is a HD 2400 XT or 512MB ATI® Radeon® 3870 any use

MooseJam

the bro wants to get a pc, probably a dell, I've been looking on their site and they don't seen to offer Nvidia cards, just those two ATI ones whats the story with that, I thought you'd be able to pick up a reasonable gaming machine for 800 yoyos with maybe an 8800GT but this seems not to be the case, they are only offering ATI stuff which I'm assuming is rubbish

is 800 euro too low to be looking for a gaming box ?

astrofool

The 3870 is pretty good, check www.tomshardware.com vga charts.

We only know if 800 is too low on the games you'll be playing. Manhunt will be fine.

tramoredude

The 3870 is almost as good as an 8800gt. A system with a 3870 for 800 euro is very good value imo

TerrorFirmer

tramoredude wrote: »

The 3870 is almost as good as an 8800gt. A system with a 3870 for 800 euro is very good value imo

Not really; for 800 you could easily build your own machine with a 9800GTX, 4gb ram and Quad Core. 800 these days is actually a good budget for a gaming machine....I honestly think with Komplett and Hardwareversand assembling PC's now, there's not a whole lot of value in buying Gaming PC's from Dell save for the odd deal or two.

3870 is a good card though, would play most games at high settings without too much effort.

MooseJam

what about an X1650Pro, is that any use ? I'll go check out the vga charts too

Anti

No, that card is a heap of shit

TerrorFirmer

I have the DDR3 X1650Pro (most are DDR2) in my second machine, pretty poor to be honest even for a card of its age. Bioshock strings by at 800x600 at high settings. I'd say the 2400XT is close enough to it performance wise.

The lowest I'd go for a new gaming machine would be something like the 3850, which can be gotten for under 100 euro and plays most games at high settings at decent resolution. Anything under and you'd be noticeably sacrificing visual detail, which I'd hate to have to do on a brand new 'gaming' machine.

This is good value, happily runs Bioshock/Call of Duty 4/other modern releases at high settings and high resolution; this is another good compromise between price and performance. If you can stretch a small bit then this is great value, 190 inc. delivery for a top card that will run every game at 1680x1050/1920x1200 high settings no problems.

If you're opting for a Dell and putting in your own card, then those work out at good prices....if you're buying a full machine elsewhere, somewhere like Hardwareversand offers those cards at even better prices (but the postage is too high for single items, only worthy when purchasing several).

Forget cards like the X1650/2400XT....any of the cards above hammer them several times over, quite literally.

pedro ferio-vti

What about the 3870 X2? Still crap Anti?

TerrorFirmer

pedro ferio-vti wrote: »

What about the 3870 X2? Still crap Anti?

He said the X1650Pro was a heap of ****, not the 3870.

pedro ferio-vti

Ah sorry my bad. It was just i'd read a good review of the 3870 and wanted to know why he thought this

Nforce

3870X2 actually isn't too bad (the X2 has 1gb of memory compared to the 3870's 512mb).. I'm getting one tomorrow so I guess that i'll find out soon enough.:)

Sqaull20

Wouldnt get that dell, doesnt have the performance for a €800 gaming machine..

No overclocking, no sli, weakish power supply, windows 32bit..

You could get a monster for a bit over €850 built and delivered off

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/3/pcconfigurator.jsp?pcConfigurator.res=1&pcConfigurator.gpOnly=0