Need assistance with choosing a Graphics card.

[DejaVu]

I've got a few games now, that use something called Shader 3.0 and DirectX10 and everytime I install them, it moans tht my crappy Radeon X300 doesnt support it.

Up til know, I've muscled through with my card, but am know a little sick of it.

I dont really want to spend fortunes on a graphics card. I'm not really after high end graphics as my PC would probably fall into a fit and die on it's feet! I have been looking at the HIS HD 2900 Pro 512Mb GDDR3 VIVO PCIe (http://www.hisdigital.com/html/product_ov.php?id=341) card as it sounds and looks pretty good and wont break my bank. I'm looking in the £100 mark if that helps.

Would really appreciate help with this as when it comes to Graphic Cards, I'll be the first to admit, I'm clueless!I've been told to steer clear of nVidia, because I use 'Clone Display's' and have been told nVidia arent as good as ATI for it.


Anyone have any idea's about the above card or can suggest a good card for the cash!?

[DaMack]

I'd say at a 100 pound price tag the only solution for you is a HD 4850.

It comes in at a little over a 100 quid, 108 is the best price I've found:

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/1304...2-mb-gddr.html

It's the latest generation ATI card and it's the best value card on the market, for a 100 quid there is no real compromise in performance it will sail through any game on the market upto a reasonable resolution and can even play Crysis at 1600x1200 at an acceptable framerate.

It has video acceleration and a lot of other perks as well and IMO it's the best card at that pricepoint period. I can whole heartedly recommend it it's the best value card I've ever owned.

[face]

i hear that the 2900pro is a good overclocker. Another one to look out for is the hd3870 you can get it for just under £100 if you look around and don't want the best cooler on it.
added: just seen post above and i would agree that 4850 is good for that price

[DejaVu]

I agree! Most definately!

I can go to that £115 delivered!, but I'm a little concerned about the spec of my PC! LOL.

My PC is a AMD Sempron 3400+ with 1.5Gb RAM.
I'm not even sure if my Mobo supports PCI-e v2.0, does it need to?

Although, I am looking to upgrade my CPU/Mobo soon anyways (Perhaps next month).

Is this odd -
1) http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/1344...12-mb-gdd.html £175
2) http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/1304...2-mb-gddr.html £108!!??

-Edit- No DejaVu! Different cards dumbass! lol

[DaMack]

I agree! Most definately!

I can go to that £115 delivered!, but I'm a little concerned about the spec of my PC! LOL.

My PC is a AMD Sempron 3400+ with 1.5Gb RAM.
I'm not even sure if my Mobo supports PCI-e v2.0, does it need to?

Although, I am looking to upgrade my CPU/Mobo soon anyways (Perhaps next month).

RAM shouldn't really be a problem unless your using Vista. Still even with XP 2GB of RAM is recommended nowadays so that can be cheaply remedied since RAM is quite cheap and your not far off that mark.

Man your Sempron 3400+ is probably going to be a very very nasty bottleneck though you'll have to look into that to make use of the more powerful GPU's out nowadays.

PCIe 2.0 is backwards compatible with PCIe 1.0 and 1.1 so that wont be a problem and really you don't need a PCIe 2.0 motherboard, even though it's supposed to have twice the bandwidth it really doesn't make use of it.

I'd still recommend the HD 4850 though your processor will bottleneck most new GPU's but when you do update you'll have a kick ass GPU at that pricepoint anyway.

[DejaVu]

Cheers for your help, it's put me clearer in the picture!

I'm sure my Mobo supports AMD x64 so I may go for just a processor.
Hopefully Dual Core, but again, not wanting to go too overboard.

My Mobo -
http://www.gatumdale.com/webshaper/s...roductItem=413

I've found a Athlon 64 AM2 X2 5000+ for £50 what d'you reckon?

Any other recommendations?

[DaMack]

It's a fantastic bang for the buck CPU and I think it'll go well with your set up, throw in another 1 GB of RAM and as long as your mobo isn't too bad you should be off with a great set up that should really do okay with anything you can throw at it.

You gotta love being a PC gamer man people always talk about how expensive it is compared to console gaming but in this market you can build a hell of a set up on a great budget.

[broona]

Buy that CPU and this GPU, the combination will obliterate your current setup for less than a ton.

[DejaVu]

Excellent advice there DaMack. Thank you very much.
I'll keep you posted. I reckon, I might get the processor and RAM first. At least it'll speed my machine up. Then I'll invest in the Graphics next month. Probably makes more sense.

No point having a slow machine with a fast graphics card! lol

--EDIT--
And broona storms into the thread with a bloody great spanner in the works!! lol

[broona]

PS, if you're buying the GPU from Ebuyer, buy the CPU there too - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135663

[broona]

Sorry, but for £95, it'd be rude not to!

What sort of power's your PSU got, specifically the 12v rails? If it's an older one, a 4850 might be too much for it, but a 3850 might scrape by.

[DejaVu]

Decision's decisions.

Whats the difference in GPU cards here? The 'Under a ton' is swinging it for me! lol

If I go to eBuyer, I might as well get the RAM at the same time!

[broona]

Decision's decisions.

Whats the difference in GPU cards here? The 'Under a ton' is swinging it for me! lol

The 4850 is considerably faster than the 3850, especially when you start applying AA/AF, but it's also at least double the price, so it all depends on your budget.

[DejaVu]

My budget is pretty tight, so looking at the setup your suggesting, would my PC be able run most new games pretty smoothly. That's all it's really about. Will it struggle with some graphic intense situations. I like driving games mostly.

My PSU is 400W I think. (Not opened it in a while!)

I'll also load Vista on (probably) if it's gonna be able to cope. Although, letting go of XP will be a mission! lol

[broona]

My budget is pretty tight, so looking at the setup your suggesting, would my PC be able run most new games pretty smoothly. That's all it's really about. Will it struggle with some graphic intense situations. I like driving games mostly.

It should do OK, but will obviously do better with a 4850.

I run a stock 3850 with a stock E8400, and it handles most games at 1680X1050, struggles with Crysis, but which cards don't?!

[DejaVu]

Great advice there fella's.

I think I'm gonna go for the 3850, 5000+ AMD and a stick of RAM totalling £112.98 WIV DELIVERY! WOW!

Seeing as my current monitor (shitty CRT 19") wont get too 1680X1050 I reckon I'll be shifting along at a pace I'm really not used too! lol

Not any rush for it... Upto 5 days (Free Delivery!) Superb! £106!

[DaMack]

Wow I thought 3850's were off the market thats an amazing price for that GPU man.

On a budget your really making the right decision the HD 3850 should manage most games at a decent resolution.

Good luck with your set up man.

[broona]

You'll probably be running 1280X1024 on a 19" monitor, so that's approximately two thirds of the pixels my setup's gotta render, so a 3850 should see you through nicely until your next full rebuild, or your next new monitor.

[DejaVu]

On the strength of my fellow DF'ers info, I've ordered this -

Item: Extra Value 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz PC2-6400 240pin Extra Value Ram
Item: PowerColor HD 3850 Pro 512MB GDDR3 256bit Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card
Item: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Socket AM2 2.6GHz Energy Efficient L2 1MB (2x512KB) Cache Retail Boxed Processor

Your order total was £122.12

BARGAIN!

I'll let ya know how I get on when they arrive on September 1st! Bloody Bank Holiday's

[face]

Good choice. Glad you got it sorted and you will need vista on it if you want to do dirext x 10 so the 2gig of ram will really help (sweet spot for vista)