Graphics Cards, Help!


Bingo Jesus

GP2X Hardcore
Joined
Jun 25, 2004
Messages
384
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Location
Cumbria, UK
Half-Life² arrived this morning, and I've had a good day playing Counter Strike Source, I was managing not to die as quickly buy the end of it. However playing Half-Life was like running through porridge, low frame rates and long loading times. It was playable, but I don't want to waste the game playing it like this. So I've decided I need a new Graphics card. I think I'll get a Radeon, as I seem to remember that when Half-Life² was released it was banded around that it was optimised for Radeon.

I'm looking to spend around £40-80, any more and I think I'll just stick to Counter Strike. A full upgrade is out of the question, I make £200 a month, and that's for driving lessons and my upcoming Holiday. Please could I have some suggestions, I've not looked at Graphics cards in ages, so I'm very out of the loop, what the best card I can buy in that price range, and is it worth the upgrade?

My Computer's specs,

Windows XP Home (S.P. 2),
AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0 GHz),
384 MB of RAM (the other 128 MB is dedicated to the on-board graphics),
GeForce 4 MX Integrated GPU,
On-board sound
 
trooper posted on Jul 26 2005 at 12:51 AM said:
Althought it`s a last generation card, For your budget, The best option would probably the Ati radeon 9800 pro.

Take a look at the link below to see a round-up of various graphics cards.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/2...ts-pcie-05.html

And below for an idea of price.

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/in...oduct_uid=55198

Hope this helps.

Trooper

I like the look of that card, it seems like people think well of it. It's only 128MB though, do I need any more?
 
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Theres no point at getting any higher than 128mb at this point, as by the time games start to need that much video RAM they will need a much faster card than a radeon 9800 pro.
Good card though, I know as I have one.
 
I wont sugest a ati, they have many little problems compatibility wise, and the drivers arent as stable as the nvidea one, especialy the linux and 64bit ones.
Also ATI cards dont support SM3.0, wich makes many games look less good, or not work at all.

If you look for a cheap and good card i sugest you to go for a gefore 6600gt or a 6800le agp(you cn unlook it to at least gt ranges or ultra with some luck useing rivatuner), they will both be able to give you 100fps in source based systems when the rest of your system is strong enugh, i gues you could get 50-80 fps with that system, price should be arround 90gbp but you get much more value.

For ~70gbp you could go for a geforce 6600 its also good and you can get it to gt levels with some overclocking.

If you want the cheapest possible (~30-50gbp) go for a geforce 6200, it is kind of slow (but faster than the 4mx for sure) but still suports all the great fetures of the other 6xxx cards, with some overclocking and unlocking you can get it to/near 6600 levels.

I sugest you to use google to find out wich performance in hl2 you can expect, just search for "name benchmark".
All the above cards should be able to run hl2 based games at a good playable speed at mid-high settings.

Also, as your system haves a onboard card, are you sure it haves a agp slot?
 
You could always go super-budget like me and get a geforce fx5500 256 ddr for 20 quid, inclusive of P&P! I asume its a fairly crap card, but tis still infinitely better than my 64mb geforce mx200
 
trooper posted on Jul 26 2005 at 12:51 AM said:

After looking around at 9800 Pro cards, I ended up buying this one. Thanks for all your help, hopefully soon I'll be able to regale you all with tales of Half-Life.

On another note though, I paid extra for ebuyer to deliver it tomorrow, but they haven't dispatched it yet, I'm not holding out high hopes for delivery on time.
 
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Vimacs posted on Jul 26 2005 at 07:29 PM said:
Also, as your system haves a onboard card, are you sure it haves a agp slot?

Long brown port, set a centimeter or two back from the PCIs? Actually of course it does, I remember buying it as it had 4x/8x AGP port, as I had intentions of upgrading as I bought it, then I never got around to it.
 
