NationStates Jolt Archive

Right, I'm looking to put a graphics card into my computer (at the moment it has none other that the standard built-in crappy one), but I have virtually no knowledge as to what counts as good at the moment. Is 400mb card good? Is a 1gb card possilbe to buy?

Please can you help me. What is the best card out their at the moment which would fit in a £150 budget?:confused:

overclockers.co.uk have a ATI Radeon X1950XT in the sale for about £150. The current best geforce is twice that, but until DX10 comes out you wont need one.

You have to start with what kind of graphics card you can get

if you only have a built in one then the chances are you don't even
have an agp slot
and would need a pci graphics card

so be careful what you buy

The latest biggest and best cards are for sli slots and chances are you
don't have them either.

You have to start with what kind of graphics card you can get

if you only have a built in one then the chances are you don't even
have an agp slot
and would need a pci graphics card

so be careful what you buy

The latest biggest and best cards are for sli slots and chances are you
don't have them either.

I dont think you actually need an SLI slot for things like the geforce 7950GTX, cos its like SLI on one card. My board is on the list nvidia say it will work with and I dont have SLI.

You do not, unless you work at Pixar or something like that, have the software necessary to take advantage of top of the line graphics cards.
First, what do you intend to do? Just play games? What games?

You have to start with what kind of graphics card you can get

if you only have a built in one then the chances are you don't even
have an agp slot
and would need a pci graphics card

so be careful what you buy

The latest biggest and best cards are for sli slots and chances are you
don't have them either.

hwaa?:confused:

Guys can you please try and us terms I can understand.

I dont think you actually need an SLI slot for things like the geforce 7950GTX, cos its like SLI on one card. My board is on the list nvidia say it will work with and I dont have SLI.

You may be right , I'm no expert but I'm not sure how the interface can be on the card that plugs into another type of interface.

Surely if SLI just needed to plug into a pci slot they wouldnt have sli slots?

Of course Im not even sure there are SLI slots
maybe they just use PCI express slots but I do know theres some difference between the slots they
use and regular pci

Top of the line is very expensive, and I would wait for the DirectX10 cards to appear. What kind of video card does your motherboard take?

Surely if SLI just needed to plug into a pci slot they wouldnt have sli slots?

SLI slots are two PCI-Express slots (not PCI) kind of made to work with two cards in parallel (when two cards are plugged in they share bandwidth, if only one is installed that gets the full bandwidth).

SLI slots are two PCI-Express slots (not PCI) kind of made to work with two cards in parallel (when two cards are plugged in they share bandwidth, if only one is installed that gets the full bandwidth).

Thanks for the correction

hwaa?:confused:

Guys can you please try and us terms I can understand.

hmmmm

tricky

I barely know what Im talking about in jargon

never mind translating to sense

Just be careful of what you buy
you need to be sure there is somewhere on your computer
it can plug into
because if there isn't you'll have wasted your money.

I've just been looking through my documents and have found out that my motherboard has 3 PCI bus slots and 1 AGP slot. However I don't know which ones are being used or not with out taking my computer apart.

I've just been looking through my documents and have found out that my motherboard has 3 PCI bus slots and 1 AGP slot. However I don't know which ones are being used or not with out taking my computer apart.

Well if you have an agp slot then its an agp graphics card that you want.
Mind you I once bought an agp card because my motherboard had agp on it
but it wasnt actually a slot it was built in and I never could use that card

What motherboard is it?

hwaa?:confused:

Guys can you please try and us terms I can understand.

Videocards need a lot more access to the system than other cards, so they use special slots. All modern motherboards come with something called PCI Express, sometimes two of them so you can buy two cards from nVidia and link them in something called SLi.

If your computer is a couple of years old it probably comes with the previous technology called AGP. Before AGP there was another technology called PCI (without the Express).

Every new kind of slot allows more information to be passed between the motherboard and the videocard, potentially increasing graphic performance (although in actuality there are no games that strain the AGP slots, much less PCI Express).

