Budget friendly gfx cards

[Kage]

Hehe, I have a Radeon 9800PRO card, and I just haven't been happy with it. It was the first time I chose ATI, because I had a Nvidia Geforce 2MX400 in it before.
Its not a bad card, but I expected better, and not in game quality or anything like that.

Yeah I get your point. It is true though isn't it that every card behaves a bit differently from each other. This is weird but tends to be true. Some cards might overclock more than others and some to extremes. Your mate could have just got a semi-decent version

I understand though, and say okay to that. Though if AGP is all you have, like me, you have no choice really

Your choice mate. Any of the latest cards you go for won't dissapoint you I'm sure. Especially the 6600GT's for that very cheap budget card greatness, or the 6800 lines for more money, that deliver high settings in any game. Though if you don't have the monitor to support these high settings, at least you know it'll last much longer than a card that could run at just high settings for your monitor, and so will last longer.

Or go for ATI, the X700 is supposed to be the same spec as the 6600GT but by ATI, but falls short in some tests.
The X800 then moves up the chain, becoming more like the 6800 models.

Then if your a game machine, the ATI Radeon x850 cards littrally eat the latest games for breakfast though this definetly won't be in your range I'm sure. A Geforce card like this one would probably be the 6800 Ultra in terms of sameness and specs

Hope this helps

 

[TOWT]

so it would be worth the extra money to spend on a 6800 or an ati equivilant

 

[Kage]

Yep. It'd definitely last longer, even if you didn't want to shove the settings all the way up. Think of it this way. If it can run all games now at top settings (more than most people would), then it'll of course play games for longer until settings need to be set to low like with old cards in a couple of years. See what I mean? Makes sense really. Especailly if you just want to buy one and forget about it for a while

If your into a budget card though, I think the 6600 GT is still the way to go, though it wont last you as long, thoguh it can run games at rather high settings now.

 

[mighty_chick]

i would definitly go for the 6800+ or X800+. i would have but i was tight for money adn teh neo 4 platinum mobo doesnt have onboard video.

 

[TOWT]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814140045 235$

does the 4 extra piplines make this more $$$

than this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16814145107 120$

but at a cost of the gpu speed and the ram speed

 

[Kage]

The second one must be a broken link, but yeah the extra 4 pipe lines does make a difference. In video card terms, think of it as 4 extra CPU's if it were one. This is how video cards work.
They split tasks into little tasks that they send through pipelines speeding them up, and collecting back at the end as one. For instance, texturing, z buffering, etc.

It all depends how long you want the card to last you really. The 6800 is meant for power hungry gamers at really high settings, though for you, i'd act as time slide, giving you more time with the card and games on it.

Its honestly your choice. Spending $120 on a card which won't last you as long as the $235 one, but will still give you great performance as of now.
You'd just end up buying a new card in about a year and a halfs time when graphics increase again, and so pay for another mid budget card for another $120 and so on.
That first card should last you a tad bit longer, though its more on the pocket. So it's really how you add things up in your head time wise, and money wise.

 

[mighty_chick]

check ebay for some stuff.

 

[TOWT]

If i were to get the 6800 (which im considering) how would i unlock the pipelines?

also u mean if it says the gpu is 325 that is 325 per pipeline or do u mean it is breaking down the 325mhz into 16 diffrent piplines?

 

[mighty_chick]

pm alvino he has done the pipe unlocking to his 6800 so he'd knwo exactly how to do it