PCI-e Graphics card recommendations??

[cisco]

For the PC enthusiasts among us..

I just built up a new machine, my old 3 year old PC died and is quite old anyway in computer terms, so I built a whole new system, the only thing I need to get is the graphics card.

I'm not a gamer. I do some multimedia stuff, but mostly just like to run a large res and have fast, snappy response.

If I decided to load up a half modern game, I wouldn't want it to totally suck, but I don't care if my frame rates aren't the fastest etc, in fact I will probably not even run any games.

The mobo has pci-express 16x, so I need a card for that interface. Its an ASUS Nforce4 board, but no onboard gfx.

My main dilemma was, for my needs, will the $88 DVI/TV-out ASUS PCI-E graphics cards totally suffice? I'm sure they probably would, but just not sure.. My old PC just had onboard nforce2 GFX, but I don't think it was all that crash hot..

Any recommendations? I don't want to go all out. Something reasonable but pretty cheap. Is there much difference between say the crappy x550 level cards and something like a x700/x800 or 6600 chipset?

xpertvision seem to be very well priced. Are they ok?

Thanks!

 

[CMF_Yom]

You still pay for quality with computer components. I had 2 xpertvision cards crap out on my within a period of 2 months (original died, the replacement also crapped itself). The shop just gave me an Abit card worth $50 more than the xpertvision and it did the job fine.

Do you do any graphics processing? The video card is still a major player in image quality these days and driver relations can be a right royal pain in the bum with programs like CAD.

 

[CMF_Toma]

Gigabyte cards are fairly good. Cheap + Useful.

The other option, is wether you want it to have a fan or simply heatsinks. The fan will make a tiny bit of noise and get louder over time, and the heatsink may overheat if the room temp gets too high.

http://www.nintek.com.au/x/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=1094

This is what i'd reccomend if youre going to stick you PC in a cool room (less than 30oC)... Tv-Out is pretty cool, especially when you setup the PC next to a 72cm tv

Also, this card comes with a game, so you can kill something when the Micra misbehaves

 

[CMF_Freakdoom]

Never tried the 6600 before, but i got a 5500 and it sucks, frames are poor, but thats also down to me still using 32 bit CPU, 64bit is way forward. But for a half decent card the 6600 GT is a good bet. My friend has one and pulls great frames in all games and it only costs £100 in the UK (just to compare price, the lastest cards are over £400!).

Ian

 

[CMF_Kirby]

i'm currently running nVidia Geforce 6600. its built in 256Mb RAMDAC gives it enough puff to play games and most multimedia stuff. its also got outputs for DVI and S-Video so you can use your HD stuff with your card. well check out the prices here before you make a decision. prices are updated weekly and will give you an indication of what suits you best. http://hardwarezone.com/priceguide/ although the prices are in Singapore dollar, you'll pretty much get the idea.
if anyone charges you any more for the cards, they are just trying to stiff you of your cash

exchange is roughly AUD$1.00 for SGP$1.25

 

[CMF_Urban]

I am using the Leadtek 128mb 6600GT card, AGP 8x.
I have 1.5gb ram and it runs any game i put to it.

Battlefield 2 highest settings, Counter Strike Source at a constant FPS of about 70 - 80, World of Warcraft no worries.

For the price, it's a powerful card! Best purchase i've ever done...

Though i do believe there are new 256mb cards out now though...

A great site to check out prices on a particular product in Australia is: www.staticice.com.au

Just copy and paste in the products name, and it'll find the cheapest one in Australia for you.

Anyways, Hope this helps - Cameron.

 

[CMF_Yom]

^^ The leadtek 6600GT TDH 128MB is the fastest 6600GT of the AGP variety. Pretty good standard cooling, dead silent and also keeps up with vanilla AGP 6800's. Thats why I bought one when my 9800PRO died.

But you're forgetting guys, cisco isnt playing any games.

A simple 3yr warrenty Asus PCI-e card with DVI and TV out should do him just fine if the computer is used for bumming around with fairly simple stuff.

 

[cisco]

Thanks a lot for the advice everyone.

I ordered a Leadtek Winfast 6600LE 256Mb. It seemed that the 6600 chipset was very popular for high value, but its not an extreme top-knotch gaming chipset, but still pretty good. The LE is like the basic version of the 6600 chipset, so its not quite as good as a 6600GT etc.

But it was really good value.

Should more than look after my graphical needs. Thanks again. If I do decide to boot up the odd game etc, it should be able to provide reasonable performance which is good to know.

There was a time when I was a quakeI and quakeII addict and played network deathmatch, CTF and all that caper. Oh that was fun. Every single period of our year 12 computer studies class was spent playing network quake against each other. The teacher was so funny, he just let us do it, but eventually he got annoyed and pulled out the terminator from the network. Then we started bringing our own terminators. Then they started wiping and rebuilding the machines after every single lesson. So then one of my mates hid quake on a hidden partition magic partition. There was some easy exploit to get into a dos prompt and unpack the game every time. They couldn't work out where the fresh copies of Q2 kept coming from every single period. bahaha.

So what are the best network games over the net thesedays? I might have to have a muckaround..

 

[CMF_Alex_B]

"So then one of my mates hid quake on a hidden partition magic partition. There was some easy exploit to get into a dos prompt and unpack the game every time. They couldn't work out where the fresh copies of Q2 kept coming from every single period."

oh dear, thats funny,

Alex

 

[cisco]

Yeah it was bloody hilarious to a classroom full of year 12 idiots.

 

[CMF_White Knight]

Sheee!!! sorry guys you speak a language I do not understand.
I have trouble remembering the 3 passwords I have to use to open up my computer at work.
Cisco we run SAP at work. Nearly 2 years working with it and I am still learning new stuff.( or maybe its stuff I have forgotten ?)

 

[CMF_White Knight]

Still I reckon your kids will speak /use technology that will have you scratching your head.Each generation new stuff.Changes so quickly how the hell do you keep up with it.

 

[CMF_Yom]

Haha the last easy to deploy and run network game was the original CounterStrike.

The most popular game when i was still in school was Fishy and Drag Racer V3 (google search them).

Fishy was my favourite. I loved being able to completely destroy the whole eco-system by having a superior sized fishy.

Used to drive the teacher nuts. Hehe. We had total control over him. Locked him out of his own office more times than you can count on your fingers.

 

[CMF_White Knight]

Bring back the cane.Out of control you lot.

 

[CMF_Yom]

Even if he had the cane it would have been controlled by the students of my particular class.

Possibly hanging high up in the ceilings.

 

[CMF_bornwina]

i would'nt even bother buying a new graphics card..if u soley wanna play games either buy an xbox 360 and plug it through your monitor to enable high defintion or wait till the ps3 comes out.iam fed up having to fork out over nearly £400 each year for a graphics card to supposedly keep up with high frame rates etc,least with a console the game plays the same as everyone else's version..But if u still wanna get a card head over to overclockers.co.uk as they have same tasty numbers at good prices