So, first thing you have to check is what kind of slots your computer has. AGP and PCI often come together, if that's the case go for an AGP card.

Well if you have an agp slot then its an agp graphics card that you want.
Mind you I once bought an agp card because my motherboard had agp on it
but it wasnt actually a slot it was built in and I never could use that card

What motherboard is it?

Its a Foxconn one, either 661FX7MF, 648FX7MF or 648C7MF.
I can't remember which and my documentation which would tell me is at home while I'm at uni.

You have to start with what kind of graphics card you can get

if you only have a built in one then the chances are you don't even
have an agp slot
and would need a pci graphics card

That is absurd and just wrong. Every motherboard has a built-in vid card, that has nothing to do with the kinds of slots it has.

What brand and type of computer do you have, if you have to ask this question it is pre-built and that's all we need.

That is absurd and just wrong. Every motherboard has a built-in vid card, that has nothing to do with the kinds of slots it has.

What brand and type of computer do you have, if you have to ask this question it is pre-built and that's all we need.

That's right have a go at me rather than offer your assistance to the question asker. But as my response even if incorrect in parts urged caution about what he bought it is of no major issue if it was incorrect on the point you are contesting.

As I personally have had the experience of buying an agp card because
i had agp graphics on the motherboard only to find there was no agp slot.
It may be outdated now as it was an older system
it seemed better to give the questioner pause to consider than your
helpful stance of having a go at me.

Its a Foxconn one, either 661FX7MF, 648FX7MF or 648C7MF.
I can't remember which and my documentation which would tell me is at home while I'm at uni.

Looks like agp 8x is what you're looking for then

All 3 motherboards say they have the slot so you should be fine

With an AGP slot and a £ 150 budget, you probably want a Geforce 7600GS (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-031-BG)

or a 7800 if you can afford it.

Thanks a lot guys, for all your help you deserve a cookie each.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h182/theloneguardsman/cookie.jpg

hwaa?:confused:

Guys can you please try and us terms I can understand.

The terms agp, pcix, and sli are graphics slots, or ports, on your motherboard.
Depending on what kind of motherboard you have, will determine the kind of graphics card you can use.

Most of the newer high-end graphics cards are made for PCIX architechures.

The most important thing you can do right now, is tell us what kind of motherboard you have, and what kind of games you want to play.

You dont neccasarily need the top end.

My system for instance, has an AGP port (accellarated graphics port) (8x) and I have an Invidia Geforce 6800Gt 256 Meg card.
It is capable of running any game on the market.

It was high-end almost two years ago.

You could go with the AGP version of the Radeon x1600. I know it is in the price range.

I have a 256mb Nvidia 6800.

Don't buy it, it's really freaking loud.

You could go with the AGP version of the Radeon x1600. I know it is in the price range.

The geforce 7600 is faster. Although the X1600 sometimes comes with an HDMI output, so if you want to watch films off the computer on a big tv its cool.

Or you could wait till ATI release their DX10 card in a couple of months and the prices come down. Its all so complicated.

The geforce 7600 is faster. Although the X1600 sometimes comes with an HDMI output, so if you want to watch films off the computer on a big tv its cool.

Or you could wait till ATI release their DX10 card in a couple of months and the prices come down. Its all so complicated.
The chances of it being AGP are pretty slim. Especially since PCI-e is standardized. PCI-e was standardized faster than AGP and pretty much took AGP out.

The chances of it being AGP are pretty slim. Especially since PCI-e is standardized. PCI-e was standardized faster than AGP and pretty much took AGP out.

Theres a 7600 agp on overclockers.co.uk, only just over 100 quid. I dont know if theres anything with an HDMI port on agp though.

What processor do you have?

Not that you're likely to overbalance it (AGP cards are getting ever rarer and more expensive these days) but if you're running an ancient Athlon XP or Pentium 3 (or even an early pentium 4) then it's not liable to be worth your while hunting down the best.

