Recommend me a Graphics Card!

daveyjoe

I have a budget of €150-€220, I only want to go above €200 if there is a serious difference in quality.

I currently have a crappy GeForce 440mx with 64mb ram, I'd like to stay with the nVidia range of cards instead of moving to ATI if possible.

I'm not a hardcore gamer, but I do want to be able to run Hi-Res visualisations (AVS, Geiss etc..), and I play the odd game of Counter-strike aswell. I don't need DVI or anything special like that. Please include the retailer aswell (Komplett, OcUK, Compustore etc..)

Current spec:
Athlon XP 2400+ @ 2.06 GHz
512mb Ram @ PC2700
Geforce 440mx w/ 64mb Ram
MSI TV@nywhere TV card
XP home edition

neokenzo

I have the 9800 Pro and I'm really happy with it. You probably could get it for €217 from www.jes-computer.de but that doesnt include delivery.

daveyjoe

Originally posted by neokenzo
I have the 9800 Pro and I'm really happy with it. You probably could get it for €217 from www.jes-computer.de but that doesnt include delivery.

What exact model is that? there are a few 9800 pro's on the site, I couldn't find one for €217 (I'm sure it's there though). Link please, thanks.

Dave

neokenzo

Sorry, should have been more clearer. I got the 128MB Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro Lite-RTL. I didnt buy it from Jes but they are selling it at €215.99.

daveyjoe

If possible I would like to stay away from ATI based cards,

How does this card look MSI FX5900 XT €197.99 @ Jes computers

unkel

Originally posted by daveyjoe
If possible I would like to stay away from ATI based cards

Why is that? 9800 pro is pretty much THE benchmark card these days.

Creamy Goodness

the Geforce 5900XT cards are clocked lower than their 5900 brothers.

get the 9800pro it's cheap as buttons nowadays

Ajnag

Thought I might hop in on this one, Im also looking at the same kinda prob with choice.

Afaik, nvida are still the only offering linux drivers, and ati support aint great as of yet.Im ordering from komplett, and they have a choice of 9600xt/pro
or on for nivda they have a 5700 Ultra, or a 5900.

whats the best do ya think?

daveyjoe

Originally posted by unkel
Why is that? 9800 pro is pretty much THE benchmark card these days.

Well the reason is that I use R4 and a lot of the functions and scenes will only work with nVidia based graphics cards.

Michelangelo

ATI is the king. Get it ahead of Nvidia if you can.

PS: Anyone know where I can get me a 9800 pro for 200 or less?

Snaga

Originally posted by Ajnag

Afaik, nvida are still the only offering linux drivers,

Just thought Id jump in here with.....

http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html

Linux drivers for most of their cards are there now though they are only available in rpm format.

Havent tried them yet so Im unsure about how well they work as compared to the nvidia Linux drivers.

nadir

Id go for a 5700 Ultra or something like that, MSI are excellent, so id say you could be onto a winner there.
I dont like ati, never have, the first gfx card I had was a 4 MB geforce 2 way back when nvidia totally owned ati, and it rocked. I have a Ti 4200 now, 128 MB DDR and its class too, even running half life through winex throws out 80 fps at max res. In terms of linux support ATI have always been poor, I have a radeon 7000 here in a box also, and I eventually got DRI up and running with the open source drivers and ALOT of work. I also managed to get some hardware accel on a rage mobility, again only the open source drivers worked, i.e quake3 would run, but it was literally a nightmare to do. Recently I had a chance to play with ATI 9800 mobility on a dell laptop and failed completely to get it working, even after 2 days at it, those fglrx drivers are a disaster. I know some people have them working on other models, but I found them incredibly problematic, and also even if you do get DRI up, you will then have to go about sorting out tv out, .etc.
Whereas with nvidia, just install the drivers off their home page, add a couple of lines to XF86config and you have full hardware support, and TV out .etc.
Then again, maybe you arn't interested in linux
But who knows, in the future you might want to try it out, and have a funky high-res fluxbox desktop like meh.

daveyjoe

OK, I probably should have mentioined this earlier but here are some other factors to take into consideration.

1. I have AGP 4x, not 8x like newer PC's

2. I have a small form factor PC (Shuttle), so ventalation within the case might not be as good as some of the bigger cases.

3. I'm not sure that graphics cards with large coolers would actually fit into my pc, see picture below.

Any suggestions bareing in mind all those factors?

deckie27

Dave

noticed ur sig

MSI TV@nywhere TV card
How do you find this card?
do you have any regrets?
I'm thinking of building a similar system but I was looking at the 9200ati aiw as a complete solution

Thanks
Dec

daveyjoe

Originally posted by deckie27
Dave

noticed ur sig

MSI TV@nywhere TV card
How do you find this card?
do you have any regrets?
I'm thinking of building a similar system but I was looking at the 9200ati aiw as a complete solution

Thanks
Dec

Discussion is ongoing http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=146352.
Generally the software is buggy but otherwise I have not complaints, the capture quality is good.

Woden

Originally posted by daveyjoe
OK, I probably should have mentioined this earlier but here are some other factors to take into consideration.

1. I have AGP 4x, not 8x like newer PC's

2. I have a small form factor PC (Shuttle), so ventalation within the case might not be as good as some of the bigger cases.

3. I'm not sure that graphics cards with large coolers would actually fit into my pc, see picture below.

Any suggestions bareing in mind all those factors?

irrespective of the the software comptability issues you might have, i would recommend an ati card also and more specifically the 9800pro, it trashes the 5700ultra, the 9600xt, the 5900XT, the 5900 ultra series and stuff.

the agp4x doesn't matter doubt you'll see much difference and the ati card only takes up a single slot not like the highend nvidia cards.

data