Your Recomendations on New Video Card Please

[cheekyboyno1]

My 1st post so go easy on me,
My name is Adrian (Ady) live in North Yorkshire (heartbeat County) England,

Here are my specs

AMD Athlon 64 3700+
Core speed is 2203.0


Asustek computers inc
model A8V

DDR Single
1024mb

Power supply is 400 watts ATX Magna

The current card i am running is a Radeon 9200, its probably about 6 years old.

The games i run are
Flight sim 2004
joint operations
Battlefield 2
I would like to get the latest flight sim this year FSX (i think its called)

I am on a budget and have been looking at a few cards in my price range which is up to £100.

There is the

256MB GigaByte Geforce 7600GS AGP

ATI Radeon X850XT 256Mb AGP

POWERCOLOR 512MB X1650PRO X1650 PRO AGP

Out of these i am tempted at the x850 as its radeon which is what i have now, but i really dont know,

I can run FS9 at the moment with medium settings fairly well, but would like to try the max settings, also when money permits and the FSX Flight Sim is in my hands i want to have decent FPS, i dont expect too much with my budget but would like the best of what i can afford.

Out of the cards listed, which would you go for? and are there any others to look at?

Also is there anything else i should maybe look into changing from my PC?

 

[kpo6969]

Either the 7600GS or the X1650Pro
If you choose the X1650Pro make sure it's the DDR3 version
Her's a very helpful link to check out. I think they have a site in the UK too:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/06/11/the_best_gaming_video_cards_for_the_money/page4.html

You have to make sure your psu can handle it though, no info on yours I could find.

 

[LinkedKube]

Just because something is the same name as what you already have doesnt mean you should lean towards it,. the one you are "leaning" towards is probably the worst card out of the bunch you named.

 

[cheekyboyno1]

Is the PSU the prosesor or power supply? sorry but i dont know much about the workings of the PC. lol

 

[kpo6969]

power supply

 

[cheekyboyno1]

thanks for that, the x850 and x1650 are ddr3 but the gs is a ddr2.
The 1650 is looking the best buy after looking at the reviews

is there any way of getting more info on the psu through the system as there isnt anything printed on the psu itself?

 

[kpo6969]

You have to look at the label on the power supply itself. What your looking for is what it says about wattage:
maximum wattage on combined 12v
divided that amount by 12
that is how many amps your psu has

There are no programs that tell you this, either the owner's manual or you have to open your box and check.

 

[beef_jerky4104]

I would normally recommend an NVIDIA card but in this case the X1650 PRO is the best buy.

 

[kpo6969]

7600GS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125039
X1650Pro
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103017
Head to Head
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=434&card2=458

I agree the X1650Pro is the best deal, I didn't know about the rebate, otherwise $3.00 difference.

The X1650Pro might call the psu into question more, since on average they require more juice.

 

[k.jacko]

7600GS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125039
X1650Pro
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103017
Head to Head
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=434&card2=458

I agree the X1650Pro is the best deal, I didn't know about the rebate, otherwise $3.00 difference.

The X1650Pro might call the psu into question more, since on average they require more juice.

Err....he's in the Uk mate.
I'd dread to think of the shipping costs.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...lbatron+GeForce+7900GS+256MB+?productId=25720.
Just under £100 and excellent cards that will spank BF2 with all settings on high (i have one and i play BF2)

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

I think the X1950PRO here is the best pick of the lot. Faster than the 7900GS and a hell of a lot cheaper. You'd have money left over to buy a new PSU too!

 

[MetalX]

Guys... out of the 3 cards originally listed, the X850XT is clearly the best. It has the most pixel pipelines and the highest memory bandwidth because it's the only one with a 256-bit memory bus.

7600GS:

400/800
12pp
128-bit
12.8GB/s Memory Bandwidth

X1650PRO:

600/1400
12pp
128-bit
22.4GB/s Memory Bandwidth

X850XT:

520/1080
16pp
256-bit
34.5GB/s Memory Bandwidth

As seen here.

And here.

So I have to recommend the X850XT. It has no support for HDR or shader model 3.0, but it provides great performance for the price range it is usually found in.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

The X850XT is a good card, but is getting outdated. Being on the verge of SM 4.0 and DX10, why recommend a card that will become obsolete much faster than all the other cards on the list? It may be fast, but few people care about raw FPS these days, since they also want the level of detail expected of today's games. Hell, if I just wanted to play a game like HL2 without giving a damn about the graphics, I'd probably buy an MX440!

 

[k.jacko]

I think the X1950PRO here is the best pick of the lot. Faster than the 7900GS and a hell of a lot cheaper. You'd have money left over to buy a new PSU too!

Agreed! Good find dude. Back when i bought my 7900GS the X1950pro was £40 dearer ????

How and why its dramatically dropped price so much below the 7900gs i don't know, but certainly worth looking at as a potential buy.