PC 3d Graphics cards. What to buy ?

loxxr6 · 24-01-2005, 10:54 AM

There's some reasonably priced ones here on ebay but are they any good ?

What models should I be looking at for something that will at least play most recent games at a decent speed ?

I've got a fairly recent processor and enough ram but the card I have now: tnt riva 2 32mb sucks hard.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....&rd=1&tc=photo

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....&rd=1&tc=photo

Quasi · 24-01-2005, 10:56 AM

They seem to be OK. Would certainly be an improvement. 256Mb is more than you will ever need, but that's the trend now.

rob_o · 24-01-2005, 11:00 AM

Yeah I got a GeForce FX 5700LE 256mb. It does the job. I dont need anything too good coz I dont play all these games which require top-end graphics. Paid $150 for it.

DivHunter · 24-01-2005, 11:03 AM

The 5700 is good, the 5200 is shit. Don't pay over $130 for the 5700, just go to a swapmeet otherwise go for it.

XplosiveR6 · 24-01-2005, 11:23 AM

i would not get a GeForce FX series, they are rubbish. i would recommend either a medium range Radeon 9800pro or a Geforce 6600GT, they are both around $350 new (but it depends on your budget). also forget about how much ram the card has got, all graphics cards have atleast 128mb ram these days and thats all you need. 256meg and up are just pure marketing schemes, they offer no performance benifit.

Steffo · 24-01-2005, 12:54 PM

GeForce FX are decent cards, as long as you're buying better then an FX5600. The sub FX5600 cards get beaten by the GeForce 4 Ti cards.

As for videocard memory. The more the merrier. Trust me. When I bought my 64MB GeForce 2 GTS years ago... people told me to save money and get 32MB, or a slower card, and get something else like a bigger monitor or something. Well, I got the most RAM for the comp I could (512MB) and the best videocard I could... and proved all the people wrong. Games are getting more and more video intesive... no modern card can run Ultra Mode Doom 3 for example. They'll have 512MB videocard soon enough. 256MB is good.

[Martin] · 24-01-2005, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steffo

GeForce FX are decent cards, as long as you're buying better then an FX5600.

Absolute rubbish - The GeForce FX series are old and comparatively crap. What you have said may have been true a year ago, but not now. Quit living in the past Steffo.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steffo

Games are getting more and more video intesive... no modern card can run Ultra Mode Doom 3 for example.

Can I have some of what you're smoking? Because it must be really good. Any modern ATi X800XT or nVidia 6800Ultra can run Doom 3 in Ultra mode, i've personally played it on this mode - silky smooth (I'll post system specs if you are interested).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steffo

Trust me

You sound worse than a DanOz Direct advertisement saying that.

All that said, I'd suggest listening to what EF_Dave has said, go an ATi 9800Pro or an nVidia 6600GT, they're excellent bang for buck cards.

Cheers,
Martin.

DivHunter · 24-01-2005, 01:15 PM

You can already get 512 and even 1Gb GCs just depends how deep your pockets are.

shane3 · 24-01-2005, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steffo

Games are getting more and more video intesive... no modern card can run Ultra Mode Doom 3 for example. They'll have 512MB videocard soon enough. 256MB is good.

What the F**K are you on, I have a Powercolor ATi Radeon X800Pro with 1Gig of memory that can play ANY game that is on the market, and gets a 3D mark05 score of 4592 Doom3, half life 2 MYST Revalutions ALL played at the highest setting run silky smooth

BlueRaven · 24-01-2005, 02:20 PM

Yeah... sorry to jump on the bandwagon here steffo, but there are plenty of cards out there that can run doom3 in ultra mode (or that ultra ultra mode patch that has self shadowing enabled)

I think what steffo may be confused with, is that the doom3 engine is capable of a hell of a lot more than whats in doom3. So expect lots more games to use it (similar to how the quake3 engine was used in a few games years later still) in the future.

Doom3 engine seems to be designed for top-end cards now, or average cards in a years time, whereas Half-life2 is fantastic for average cards today.

On the subject of map engines... has anyone seem the new unreal engine being developed? oh. my. god.

Sorry to steal the topic there... I'd personally go the ATI Radeon X8000pro (though I heard/found that ATI cards dont like anti-aliasing much...it really hurts performance?)

WIngman · 24-01-2005, 02:37 PM

Hey Guys

That Geforce 6600GT looks like a darn good card, can run in sli mode if you want to upgrade later and is only around the $330 mark. The latest issue of atomic has a review of it, it got a 9.5 out of 10.

