Graphics cards

J

James

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What should i get... hmmm! What would be the best card to get and most value for money. I can get a 9800pro 256meg for R2400 or save longer and get the new x800. The x800 has such sweet specs but i will also have to get a new PSU as they are hungry and i will need a 480-500 watt supply. If i get the 9800 it is not as good but i think my 300watt will be adequate. Any one got these cards. Opionions welcome, the x800 will be gigabute and the 9800 saphire.

There is no peace without war!!!
 
madness, don't pay that much for a 9800pro. The gap between 9800 and x800 is huge. Wait a while december/november. Buy a 500watt power supply does wonders. I would say get that before you buy ur gra card. considered a geforce 6800 ultra / gt ??

..- dot dot dash ;)
 
The X700's have just been released, I'm busy reading the review on AnandTech :

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2214

Also you do NOT need a 500 watt power supply for these cards. They only draw about 30-40 watts more than previous cards when running at full load. The reason they have an external power connector is because they pull virtually no power from the AGP or PCIe bus.

If you are considering NVidia then wait for the 6600 GT (if you plan to stay in the R2000 price range) or go for the 6800 GT if you don't mind spending a bit extra. It is not worth getting the Ultra or Utra Extreme (if you can even find them) as the performance difference does not justify the price. Also some GT's can be clocked up to Ultra speeds.
 
I bought a Leadtek 6800 (standard 12 pipe version 128Mb) from Rectron for my Nephew last week. They had them on special for just over 2K. The plain 6800 is faster than a 9800XT and supports shader 3.0 and Direct X9 C.
I have seen it running. It looks good. The Pro and the Ultra version are still too expensive.
On the other hand a 9800 is no sneer either and are coming down in price quickly. You can get them for about 2K now. The X800 are good too. I have several friends that bought HIS X800 Pro's. They are very happy. But they paid over 4K for those cards. Also not that it means much yet and you should do a bit of google searching, about how important will Shader 3.0 be. The X800 doesn't support Shader 3.0. A person I know bought a HIS X800 Pro VIVO and flashed it to a X800 XT Platinum. But that was just under 5K. But it over clocks like a demon.
But dare I say it. The 6800 would be more future proof. :)

And in all instances a good PSU is needed I'm afraid. 9800's and above needs an extra Molex connector. 300W should do it. Depends on your setup. How much hardware you are running.

You have some tough decisions.[:D]


<b><hr noshade size="1"></b><font size="2"><font color="red"><b>You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.</b></font id="red"></font id="size2">
 
Just found a very interesting article comparing nVidia to the Radeon. Very interesting..... http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=1181&s=8 , especially when you look at the high AA.

There is no peace without war!!!
 
Read this article.

http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/article.php?id=326

And this quote:
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">The GeForce 6800, while not the most impressive performer that we've seen, certainly improves on the performance of the 5950 Ultra and 9800 XT with a much lower cost than both. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

From this article. http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2113&p=18

<b><hr noshade size="1"></b><font size="2"><font color="red"><b>You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.</b></font id="red"></font id="size2">
 
Thanks for the input every one. Will prob just wait till christmas and see what, if any christmas specials get throw out there from rectron or sahara, preferably not the latter(dodgy place that). It is also worth while to get tops, or close too it. I bought the Geforce 4 4400TI when it came out and it has lasted great, Even played doom 3 on it and it handeled.

There is no peace without war!!!
 
Any one wanna buy a ASUS geforce 4 4400TI, going cheap ;-)

There is no peace without war!!!
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> Lucky nephew BTTB!<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Yeah. But he did pay for it. It cost him a few weeks salary though.[:)]

<b><hr noshade size="1"></b><font size="2"><font color="red"><b>You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.</b></font id="red"></font id="size2">
 
You know, the GForce4 TI range is still a pretty good card, i have a 4200 and it handles ok. The only crappy thing about it is its not directX 9 card, which makes quite a difference on Doom3 etc. Other than that, its pretty powerful, still. when i upgrade, i'm gonna keep mine for "in case sh*t happens".


Telkom - South Africa's Handbrake to progress.
 
Probably a good idea to keep it. Put it in the 2nd pc. At least that way my mates can come and join me at CS and I can claim some easy frags :D

There is no peace without war!!!
 
James, if you wait till the Christmas period, if the Geforce 6800 GT is going cheap, then get it.

It's future proof (Shader 3.0 etc) and you can over-clock it to Ultra speeds which is (probably) better than the X800 XT PE. and it's the best card per buck for high-end cards

So start saving now!
 
I've also got a Geforce 4 Ti 4400. Card has been rock solid over the 2 years i've had it, but with all the new Dx9 games coming out i cant help but feel i'm starting to miss some of the action.
Yes the nVidia 6600 gt looks like it'll be the bomb, but at the moment it's only in PCI Express format and you can expect an AGP version in Oct/Nov. Read a review here http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040907/index.html
also look here for a review on the latest ATI X700 series http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040921/index.html

i guess it all boils down to how much you want to spend, some of those big cards do need a bigger PSU and if your current PSU doesnt fit the bill then it's more money you'll have to spend.
For me , it's the cost/performace . So at the moment i doubt you could go wrong with a Nv 5950 or a ATI 9800 pro /XT,
but should those new 6600 cards be at a decent price i may just jump at one, we'll just have to wait and see

"There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action."
 
For once I agree with Dominic. At the moment I'm looking to get a 6800 GT around Christmas time but will obviously see what benchmarks are like as perhaps ATI will have released their new Open GL drivers by then. I'm getting my card from the UK and shipping will be free (sister visiting [;)]).
 
Like wise getting my crd from the UK. Can you tell me the shop u looking at. I am looking at www.microdirect.co.uk I used them allot when i was over there, prices are very good, cheaper than rectron and sahara. If you have a cheaper place can you let me know.

There is no peace without war!!!
 
Micro Direct prices are pretty good. Also take a look at :

www.ebuyer.co.uk
www.overclockers.co.uk
www.dabs.com/uk

I bought 1 Gig Corsair XMS4000 memory for around R1750 from ebuyer last year. You find they drop prices dramatically on some products to clear out older stock, just keep checking prices.
 
Well, i used to go to one of the 3 Computer Fairs off Tottenham Court Rd. I got absolutely everything there for the best possible prices. And, they always had the latest stuff first. The only stuff i got elsewhere was my ram, which i got on Crucial's excellent website, which i think is www.crucial.com, or .co.uk. Just type in your mobo name, and it chucks out your options, very cool.
I wish we had similar fairs down here in the Cape, i could certainly use it.


Telkom - South Africa's Handbrake to progress.
 
A very good UK price-comparison site is www.kelkoo.co.uk

Type in 'geforce 6800GT' (without quotations)

Counting down...
130 days till the end of Hellkom
 
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