A 7600 GT would be my recomendation though, unless your PC is TRULY ancient.

I have a 256mb Nvidia 6800.

Don't buy it, it's really freaking loud.

Geforce?

Thats what Ive got, and mine is quiet as a mouse.

In fact, my cp fan is louder.

That is absurd and just wrong. Every motherboard has a built-in vid card, that has nothing to do with the kinds of slots it has.

This is not true. Most mid- to high-end mainboards don't have a built-in VGA adapter. My A8R-MVP doesn't, for instance, and neither of the mainboards in the two other machines sitting beside me do either.
The problem is when a board with a built-in VGA adapter doesn't have a graphics expansion slot; this was quite common with older AGP boards. I've not had the misfortune to look at any low-end PCI-Express boards.

To the OP: If you've got an AGP mainboard then chances are it's beginning to get a bit long in the tooth anyway, and to upgrade the mainboard means you'll need a new CPU, graphics card and, most likely, memory too.

As for AGP cards; they're getting expensive, but if you want something even beefier than has already been suggested there's an X1950Pro (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-004-GC) on OCUK (on pre-order, released soon) for a touch over £200. That may well wind up being the fastest AGP card released.

Okay, there is so much bullshit in this topic it's not even funny. Let's start from the basics:

A Video card is plugged into a slot on the mainboard. It can be either PCI, the oldest one for which there are not any new cards, PCI-X, which is a special version of PCI meant for specialist and server boards, AGP (1x-8x) which was the mainstream a couple of years ago, or PCI-E (16x) which is the one all the new boards are using.

Your system seems to have a AGP-8X, so look for stuff for it. You can either go for an older card for rebate or buy it used, or get the new stuff. If you want older cards, stuff like ATI xt850 or NVIDIA 6800Ultra are worth byuing, don't buy an used 6600GT or worse, you're just wasting you're money.

Currently there are 5 cards worth considering for an AGP system, from worst to best. Don't buy anything called X1600, it's overpriced crap.

Nvidia 7600GS, is the standard mainstream card. Cheap, effective. Otherwise quite decent but seriously lacks memory bandwidth. (Dont look at memory amounts, look at the speed of the memory. This one usually has DDR2, 400MHz, 800MHz effective.) That is enough for gaming at low resolutions (1024*768) without much effects (no AA). If you got a decent monitor, dont buy this. Note that there are also PCI-E cards with the same name on sale, make sure you get the AGP one.

Nvidia 7600GT, is the better version of 7600GS. The chip inside is exactly the same as in GS, but it runs faster, and it has much better memory. This is the one I'd buy with your budget. The memory is GDDR3, run at something between 1100MHz Effective and 1500MHz effective. If possible, dont get the one at 1100MHz (like club3d). Note that there are also PCI-E cards with the same name on sale, make sure you get the AGP one.

Nvidia 7800GS, is an older card than 7600GT, but is "bigger", with a wider memory bus. Powerful but not really worth buying anymore, as 7600GT is nearly as good (and even better in some things), and cheaper. Get it if on sale.

Gainward 7800GS Golden Sample. Is not actually 7800GS, but a 7800GT chip put on a 7800GS board. Good card, but expensive.

ATI Radeon X1950Pro, is easily the best AGP card on the market. Also expensive, and too powerful for most systems that have the agp slot. Note that there are also PCI-E cards with the same name on sale, make sure you get the AGP one.

Also remeber that there are few things to consider when buying a video card.
- Is my processor fast enough to actually use the card?
- Do I have enough memory?
- Is my power supply good enough to run the card?
- Is there room in the case? (No seriously, open the case, look for the AGP slot, it is the topmost of the card slots, often with another colour, and make sure processor coolers or hard drives dont extend over it. Many OEM manufacturers, (Dell, I'm looking at you) cramp their cases so full you cannot actually put in stuff you should be able to. If there is already a card in it it's probably safe.