Upgrading GFX

[ViolentJ]

I currently have a 256MB Geforce FX 5600 which is starting to show it's age with the likes of AOEIII even though the minimum requirement is a 64MB card?

With a budget of up to £100 (i know it's not much) what would you suggest I replace it with?
Oh and it has to be AGP as my board doesn't have PCI-E

The rest of my system:

Athlon XP 3200+
Asus A7N8X-X
1GB Memory
1x 80GIG Western Digital + 1x 10 GIG Maxtor HDD's
Sound Blaster Live 5:1
DVD RW

 

[wozzaa]

6600gt, its a little more but best in that area or a 9800pro.

the 5600 will be naff with 256 basially cause the rest of the card lets it down a decent 128mb card will outperform it massively. Think the 128mb 9800pro is around 2-3 more times more powerful. I had one until recently. Then i went a bit crazy and stuck in a £500 graphics card.

 

[McBunny]

buy one of the new dual gpu nvidia cards that can be used in sli to give you 4 gpu's and 1gb ram lol

 

[ViolentJ]

I've always heard that Nvidia are better than ATI cards. Does this have any truth?

Thanks for the input though, i will look into both cards

 

[ViolentJ]

buy one of the new dual gpu nvidia cards that can be used in sli to give you 4 gpu's and 1gb ram lol

oh ok.. I'll sit outside the Cliosport door with hat in hand asking for spare change

 

[martynh]

YOu can get 6600Gt cards for about £100, maybe a little more. I take it you're after an AGP card, these are becoming a little hard to come by on some sites but they are out there.

 

[ViolentJ]

yeah AGP. Don't really want to have to get a new motherboard just to get a PCI-E card. I'm not a HUGE gamer at the moment.

 

[RSi Dave]

was going to get a 6600gt

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=81344

but then decided to get a 6800 instead

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=98265

 

[ViolentJ]

ooh!

lol at the stock!

I'll have to order after xmas then when they are stocked up. Thanks a lot for that link dave!

 

[RSi Dave]

No problems, ebuyer are one of the cheapest places for computer bits imo, great service too... never ever had an issue from them.

overclockers.co.uk had the 6800 aswell for a similar price, cant seem to find it now though.

The card ive got (asus v9999) has been overclocked and runs pretty well and very stable.

Got 11k on 3dmark 03 which is the same as my mates x800 pro and he paid nearly twice what i paid

 

[ViolentJ]

I notice they do an "open box" version but can't see an explanation of this. What's this mean exactly?

I thought it might just mean not boxed but the "open box" one is £4 more!

 

[Griff]

X800GT for that budget, quicker than a 6600GT.

EDIT - Just noticed AGP requirement.

 

[Darren S]

Yep - probably a 6600GT is your best bet. I've got a 9800 Pro myself and it performs ok though - if you can find one cheaper?

Slightly off topic - just ran 3DMark 2005 demo on a new PC here. Laughingly stupid choice to have it fitted with a 256MB version of the ATi 9550 in a new PC. WTF?! Was getting between 1 and 2 FPS at one stage

D.

 

[Griff]

On the CPU stages of 3dMark05 then everyone gets between 1-3fps regardless of what cpu they have.

 

[ViolentJ]

My Mrs has ordered me the Asus v9999 (6800) and it will arrive on tuesday!

How pleased am I!!!

 

[wozzaa]

Yup i get 2-4 on the cpu test with a rather high end cpu.

And the nvidia better than ati thing. Not true. Not in the generation of cards your looking at simon the ati's were always better then. Only now has nvidia reclaimed the performance crown. And it doesnt come cheap at £500ish for 1 card. I know i spent £475 on mine. But it will last me a while since no games can really push it at all now.

Id go with a 6600gt or 6800 or an X800 series they can all come in AGP just getting hold of them now may be a bit of a pain.

{edit} just seen your post nice choice of card will be miles more powerful than your current card.

 

[ViolentJ]

I guess you have to be a hardcore gamer to spend £500 on a card!

