Need advice on Graphics Cards

nanoro

I want to upgrade my pc to so I can run some of the newer games at a good framerate (crysis, bioshock etc.). I have identified two options within my budget of €190, just need some advice on which road to take.

My vitals are:

CPU: Athlon 64 3500+ @ 2.2Ghz

RAM: 1GB

Currently have an old graphics card which needs to go.

The options....

1. Buy GeForce 8800GT 512MB PCI-E (€180 including postage)

2. Buy GeForce 9600GT 512MB PCI-E (€157 including postage) + buy another 1GB ram (€18) --- total €175

Advice is greatly appreciated

AlmightyCushion

I'd go with the second option. The extra ram will make a difference. I think your processor may bottleneck you though.

nanoro

Thanks, I reckon I will upgrade the processor & montherboard to dual core over the summer

AlmightyCushion

If that's the case then save your money and upgrade all at once. I don't see the point in upgrading to a card that the rest of your system is going to be holding back By the time you have the money to upgrade everything, the prices for the ram/graphics card may have dropped so you could get the 8800gt and 1GB ram for the same price as the 8800gt is now.

nanoro

ok thanks for the advice, makes a lot of sense

Sqaull20

nanoro wrote: »

ok thanks for the advice, makes a lot of sense

You could upgrade to a decent setup, that can be turned into a very nice setup for €320 and some overclocking...

Intel Pentium Dualcore E2160 €55

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=17477&agid=398

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L ,Intel P31, ATX, PCI-Express €55

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=18279&agid=659

2048MB-Kit OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 €36

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=8407&agid=599

XFX GeForce 9600GT 650M ,512MB DDR3 €137

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=20565&agid=554

Cpu can be overclocked to 2.4ghz plus with ease on that board....

Anti

Sqaull20 wrote: »

You could upgrade to a decent setup, that can be turned into a very nice setup for €320 and some overclocking...

Intel Pentium Dualcore E2160 €55

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=17477&agid=398

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L ,Intel P31, ATX, PCI-Express €55

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=18279&agid=659

2048MB-Kit OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 €36

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=8407&agid=599

XFX GeForce 9600GT 650M ,512MB DDR3 €137

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=20565&agid=554

Cpu can be overclocked to 2.4ghz plus with ease on that board....

Thats a savage price for a system with that power when overclocked.

kazzer

Im thinking of maybe going for the system just mentioned. Will that processor not inhibit frame rates even when overclocked? How would that processor fair out in other tasks when overclocked to say 2.4, and could the stock fan keep it cool? What stock processor would it be par on with? Whats the p31 chipset like compared to say the p35? Thanks

Anti

the 2140/2180 will clock to 3ghz minimum on stock volts with the stock intel cooler. They compare to an 6750/6850 when at these speeds in most tests. But the larger l2 cache on the higher specced chips will ofourse help.

p31 and p35 are simialr enough chipsets, the x38 is a slightly better chipset, but much more expensive. There are a few awesome overclocking boards for 50€ one of which is mentioned above.

Drakar

Both American so the prices are different but:
Toms hardware's best cards of feb 08 is out too which might be worth a read http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/04/best_cards_february_2008/index.html.

Also http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2273763,00.asp though not specifically on graphics.

Fnz

Drakar wrote: »

Toms hardware's best cards of feb 08 is out too which might be worth a read http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/04/best_cards_february_2008/index.html.

... or you could check out the recommended ones for March... if you want to be really up to date.

[Link]