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Vimacs posted on Jul 26 2005 at 10:19 PM said:
nhice, but why did you buy the ati when i sugested you not to.. :-(

1) Budget

2) Suggestion/Advice are given, Not forced

3) Not everyone is a "leet haxor" (<- i hate that crap :rolleyes:) and is willing to try and overclock something they have just paid for with their own hard earned cash and risk destroying it, No matter how easy it is. Especially if you are on a low budget such as Bingo.

Trooper
 
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Vimacs posted on Jul 26 2005 at 08:29 PM said:
I wont sugest a ati, they have many little problems compatibility wise, and the drivers arent as stable as the nvidea one, especialy the linux and 64bit ones.
Also ATI cards dont support SM3.0, wich makes many games look less good, or not work at all.

If you look for a cheap and good card i sugest you to go for a gefore 6600gt or a 6800le agp(you cn unlook it to at least gt ranges or ultra with some luck useing rivatuner), they will both be able to give you 100fps in source based systems when the rest of your system is strong enugh, i gues you could get 50-80 fps with that system, price should be arround 90gbp but you get much more value.

For ~70gbp you could go for a geforce 6600 its also good and you can get it to gt levels with some overclocking.

If you want the cheapest possible (~30-50gbp) go for a geforce 6200, it is kind of slow (but faster than the 4mx for sure) but still suports all the great fetures of the other 6xxx cards, with some overclocking and unlocking you can get it to/near 6600 levels.

I sugest you to use google to find out wich performance in hl2 you can expect, just search for "name benchmark".
All the above cards should be able to run hl2 based games at a good playable speed at mid-high settings.

Also, as your system haves a onboard card, are you sure it haves a agp slot?
I'm pretty sure I got a 6600 gt... how do I check?
 
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loz_the_guru posted on Jul 26 2005 at 08:42 PM said:
You could always go super-budget like me and get a geforce fx5500 256 ddr for 20 quid, inclusive of P&P! I asume its a fairly crap card, but tis still infinitely better than my 64mb geforce mx200
Do you mind me asking where from?
 
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Vimacs posted on Jul 26 2005 at 09:19 PM said:
nhice, but why did you buy the ati when i sugested you not to.. :-(

I'm sorry, one for the reasons trooper said, and secondly that I bought the card before work (at 15.30), but didn't post until when I got back (at 20.30). But thanks for the advice anyway.
 
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LHC posted on Jul 26 2005 at 09:54 PM said:
loz_the_guru posted on Jul 26 2005 at 08:42 PM said:
You could always go super-budget like me and get a geforce fx5500 256 ddr for 20 quid, inclusive of P&P! I asume its a fairly crap card, but tis still infinitely better than my 64mb geforce mx200
Do you mind me asking where from?


why of course, the magnificent wonder that is ebay.co.uk! BTW, is the card actually any good?
 
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trooper posted on Jul 27 2005 at 03:00 PM said:
Goity posted on Jul 27 2005 at 01:21 PM said:
I actually have a Radeon 9200 SE AGP.... are these any good?

No, Well not for games anyway.

Have a look here (link below), Fastest cards at the top.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/2...-charts-06.html

Scroll down near the bottom of the page to see other links for benchmarks, just for laughs. :p

Trooper
Huh? The 9200 se 128 isn't on there...
 
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Goity posted on Jul 27 2005 at 06:09 PM said:
trooper posted on Jul 27 2005 at 03:00 PM said:
Goity posted on Jul 27 2005 at 01:21 PM said:
I actually have a Radeon 9200 SE AGP.... are these any good?

No, Well not for games anyway.

Have a look here (link below), Fastest cards at the top.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/2...-charts-06.html

Scroll down near the bottom of the page to see other links for benchmarks, just for laughs. :p

Trooper
Huh? The 9200 se 128 isn't on there...

True, But your`s is a cut down version of the R 9200, So it will mostly perform worse that a R 9200 128.

EDIT: Look at the R 9600, Then look at the R 9600 SE, See the difference ?. Thats about the relative difference between your cards and the R 9200 128.

Hope thats clear.

Trooper
 
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