best pci express card for my comp...?

[Jonesy]

Hey got a new computer its runs wicked its a p4 3.6mhz 2048ram 300gig hdd. Anyway i thought it would run any game except when i checked what graphic card it had, its a geforce 6200se turbocache 256mb. WTF this things worth like 30 quid. I upgraded the memory but it made little difference in games.

As soon as i apply aa or higher the resolution or turn on sweet graphics mode the game struggles and it does my nut, so what card whould you lot recommend for between 200-250 quid? oh and its gotta look and run like the xbox 360!

seen this http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=311506&cks=PLC

and http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=305921&cks=PRL

Thanks

Allan

 

[Bryan]

x800xt if it's in the price range

 

[Griff]

7800GT for that price range.

 

[wozzaa]

Go for the 7800GT.

More grun than the X800 series cards. The x800 series is the competitor for the 6*00 series of nvidia cards. The 7800GT will outperform it by a bloody big margin. Know one of the guys on here has 2 X800's running together and my single 7800gtx isnt much slower from from the scores he posted in benchmarks.

 

[Jonesy]

how much faster is the 7800gt to the 7800gtx? can i not just overclock the gt to the same speeds as the gtx?

 

[wozzaa]

GTX has more pipelines 24 compared to 20. and core speeds are a bit quicker and so is memory you can get same clocks but the raw power isnt there. But could probably unlock the other 4 pipes.

It'd be a quick card anyway. To be honest it'd probably be cpu limited in a lot of games anyway.

 

[Jonesy]

Ive just read a review of a 7800gt by evga and this card rocks http://hardware.gamershell.com/articles/evga_e-geforce_7800_gt_co_review/

Its been factory clocked to 470mhz from 400mhz and memory clocked at 1.1ghz from 1.0ghz. The 7800gxt is 430mhz and 1.2ghz unclocked.

think im going for this card, should do me for a year i hope.

Allan

 

[wozzaa]

Depends on the GTX version you have

Mines the 512 so standard is 550mhz and 1.8ghz.


but looking at those scores seems a little odd. The aquamark scores were rather a low lower than i get with a similar setup.

I had a little play with mine on stock air cooling on a 4400+ which isnt that quick for games etc and i managed 111fps average. that says there only averaging around 70. Seems a little odd to me.

And my 3dmark05 score was just 10k without me pushing the overclock that much.

 

[unofficialPete]

where or what can one test their system with

 

[Jonesy]

Wozzaa your card sounds expensive, how much did you pay for it? Oh and this sli stuff, do you need a motherboard that supports it, like with 2 pci-e slots?

 

[wozzaa]

yeah can buy SLI motherboards not much more than normal single pci-e 16x boards.

And card was £475 wasnt cheap no.

And you can test your system with aquamark3 which is what i like to use or some of the 3dmark tests. superpi etc.

 

[Griff]

Superpi is strictly CPU/ram bandwidth only and has nothing to do with GPU at all..

 

[wozzaa]

yeah but with a combination of superpi and 3dmark you can guage total system performance and cpu has pretty much dick all influence on 3dmark now. Its all how many effects it can throw at the cpu. Why aquamark is good i find tests both gives you a score based on both.

 

[Darren S]

Here's an idea Jonesy. Send me the money, I'll buy the card(s) and find out for you. The best one, I get to keep.

Sounds fair enough to me

D.

 

[unofficialPete]

on aquamark3 think I averaged 8fps lol, does the job with CS:S so I'm happy for now anyway...

 

[Jonesy]

lol, still looking for that card. They all seem to be the unclocked versions so not as fast. Only place that have the clocked version is an american ebay site which i dont really wanna risk. may have to wait till after christmas anyway cos i jus spent 200 quid on clothes up bluewater, DOH!

 

[wozzaa]

dont buy the overclocked one no poitn just buy the standard one and overclock it yourself.

 

[Jonesy]

ya im gonna do that gonna get the evga version becuase some cards dont overclock as well as others.

 

[wozzaa]

With overclocking graphics cards it is basically down to luck if you get a good or bad clocker.