Brother needs a Graphics card! which would be the sweetest pick?

[Irish_PXzyan]

Yo guys! waz up

Ok so! let us begin.

My brother has bought himself a newish rig last month. " MSI LG-95 Mobo, Corsair Value Select PC5300 DDR2 1gig of RAM, Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8Ghz, my old Radeon X800Pro, STORM 700w PSU, 17" CRT Monitor, Windows XP Pro 32-bit, 160Gigs of HD space "

Now he wants a new graphics card...the thing is..we bought Splinter Cell Double Agent a few days ago and you need SM 3.0 and well..the X800 does not:shadedshu

So he wants a new card that will last!

I have been doing a bit of research for a graphics card for around 100-120 Euros 60-70 Pounds. I will list what I have found..Please give back feedback for each of these cards!
NOTE: He wants to play games on HIGH settings.

ATI Radeon HD 2600XT 256mb/1gig PCI-E 16x
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...on+HD+2600XT+256MB/1GB+PCI-E+?productId=27970

Please note...he does not want a card that needs to use your RAM for the VRAM...I think that card does that..but I cant find info if thats the truth!

MSI GeForce 8600GT 256mb GDDR3 Overclocked
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...00GT+256MB+PCI-E+overclocked+?productId=26878

I think this card is mint solid for the price!....but is it??

Nvidia GeForce 8600GT 256mb
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...ia+GeForce+8600GT+256MB+PCI-E?productId=26918

I think those 2 cards are the same! but if there is an actual difference..which is better?

Right so...they are the cards that are pretty good...features SM 4.0 and DX10 support. Which would be the best pick?? If you know of a site that has cards like this and they are cheaper! please tell me....but the site must ship to Ireland.

Thanks for any info.

 

[kwchang007]

Yes, first card does use the ram as memory. I would say the cheaper 8600 gt and overclock them to gts speeds. Why not go with a dx9 card? Your brother has XP which is not compatible with dx10, only dx9.

 

[Irish_PXzyan]

Yea I know that! as I stated early on..He wants a card that will last for some time..Vista will travel to his comp at the end of the year! so DX10 is a must option!

 

[kwchang007]

Yea I know that! as I stated early on..He wants a card that will last for some time..Vista will travel to his comp at the end of the year! so DX10 is a must option!

Ahh, see if you can find a 8600 gts with the budget you have, they should be able to overclock higher because of the pci e power connector. If not, just go with the cheapest gt you can find.

 

[bruins004]

Yea I know that! as I stated early on..He wants a card that will last for some time..Vista will travel to his comp at the end of the year! so DX10 is a must option!

Yea def. get the 8600GT.
Also, the top 3 companies with Nvidia is EVGA, BFG and XFX.
If you can find any of those companies for slightly more than go with them.
They all offer a lifetime warranty and EVGA offers the step up program.

Some nice little bonuses (plus EVGA is usually not too expensive of a brand).

But if it is ONLY between those than go with the cheapest 8600GT.

Just make sure he has an adequate PSU.

 

[Irish_PXzyan]

Ok so I shall keep my eyes open for the 8600GT so! thanks for the advice lads.

 

[bruins004]

Ok so I shall keep my eyes open for the 8600GT so! thanks for the advice lads.

Just as some more info.
The 8600GT is a great card for under $100.
Pretty much the performance cant be beat.
Nvidia really hit a nice sweet spot with this card.
Not we just need a DX10 card in the $150 range (and pls dont say the 8600GTS bc it isnt worth that much).

 

[Irish_PXzyan]

Yea I noticed that the GTS version is not that impressive for the price! Its a bit faster in terms of core clock and memory. But Meh bro aint going to spend that much for it.

 

[CH@NO]

Both of those cards are a nice option.

I think the HD2600XT will give you a better overall performance than the 8600GT, but in the end the difference will not be too big.

You can play a various actual games on high-medium settings (most on medium, depends on what game you wanna play) and will give you the benefits of DX10 and SM4. But like the other member says, you may wanna think on a model like X1950Pro or GT versions that is far better than the cards you're thinking for a similar price, and that card will give you FULL support on Win XP with DX9 and SM3 (you will play on high settings on most of the games).