Wingman

4.0i_SiX · 24-01-2005, 02:38 PM

For a lower end budget I'd suggest a 6600GT, 9800Pro's are a good card but really do need to drop in price. I currently run a 9800pro platinum ( uses the XT's R360 core ) and it plays any game I throw at it on high, A64 processor helps too :P

Steffo · 24-01-2005, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [Martin]

Absolute rubbish - The GeForce FX series are old and comparatively crap. What you have said may have been true a year ago, but not now. Quit living in the past Steffo.

Can I have some of what you're smoking? Because it must be really good. Any modern ATi X800XT or nVidia 6800Ultra can run Doom 3 in Ultra mode, i've personally played it on this mode - silky smooth (I'll post system specs if you are interested).

You sound worse than a DanOz Direct advertisement saying that.

All that said, I'd suggest listening to what EF_Dave has said, go an ATi 9800Pro or an nVidia 6600GT, they're excellent bang for buck cards.

Cheers,
Martin.

What are the system specs?

LOL @ the DanOz Direct remark.. that was good hehe.

That FX5700LE was $61 last time I looked.. $100 now. Granted, 6600GT, 9800 Pro etc will kick its ****... but for 100 bucks? If you can find a 9800 Pro for 100 bucks, please tell me, because I'll buy it right now! (I've been looking at new GFX cards for myself for sensible money.. and GeForce FX5900XT was what I was going to settle on... unless I can get a 9800 for $100 lol).

[Martin] · 24-01-2005, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steffo

What are the system specs?

P4 3.4GHz (Northwood Core)
Abit IC7-Max3 Mobo
1Gig Corsair Twin-X Pro Dual DDR CAS 2-2-2-5 ram
2x 74gig SATA WD Raptor 10k rpm hard drives in RAID 0
1x 160gig WD 7200rpm SATA hard disk
Creative Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card
17" Samsung 172X LCD
ATi Radeon X800XT PE
Pioneer 109B DVD Writer
Lite-On SOHR-5238S CD Writer
Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard
Logitech MX-1000 Laser Mouse
Lian Li PC-V1100 Black Sound Insulated Case
Antec TrueBlue 480Watt PSU

XplosiveR6 · 24-01-2005, 03:04 PM

nice system there martin, and i thaught my system was alright

Steffo · 24-01-2005, 03:58 PM

That is a good comp... are far cry from the Pentium III 1.0GHz I'm using right now.

Paris Hilton · 24-01-2005, 06:53 PM

Athlon 2100+ @ 1733mhz, Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe 1GB DDR400, Leadtek Winfast A360 (GeForce FX 5700 GPU).

Runs all games fine, Don't let the CPU fool you...sure it's only clocked at 1733mhz, but it still benchmarks ALOT better then its Intel compeditor - The Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz.

genebaby · 24-01-2005, 07:21 PM

My old system I'm running now is a Athlon 2100+ at 2.2ghz on a 400mhz FSB on an NF2 MB with a 9800Pro Platinum, the new box waiting to be built has an A64 3200+ (no overclock on it yet), 6600GT Extreme PCI-E. Just waiting on my NF4 board of choice to come in and she will get moving.

genebaby · 24-01-2005, 07:24 PM

I recommend the 6600GT, they are a good card for the price today. They are 128mb, but all the midrange cards with 256mb have slower memory and slower core speeds, so they don't keep up, even at higher resolutions. It's a bummer and I did expect the card after my 9800Pro would be 256mb, but I'm not going for the top this time, the X800XT and 6800GT cards have 256mb of good fast ram.

Thornie · 24-01-2005, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steffo

GeForce FX are decent cards, as long as you're buying better then an FX5600. The sub FX5600 cards get beaten by the GeForce 4 Ti cards.

they get beaten in a big way too

my geforce fx 5200 3dmarks 2001se around 5000marks

my old ti4800 se around 12000 marks

4.0i_SiX · 24-01-2005, 07:26 PM

My current specs are

Athlon64 2800+ ( ocassionally overclocked to 2.2ghz )
K8X800 Pro Motherboard
512mb Kingmax Tiny Bga DDR400
Gecube 9800Pro Platinum ( XT Speeds )
Antec SLK3700 BQE case fitted with a Superflower 400watt PSU and "custom" 12cm side fan :P courtesy of a hole saw :O

Next system will be an Athlon64 939, 1gig ram and probably an X850XT PE PCI-e

This was a budget build and exceeded my expectations so I havent been bothered upgrading. Runs any game I throw at it

XplosiveR6 · 24-01-2005, 08:41 PM

my specs are

Athlon XP 2800+, running at 3200+ speed (2.2gighz)
1 Gig ram
Gigabyte Triton Motherboard
80gig HDD (full need another)
Powercolor 9800pro, running at 9800xt speed
Aopen case
Creative Soundblaster Audigy LS
microsoft wireless moue + keyboard
logitech 5.1 speakers
pioneer 16X duel layer DVD writer
Gigabyte 3d rocket pro cpu cooler
19inch AOC flat screen monitor

still not 100% happy with it, alot of games coming out these days with very very sloppy programing

Steffo · 24-01-2005, 08:49 PM

My old Athlon 1.33 setup decided to let its mobo die... so now I'm running...

