Need Advice on Graphics Cards!

[Calza]

Right so I've changed my mind a bit, I do want to do some gaming on my pc so I need to invest in a graphics card but I don't intend to play Crysis on anything like that so I just want to keep it simple and around the £50 area maybe stretching to £70 but that would be my absolute limit.

 

So basically I want it to be able to run Half Life 2 with absolutely no problems, Dawn of War as well, I might be interested in Gears of War on pc (I know in this budget playing at medium is the best I can aspire to) and possibly CnC3. Sure it isn't exactly the most demanding list but really ATi and Nvidia aren't exactly making the easiest to understand product names.

[McPhee]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=633076

[Guest Jordan]

That'd do the job.

[Calza]

That looks pretty good but is this not better value? http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132497

 

It is the same chipset but it features more memory (512MB)?

[DCK]

The Radeon 3650/70 should be a slightly better alternative in the near future for around the same money. It's reported to be going to have a 512 MB version for $99, so that's around two pounds.

[RoadKill]

If you can spare a bit more, you can get the laughably awesome and brand new Geforce 9600: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141904

 

It's a new midrange card; but the deal is it rapes the shit out of older high end cards: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3235&p=2

 

Which still cost more than it.

 

But if £70 is the limit, then, you know what, get the exact one you linked, Calza, the 512MB Radeon 2600XT. I just spent a bunch of time looking at all kinds of sites and benchmarks and for the price, it kicks ass. Do it.

 

I even started looking at 3450/3650 benchmarks, and they weren't all that great, and will cost more (only the 256MB versions are available on ebuyer at the moment as well).

 

Even if you were to wait, the 3650 is still a mid-range card and is going to offer really similar performance, so buy the 2600 now and in future if you actually want good performance, stuff like the 3870 and the 8800GT will be mega cheap (that's if the 9600 isn't cheap then, too)

[DCK]

It's a new midrange card; but the deal is it rapes the shit out of older high end cards:

That's a real exaggeration here, the 3870 is priced the same and performs better in the majority of the games. The 9600GT just wins by bigger margins, evidence that nVidia tweaked them specifically for those games (the big hitters like CoD 4), and those are the games in which the GeForce 8 cards do relatively better, too. It does have great overclocking potential though.

[Calza]

Just wondering what is the newer technology in the 3000 series compared with the 2000 series? Is it smaller chips? and obviously more powerful processors etc.

 

I think I might order it on wednesday but hopefully the weekend by the very latest. It's getting pretty hard to justify all this spending

[DCK]

They're identical, except for these things:

 

- They use a smaller manufacturing process that makes them cooler and suck less power.

- All 3000 series cards support DirectX 10.1 instead of DirectX 10.0 in the 2000 series (doesn't matter in games, especially if you run XP)

- All 3000 series cards now have a chip that supports hardware acceleration of HD movies, significantly lowering CPU usage. I believe only the 2600 had that before.

 

The 3800s are about 10-20% faster than the 2900 was, and the 3650 is only like 2% faster than the 2600, but it does have its advantages.

[Calza]

Can the 2600 not support DirectX 10.1?

 

I'm not sure I should really stretch to the newer models, I know especially at this price range it is near impossible to future proof but I wouldn't like to buy technology that is already outdated.

[DCK]

Seriously, don't worry about DirectX 10.1, it's some really (really) minor features that were optional implementations in DirectX 10.0 already. No game will require you to have DirectX 10.1 when every game still supports DirectX 9.0c for Windows XP support.

 

Also, the new Radeons should be out in the coming two weeks already, so it's not much of a wait.

[Calza]

I may just wait then, I think I might be able to manage a couple of weeks. Do you think there is a chance of a price drop in the older models? I may as well just wait though as I would be really annoyed with myself if I bought it now to find it had become £10+ cheaper a week later.

[DCK]

It appears some shops have the 3650 in stock already, at least one here in the Netherlands. You should be able to find one in the UK, too. Make sure you get the version with 512MBs of GDDR3 memory. There's a lot on the loose with GDDR2 memory, but they will perform poorly.

[McPhee]

The 3650 performs on a par with the 2600XT, in fact it's like 2 or 3 frames per second slower.

 

Overall it's a better card though, as DCK said, if you can find the GDDR3 model for the same price as the 2600XT then get that instead. Don't pay much more though, a few quid at most.

[RoadKill]

That's a real exaggeration here, the 3870 is priced the same and performs better in the majority of the games. The 9600GT just wins by bigger margins, evidence that nVidia tweaked them specifically for those games (the big hitters like CoD 4), and those are the games in which the GeForce 8 cards do relatively better, too. It does have great overclocking potential though.

 

What I mean is the 2600XT seems to outperform previous generation:- Geforce 7800, 7900, by small amounts/if at all, at a price point lower than those cards were.

 

The 3870 is NOT priced the same. If the Radeon HD 3870 was priced the same as the Radeon HD 2600XT I would have recommended the 3870. Actually, no I wouldn't, because you can get the Geforce 9600GT for the same price.

 

The 3870 is about £120 whereas the 2600XT is about £60. I don't see how they're even close in price. The man was asking for graphics cards <£70.

 

The 3650 is so similar in performance to the 2600, but it's up to you, ultimately they're both fairly low-end, and you'll be wanting to buy a new one eventually anyway, if you buy either. You should be able to get a 512MB 3650: http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4ZHJ&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11137,4294952924 - not in stock yet, but it's probably a solid choice.

 

The 2000 and 3000 series use basically the same core, and the 2600XT in theory should be quicker than the 3650, 800mhz core vs 725mhz, memory clocks 1100mhz vs 800mhz.. and so on, but whatever

[DCK]

But, after AMD's price cut last week, the 3870 is the same price as the 9600GT, which is what you were referring to in the first place. But it's grossly over budget, it's like 110 quid now.

[RoadKill]

Yeah, I know they're the same price now, but the 9600 seems to have the edge, I guess it's early days/doesn't really matter, and by the way I'm not some fan of either, I've got a Radeon HD 2900XT in my current rig (aww, yeah, the card no-one bought!)