Help with friend's new PC

It'll be a while before games start being DirectX 10 only. I'd recommend he buy something along the lines of a 7600GS or 7600GT, depending on his budget at that stage.

When the games are truly DirectX 10 only, he should have enough money to buy a 8600 or similar. For example, I'm currently using a 7900GT and I don't see myself buying an 8-series card for quite some time.
 
Cool beans. The 7600's start at like 1200 new. I guess that is not bad if it will play the newer games as well.
 
You have to look at four things when buying a graphics card =

Core Clock Speed = Higher is better. This is the speed at which the GPU runs.
Memory Speed = Higher is better. This is the speed at which the GDDR runs.
Amount of memory = Higher is better. More memory makes playing at higher resolutions smoother.
Memory Bit Width = Higher is better. The more data can get to and from the GPU and memory at once, the more calculations can happen.

The pecking order is as follows: stock, GS, GT, GTX. Sometimes GS is slower than stock, but that differs from card to card.
 
WKJ?:beanie said:
You have to look at four things when buying a graphics card =

Core Clock Speed = Higher is better. This is the speed at which the GPU runs.
Memory Speed = Higher is better. This is the speed at which the GDDR runs.
Amount of memory = Higher is better. More memory makes playing at higher resolutions smoother.
Memory Bit Width = Higher is better. The more data can get to and from the GPU and memory at once, the more calculations can happen.

The pecking order is as follows: stock, GS, GT, GTX. Sometimes GS is slower than stock, but that differs from card to card.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that!

I shall bear all of that in mind when I come to buying a gfx card as well. :)
 
WKJ?:beanie said:
You have to look at four things when buying a graphics card =

Core Clock Speed = Higher is better. This is the speed at which the GPU runs.
Memory Speed = Higher is better. This is the speed at which the GDDR runs.
Amount of memory = Higher is better. More memory makes playing at higher resolutions smoother.
Memory Bit Width = Higher is better. The more data can get to and from the GPU and memory at once, the more calculations can happen.

The pecking order is as follows: stock, GS, GT, GTX. Sometimes GS is slower than stock, but that differs from card to card.
Click to expand...

You forgot the number of pipes...
 
True, you should also look at the number of pixel pipelines and the number of pixel- and vertex shaders. However, this is all irrelevant with the 8-series onwards.
 
So more than 256MB is not necessary really unless you plan to run at crazy big resolutions?

like the only difference between the 320 and 640 8800s is the resolutions they support then?
 
8600's are due in 3 weeks (4 weeks for SA) Price should be about $200.

Basically it is a DX10 card that matches the performance of a 7900GT.

If you can live with the onboard for a while, WAIT!.
 
Yeah, the biggest difference would be that the 640MB would be able to run higher resolutions at smoother framerates.

Sapphiron made a good point, you can hold off buying the card if you are willing to wait and you won't regret it. However, if you have to buy a card right now, then you don't have many options.
 
Ok. I guess the best option would be to wait a bit then. Onboard isn't the worst to live with for a little longer.
 
hj2k_x said:
Ok. I guess the best option would be to wait a bit then. Onboard isn't the worst to live with for a little longer.
Click to expand...

I was wrong. Onboard sucks. It's fine as a backup but for everyday use I can't really recommend the onbaord 6100s...

Told my mate to get some kind of cheap card as he will not be gaming at all. So like a 6600 or something should be fine.
 
hj2k_x said:
I was wrong. Onboard sucks. It's fine as a backup but for everyday use I can't really recommend the onbaord 6100s...

Told my mate to get some kind of cheap card as he will not be gaming at all. So like a 6600 or something should be fine.
Click to expand...

As long as you don't buy an 8500GT :D
 
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