I've been thinking about getting a new graphics card for a while. I currently have a Gforce FX5200. My system is 3.00GHZ and has 1gig of RAM. I want to buy a new graphics card but whenever I search online theres so much technical stuff.. It's way too confusing for me and I cant buy in a bricks and mortar shop because there arent many around here that would have a good selection. I wonder if anyone here can recommend or find me a/few good graphics card/s? My budget is about £120-£200 ($200-$400, i think) Edit: I'm looking for something that will stand up to new games such as C&C 3 and beyond that.
I dunno how much a 7600 is now but it was pretty cheap when i got it and runs stuff pretty well...... I have similar specs otherwise and don't have any problems with empires/stuff.
I guess you've got an AGP 8x board? If that's the case either 7600GT or X1950Pro depending on your budget.
@Simon - what is a 7600? :S sorry to be so noobish about this! @Don: Whats an AGP 8x board? Is this one any good? http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&sku=490-10444
Tarantio: 7600 refers to the nVidia Geforce 7600, which is, I believe, the most recent board from nVidia that actually comes in AGP, and probably the LAST board from nVidia that will come in AGP.
@Niarbeht: Is AGP bad then? :S I'm looking for something that will stand up to new games such as C&C 3 and beyond that. I dont understand because I find a 256mb card like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Connect-Rad..._24/203-1290063-1631969?ie=UTF8&s=electronics for £45. And then I also find a 256mb card: http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&sku=490-10444 for £143. This is entirely confusing for me!
HOLY CHRIST!!! :eek: I knew Dell was expensive but that ... it's just harsh. I was referring to your mainboard, it's graphics port should be either AGP4x, AGP8x or PCIe. It's important since AGP cards don't fit into PCIe and vise-versa, AGP8x cards however fit into AGP4x without problems. You can check your graphics port inside your driver options (Desktop-Properties-Properties-Advanced-*YourGraphicsCard* .. possibly) or inside your BIOS. You have to know this before even looking for a card. If you don't find it you can still post your Mainboards exact name here and I'll look it up. nVidia GeForce 7600GT and ATI Radeon X1950Pro are their full names (the GPUs, manufactures name their cards independently) They cost 120 and 190€ respectively (for me :p), should be slightly less in pounds.
AGP is the type of slot that the video card goes into. If you don't have a PCIexpress slot, then you have to get an AGP card. (like me)
@Don: I checked like you said and it's an AGP8x now what? http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/6306/untitledew1.png - Is that the right AGP thing?
I looked at an extensive guide. The ATI's card trails behind so dont bother with that. Its just a battle between the 7600 and the 7800. The 7600 peforms at the same speed as the 7800 and sometimes even beats it for a MUCH smaller price. But when you completely and utterly maxamize graphics the 7800 will beat the 7600 by a decent margin. Depends if you dont mind spending extra money for the last agp card released from nvidia. I'm going to pruchase a 7600 soon for my supreme commander activitys. My 6800 works, but not at the peformance I need.
So it's a battle between: nVidia GeForce 7600GT - (Which Decemberscalm is getting) and the: nVidia GeForce 7800 - (is that correct?) Anyone got links to these on Amazon/Dell so i can see? And are there any better for my price range? thanks for all the help by the way guys
I know this is going to sound imature, but i spent a hell of a long time researching cards when i was going to buy one, and i found that in the end, if you just stick to one site with a lot of cards, you can pretty much tell which is the best card by the prices. they don't EVER seem to put a good card cheaper than any worse card. the cheapest place I've found for this is Ebuyer.com but once you've found the exact card you want then search for it across the web to find the absolute best price. also check out the deals on every site, they often make deals just to draw customers in that don't make them any profit, so it's a great place to get a good card for less than it's worth.
I highly discourage this, especially if you're on AGP. The 7600 is only really slightly if at all faster than a 6800. You would waste your money. Buy a X1950Pro, it's almost as fast as a 7900, yet much cheaper and probably the last ATI AGP card anyways. back to the original topic, Yes that's the right AGP thing. Don't make the mistake to buy a PCIe card. It's quite a step up from a 7600 to 7800, both in price and performance, your choice. The X1950Pro however is faster than a 7800 and should be cheaper, actually it's almost as fast as a 7900, like stated above. I seem to have problems finding UK shops, though. #Edit: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119956 for example Hmm.. http://www.ebuyer.com got pretty decent prices..
I think the X1950Pro sounds good.. So it's full name us: nVidia GeForce X1950Pro ? Ya? And it costs 190€ which doesnt sound at all too bad :D
ATI Radeon X1950Pro actually :p http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119956 this is what you want. or one of those: http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/search/?qfind=7600gt+agp (nVidia GeForce 7600GT) In the End it's up to you, you won't make a mistake by buying a GeForce 7600/7800/7900 or Radeon X1950, they're all pretty powerfull, it depends on how much you want to spend (and if you prefer ATI or nVidia). Just make sure to buy an AGP card.
Ok, Wow! Thankyou so much for the help, I'm almost ready to buy :D I think I'm going for the ATI Radeon X1950Pro.. The specs look better? and the price is good. Will it be able to handle Supreme Commander? i'm not actually sure if I prefer ATI or nVidia.. I usually went with nVidia 'cause of the "nVidia.. the way it's meant to be played" slogans. Just gotta figure out how to install it before I buy it. I opened my computer earlier and I cant find my graphics card in there :S I dont know where it is or where a new one will go (because I dont really know what I'm searching for in there) I remember installing one a few years ago and the guy at the shop said the graphics card is the one with the bit of brown plastic on the end or something like that? EDIT: I found where the card is/goes... it's the bit towards the back, under the fans and the blue monitor cord plugs into it through the metal? Can you confirm this? Um.. I just looked at the requirments and it says the ATI Radeon X1950Pro... Software / System Requirements Windows Vista But I'm only running XP!!! :S
Yes it should be the card / slot where the (usually blue) monitor cable goes too. In most cases the uppermost slot of your case and mainboard. http://i9.tinypic.com/3y80kcg.jpg I marked this boards AGP slot red, just to avoid misunderstanding. Where did you see the Windows Vista part? I don't seem to find it. The card should run on Windows 98 and newer. #Edit: Software / System Requirements Windows Vista Windows Vista Ready this part? they're only trying to say that the card runs fine under Windows Vista. But I agree that it's a bit misleading.
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...XRpb25z&product_uid=119956&spec_type=bWFpbg== If you click Specification and then "Extended Specification" - at the bottom it says Windows Vista. Do you have this card? What are you running? Thanks for the help with the card slot
A friend of mine has got one, it's manufacturer is Gigabyte though and I don't know if he's got 256 oder 512MB of RAM, so basicly same Chipset but a slightly different card. (In most cases the only real difference is the RAM used and the cooler. ) I for myself have a Radeon X800 in my newer and GeForce4 Ti4200 in my older system. Just in case you didn't see my edit regarding the Vista part, have a look 2 posts up :p They worded themselves poorly.
K, now Tarantio, please realize something. Does the size of your hard drive determine the speed of your computer? Say computer A has a 250 gig HD, same as computer B. Does that mean they're the same speed? No. Computer A might have, say, a 350MHz Pentium II. Computer B might be some kind of crazy-ass quantum computer. Thus, as you can see, not all 256 meg cards are equal. Use google to find benchmarks related to the various models of cards. EDIT: Ahh, I see people have showed you this. I am silly, and should be slapped.