Just try to buy those DX10 cards only if you have Vista or planning to chage it soon (not apply if you're after a 8800 series ), otherway look for the solid DX9 interface and buy a nice card like X1950Pro.

Hope I Helped you out.

 

[DaMulta]

He wants it to last?

HD 2900XT 1 Gb/or 512
8800GTS
or
8800GTX

 

[Irish_PXzyan]

hmm....I know the X1950Pro cards are a sweet deal and do perform better in DX9 games than the new DX10 cards. But the thing is..when my brother gets vista..." he wants DX10 because of Age Of Conan..he wants DX10 for that game " He wants to use DX10 and not DX9...also...when those SM 4.0 games pop out..he wants to be able to use the SM 4.0 also!

Thanks for the info tho..but I think the 8600 or 2600 is the right option here!!

 

[Irish_PXzyan]

He wants it to last?

HD 2900XT 1 Gb/or 512
8800GTS
or
8800GTX

If you read the first post..it must be around 70 pounds to 120 Euros! Those cards are way out of the budget!

 

[cdawall]

8600GT best bang for buck if he has to have DX10 ability

 

[Irish_PXzyan]

Thats what I think anyway! My 8800GTS is a sweet baby and he wants a card quite like mine

 

[DaMulta]

Well if I was on a limited budget...I would get the 2600XT GDDR4 card because it has dx10 and is only slighly slower than the x1950pro

OR if I had a SLi motherboard(Thinking of paring another card in the future)
I would get the 8600GT fatalt1y card.

 

[Irish_PXzyan]

The 2600XT GDDR4 is a good bit more expensive! Not much of a performance gain really.

 

[Casheti]

I thought you meant brother as in black man.. now I'm dissapointed.

 

[insider]

If your brother wants to play games on high settings with DX10 then you can forget about it with the 8600GT or X2600XT cards, infact even the higher end 8800/X2900 will struggle.

For the money better to get a 7900GS/GT or a X1950GT/Pro card and wait another year for much more refined DX10 cards that can actually deliver the framerates at high res/detail.

 

[Irish_PXzyan]

heh...who said my bro is not black?? Well he is white

if they would struggle running DX10 games..why do they have DX10 support?? :O..I dont understand that??? what about the 2400 or the 8400.....lol

 

[insider]

Just because they have DX10 doesn't mean they could run games at high res/detail, the X2400/8400 cards were designed to be superb power efficient HD video playback cards but you can't forget about playing any sort of demanding games with them.

 

[cdawall]

the 2400/8400 dont play games much higher up than solitaire

 

[CH@NO]

hmm....I know the X1950Pro cards are a sweet deal and do perform better in DX9 games than the new DX10 cards. But the thing is..when my brother gets vista..." he wants DX10 because of Age Of Conan..he wants DX10 for that game " He wants to use DX10 and not DX9...also...when those SM 4.0 games pop out..he wants to be able to use the SM 4.0 also!

Thanks for the info tho..but I think the 8600 or 2600 is the right option here!!

Well, both of those cards will be a nice option........just remember that if your bro likes to play always on high settings maybe those cards will dissapoint him 'cause DX10 and SM4 will require a very intensive and demanding graphic instructions and even if those cards support the job certainly will do it kinda slow.

So, If you bro has no complaints about playing with medium settings, then the cards you're after to ARE THE RIGHT DEAL and will be maintain your bro happy for a decent amount of time.

SALUDOS!!!

 

[Irish_PXzyan]

hmm interesting stuff!

I just told him the down sides of having the DX10 cards over the DX9 cards...he has firmly eyed up those 2600 and 8600 cards...there is no stopping him at this point ..thanks for the advice tho fellows!

I think the MSI GeForce 8600GT overclocked is the way to go

 

[CH@NO]

the 2400/8400 dont play games much higher up than solitaire

I must agree with that, I recently see a HD2400Pro and has a beauty package (from PowerColor) but when you see it and it's specs...well, JUST TO PLAY SOLITAIRE with MAX resolutions

 

[pt]

hd2600xt ftw