My mrs get's a free upgrade now lol My 5600 can replace her shite 5200

 

[ViolentJ]

No problems, ebuyer are one of the cheapest places for computer bits imo, great service too... never ever had an issue from them.

overclockers.co.uk had the 6800 aswell for a similar price, cant seem to find it now though.

The card ive got (asus v9999) has been overclocked and runs pretty well and very stable.

Got 11k on 3dmark 03 which is the same as my mates x800 pro and he paid nearly twice what i paid

I can't find a guide for overclocking it... could you let me know how it's done.

I'd ask on overclockers or at least do a search but i can't bloody register a they have banned all web based email addresses from registering and i can't remember my NTL one.

 

[Aberclio182]

I can't find a guide for overclocking it... could you let me know how it's done.

I'd ask on overclockers or at least do a search but i can't bloody register a they have banned all web based email addresses from registering and i can't remember my NTL one.

Mate i think most 6800 cards come with overclocking features in there drivers, i know my ultra does, also rivatuner is pretty good for that kind of stuff.

 

[ViolentJ]

just wondered if there are some preset figures and what needs to be changed - if anyone knows that would be cool

 

[RSi Dave]

I can't find a guide for overclocking it... could you let me know how it's done.

firstly download rivatuner (http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163)

then installed it.

now select the low level system settings (small arrow underneath the first drop down box which will be showing your graphics card name).

a new page will open, now click on the second (NVStrap Driver).

Down at the bottom click the tick box which says "Allow enabling hardware masked units".

If a box comes up saying restart then do so and when computer restarts open rivatuner again and follow above steps..

Now click the customise button, you will see a grid/table with lots of numbers etc...

Look across the table and you will see that one Pixel Unit is disabled and one Vertex shader is disabled, change these to enabled and then click ok!

Restart if asked. this so far has made have the same number of pipelines as the sti x800.

Now then, you can either use rivatuner or the asus program to overclock the memory and engine speed... i use the asus program so to do this open the smart doctor program and at the bottom you will see to bars, simply move each bar up, i run the memory at 800mhz and the engine at 375mhz.. this card can probs go higher with rivatuner but its fussy with drivers and the newest ones i dont think work with it.

There is a site which told me how to do it and ill try and find it as it has pictures on it.. hope this helps

 

[ViolentJ]

that's great mate, cheers. Just have to wait for xmas now so i can have it

 

[wozzaa]

You can also use coolbits to overclock the core and memory which is built into the nvidia drivers it just needs unlocking. Can google for that.

When unlocking extra pipes and pixel shaders its a good idea to have a spare card on standby just incase it goes sour as you will need to set it back to normal if you get graphical corruption. You might be able to do it with the same card sometimes it becomes very garbled though.

 

[Griff]

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=815

 

[ViolentJ]

got my card installed and overclocked

Had to give it it's own power feed of the PSU, got some interesting stuff on the screen with the power shared!

 

[ViolentJ]

when i start the asus program before it starts it says "The system doesn't install ASUS Enhanced Driver! Some features for smart doctor can not work!

Please install ASUS enhanced driver."

Do you know where i find this?

 

[wozzaa]

driver disk you got with the card if its an asus card. otherwise asus website.

 

[ViolentJ]

been through the driver disc, can't see any 'enhanced' drivers. The card is installed with the driver cd.

 

[ViolentJ]

oh and i have to say i am very impressed. I turned all the detail in AOE III to high... the sea is amazing!! Looks so real!

I have soooo been missing out!

 

[RSi Dave]

when i start the asus program before it starts it says "The system doesn't install ASUS Enhanced Driver! Some features for smart doctor can not work!

Please install ASUS enhanced driver."

Do you know where i find this?

LoL, i get the same but refuse to install the drivers! Basically on the main driver disc click the button to install the drivers, the enhanced driver will install with the graphics driver... However i always download my drivers from nvidia's website. Ill have a quick look on the net and see if i can find an enhanced driver!

What do you reckon to the card?

AOE3 looks cool, try F.E.A.R. if you like FPS same with call of duty 2

 

[RSi Dave]

Here is the enhanced driver!

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=V9999 Series

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