Intel Pentium III 1.0GHz
Gigabyte GA-6VEML M-ATX Skt370 M/B
512MB PC133 SDRAM (from the Athlon)
1x 30GB ATA100 7200rpm HDD (from the Athlon)
1x 10.2GB ATA100 7200rpm HDD(I got it free from where I used to work)
16x DVD-ROM (from the Athlon)
64MB GeForce 4 MX440, PCI
Creative SBLive! DE 5.1 (from the Athlon)
Creative FPS1000 4.1 speakers (from the Athlon)

Its really not impressive... my Athlon setup (with a AGP 4x 64MB GeForce 2 GTS) used to get 72fps constantly in Day of Defeat at 1152x864 in 32 bit colour. This system gets 30 fps in DoD at 800x600 in 32 bit colour... and about 15fps when there's a big battle. It really sucks. Would probably score like 0 in 3D Mark 2005....

Quote:

Originally Posted by genebaby

My old system I'm running now is a Athlon 2100+ at 2.2ghz on a 400mhz FSB on an NF2 MB with a 9800Pro Platinum, the new box waiting to be built has an A64 3200+ (no overclock on it yet), 6600GT Extreme PCI-E. Just waiting on my NF4 board of choice to come in and she will get moving.

Is your XP2100 a Thoroughbred A, Thoroughbred B or Palomino? And how did you get a XP2100 to 2.2GHz?

genebaby · 24-01-2005, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steffo

Is your XP2100 a Thoroughbred A, Thoroughbred B or Palomino? And how did you get a XP2100 to 2.2GHz?

It's a Tbred B. A Palamino couldn't hope to do that and a Tbred A would be lucky. I have a big *** Thermalright SLK800 all copper heatsink and a temp sensing 80mm fan on it and it's pumped up with about 1.75V from memory. It used to run at 2.3ghz but after 18 months or so it wouldn't handle video encoding and stuff. It passes Prime95 on 2.2ghz so I'm cool with that. I'm just going to use the stock heatsink on the A64 and see how we go. It's a week 50 so hopefully it will do 2.4ghz with not much extra voltage needed.

Steffo · 24-01-2005, 09:26 PM

Yeah, tbred b and SLK800 explains it. As for the Athlon64 with stock heat-sink, its a not-so-good affair. I built an Athlon64 3500+ for my uncle and it runs a Thermaltake Venus12 cooler with Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste... 49.5°C average temp. The Venus12 they have is adjusted by a knob in a expansion bay at the back of the case.. I think its at like 60% speed 24/7. Might be cooler at 100%, but its too loud then... and I worry about decreased fan life. The comp is completley stable.. and they use it for work primarily.. so I left it as it is.

Stock fan on the A64 was about 49.5 aswell.. but it was constantly at max speed... so hehe. Get a big heatsink for the A64 and another nice fan and enjoy.

genebaby · 24-01-2005, 09:30 PM

I'm a bit bored with overclocking atm. I have heard of good results with week 45 and later cpu's, so I'm going to see what it can do. Some have done 2.4g on stock voltage. It's going in an Antec P160 case. Quiet is what I'm after this time around. Two big 120mm fans and the stockie won't be too bad in that thing.

shane3 · 25-01-2005, 11:48 AM

mine:
P4 3.4 (Northwood Core)
Abit IC7-Max3 Mobo
1gig corsair twinx cas2
Powercolor ATi Radeon X800Pro
sblive 5.1
Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard
LG flatiron f700P screen
HP 7550 printer
Canon scaner
And some other bit and pieces

T_Terror · 25-01-2005, 12:12 PM

P4 3.0 (Northwood Core)
Abit IC7-G Mobo
1gig generic DDR RAM (boohoo)
Powercolor ATi Radeon X800Pro
Logitech 5.1 soround
Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard
Samsung 172x 17" LCD

(I cut n pasted yours specs shane3 since its so much like mine)