good gaming cards ???
- Thread starter mattymeik
- Start date
ProcalX
all grown up
For under £150, you definately want to go for an ATI 9800Pro. Prices vary between manufacturer, but can be found between £110-£180 here in the uk.
I've played Counter-Strike:Source (which is counter-strike ported to the Half-Life2 Engine) with a 9600XT, i get 30-40fps @ 1024x768 32bit and thats on a multiplayer server with about 16 other people.
So the 9800Pro will play Half-Life 2 with nice graphics at a good frame rate.
The 9600XT is one model down from the 9800, however the 9600XT only has 4 pipelines, where as the 9800 has 8 Pipelines, which is alot better.
I've played Counter-Strike:Source (which is counter-strike ported to the Half-Life2 Engine) with a 9600XT, i get 30-40fps @ 1024x768 32bit and thats on a multiplayer server with about 16 other people.
So the 9800Pro will play Half-Life 2 with nice graphics at a good frame rate.
The 9600XT is one model down from the 9800, however the 9600XT only has 4 pipelines, where as the 9800 has 8 Pipelines, which is alot better.
Big B
HWF Godfather
Well, without HL2 being out, no one, save Valve can really say how it's going to play. However, from what I've been reading, it's not going to require grunty cards to enjoy high resolution gaming like Far Cry and D00M 3.
I wouldn't get anything less than a Radeon 9600 series card (except for the 9600SE...not worth the money), but the Radeon 9800 cards should be within your reach. The XT is clocked faster than the Pro, but I'm not so sure it's worth the extra money spent.
I wouldn't get anything less than a Radeon 9600 series card (except for the 9600SE...not worth the money), but the Radeon 9800 cards should be within your reach. The XT is clocked faster than the Pro, but I'm not so sure it's worth the extra money spent.
Darcadian V1
Big Geek
course if your made of money you could get a ATI Radeon X800 XT
which will also give the benefit of good future proofing.
It is REALLY expensive :eek: though so dont go getting yourself into debt or anything.
which will also give the benefit of good future proofing.
It is REALLY expensive :eek: though so dont go getting yourself into debt or anything.
Anti-Trend
Nonconformist Geek
The nVidia 6200's will be available soon also.
According to dabs.com a Geforce 6600GT AGP will cost you £146.99.
You can find cheaper ones but they're mostly PCI-E versions which you need a PCI-E motherboard to use.
And yes they will perform much better than any 9x00 series cards because they're the current generation cards, while the 9x00 are last generation and our outdated in today's market.
You can find cheaper ones but they're mostly PCI-E versions which you need a PCI-E motherboard to use.
And yes they will perform much better than any 9x00 series cards because they're the current generation cards, while the 9x00 are last generation and our outdated in today's market.
Big B
HWF Godfather
Now that HL2 is out, from playing it myself, you do not need a terribly grunty card to run it well. Provided you're not chugging along in a Pentium II box or something otherwise slow, you'll be fine with something like a Radeon 9600Pro. If HL2 is the main thing to play for you, you really won't need to buy something like a GeForce 6600GT AGP. You can if you want, but it's definitely not necessary to get a highly playable experience at a decent resolution.