. But my budget has now increased to around 220 - 240. what can i do with this would you say?
thanks alot.
Ben.
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jazbebies
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31. July 2007 @ 16:22 |
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Been gambling have ya mate lol
You should be definately able to afford all 3 upgrades then,
For a decent power supply your looking at £40-50 inc p&p
1GB ddr400 £30 - £40 inc p&p
8600gts £130 inc p&p
With some money left over from budget.
But If you was to purchase a 8800gts card instead of the other, your looking at £175 inc p&p
So thats the whole budget gone.
Just to note that these prices are from ebay, if you was to purchase elsewhere then your looking at considerably higher costs.
Perhaps others have ideas where to purchase for your price budget.
PD 3.8ghz (OC) Duo, Air Duct tubed Antec p182, 2gb ddr2 800mhz,Adaptec 29320A-R U320, 2 x 72gb 15k scsi hdds, 150gb 10k sata Wd Raptor, 2 x LG Supermulti dvdrw, Tagan TG700-U35 700w, Realtek HD Audio, Nvidia 8600gts (OC) 760/2350mhz Limited Edition HDMI. Yuraku 19" TS.
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Member
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31. July 2007 @ 16:29 |
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ok then, thanks alot, ill see what i can do with it. By saturday or sunday i should have looked about. Ill look all over the place, not only ebay though. I will definately write back here to say what i got and what you think of it.
Thanks for all of your help.
Ben.
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2. August 2007 @ 10:30 |
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