Computer Gaming Newb - Give Me Some Video Card Input.
- Thread starter Mofo
- Start date
Well, how much are you willing to spend is really the question.
For a low grade card your going to spend about 100 to 200.
Mid grade card, about 200 - 400
And really high end is gonng cost you over 400 bucks.
I highly recommend www.newegg.com as well to buy computer parts from.
For a low grade card your going to spend about 100 to 200.
Mid grade card, about 200 - 400
And really high end is gonng cost you over 400 bucks.
I highly recommend www.newegg.com as well to buy computer parts from.
Your best bet is probably an ATI Radeon 9800 or 9800 Pro
Pretty much a 9800 series. You don't want the FX series from Nvidia (POS) and the 6800 GT or higher series from Nvidia is probably going to be out of your price range as well as the high end X800 series from ATI.
What mobo are you going with? That will help as well. Is it PCI Express? Because that will change your options.
Pretty much a 9800 series. You don't want the FX series from Nvidia (POS) and the 6800 GT or higher series from Nvidia is probably going to be out of your price range as well as the high end X800 series from ATI.
What mobo are you going with? That will help as well. Is it PCI Express? Because that will change your options.
Nvidia 6600 series wouldn't be too bad either if you are getting a PCI Express mobo.
http://www.newegg.com/app/manufact.asp?catalog=48&DEPA=1
Your best bet may be to pick a card and then ask what everyone thinks of it. Nvidia and ATI are both on par these days as far as the latest generation.
Actually, I would try to get better than the 9800 Pro like I said earlier. It looks like prices have come down since I last checked.
Latest gens from Nvidia are (6800 and 6600)
Latest gen from ATI (x800 and x700)
http://www.newegg.com/app/manufact.asp?catalog=48&DEPA=1
Your best bet may be to pick a card and then ask what everyone thinks of it. Nvidia and ATI are both on par these days as far as the latest generation.
Actually, I would try to get better than the 9800 Pro like I said earlier. It looks like prices have come down since I last checked.
Latest gens from Nvidia are (6800 and 6600)
Latest gen from ATI (x800 and x700)
Mofo said:
I would say that's not too shabby.
You should have one 16X lane PCI slot. The video card can ONLY go in this slot, no other one.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/content/165/2/
Dr.Guru of Peru
played the long game
WTH guys? 9800 pro? x700? 6600? The guy is willing to go to $500.
Yeah. X800xl can be found at compusa business site for $270 and is easily the best value for a card out there atm. Its PCI-E btw.
http://www.compusabusiness.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=50881768&pfp=BROWSE
element said:
Yeah. X800xl can be found at compusa business site for $270 and is easily the best value for a card out there atm. Its PCI-E btw.
http://www.compusabusiness.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=50881768&pfp=BROWSE
I'm agreeing with element on this one too - if you can reach up to the $290 range. Either the regular 6800 or the x800XL are a nice match for a 3 GHz machine. If not then the 6600GT is pretty hard to find an ATi equivalent to.
Whether you go nVidia or ATi is sorta like chocolate or vanilla, both cards are solid choices with plenty of satisfied owners.
fwiw I have a 128mb 6800 I picked up for a good deal late last year and am very happy with it. Before that I had an ATi 9700Pro and was equally pleased with it in its day.
Whether you go nVidia or ATi is sorta like chocolate or vanilla, both cards are solid choices with plenty of satisfied owners.
fwiw I have a 128mb 6800 I picked up for a good deal late last year and am very happy with it. Before that I had an ATi 9700Pro and was equally pleased with it in its day.
Dr.Guru of Peru
played the long game
Dr_Cogent said:
I respond to this with an equally perplexed "???".
MechaSnake
Member
Dr.Guru of Peru said:
Dr_Cogent said:
.mofo said:
the rule of thumb with videocards is that you buy as much card as you can afford. I don't know how strict you are on your $250 upper limit but if you're willing to go to 270-280 you can get a much better card. Something like the x800, it's as fast or faster than the 6800 (wich is faster than the 6600GT), the cheapest one on Newegg is the Gigabyte fanless card, this means that it will not make any noise which is nice but I wouldn't overclock it.
--edit--
and just a general tip, if you're looking at an ATI card, just remember that Saphire manufactures ATI's cards and all ATI does is re-brand them, there will be no difference between a Saphire x800 and an ATI x800 except maybe the Saphire will be cheaper.
--edit--
and just a general tip, if you're looking at an ATI card, just remember that Saphire manufactures ATI's cards and all ATI does is re-brand them, there will be no difference between a Saphire x800 and an ATI x800 except maybe the Saphire will be cheaper.
Dr.Guru of Peru
played the long game
MechaSnake said:
ermm..
lol, im crazy.
I retract my "???".
Shogmaster
Member
Mofo said:
3Ghz PC? Sounds like you're spending your hard earned money on a new Prescott P4 system, or an moldy old Northwood P4 system. Neither is a good idea for a new PC in 2005.
Do yourself a favor and post more details on the PC you are getting. I want to make sure you don't waste money.
i'm using this one and i think for that price you can't get better.
and what Shogmaster probably hints at is that you would be wiser to buy a pc with an AMD processor since it's superior in price and performance for gaming compared to Intel. and the few areas Intel is better at are not that big a difference in performance.
and what Shogmaster probably hints at is that you would be wiser to buy a pc with an AMD processor since it's superior in price and performance for gaming compared to Intel. and the few areas Intel is better at are not that big a difference in performance.
Lucky Forward
Member
I'm in a similar situation to the original poster (PC gaming newb)... I just bought a Dell Dimension 8400 (3.0 GHz, 512 MB RAM) primarily because I'm just getting into digital photography, and it came with this video card: "128MB PCI ExpressT x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI RadeonT X300 SE".
So far I've only been a PS2 gamer, but I'd like to give PC gaming a try. I know it's not a high performance video card, but will the Radeon X300 SE run a game like Morrowind, or do I need to upgrade the card before I even think about running most popular PC games? Will lowering the appropriate settings help me out here?
I just dropped a grand on the PC, and I'm buying a Canon digital SLR next, so I'm not inclined to run out and buy an expensive video card right away. Can I have a satisfactory (if not cutting edge) gaming experience with the Radeon X300 SE, or should I not even bother until I'm ready to upgrade the video card?
So far I've only been a PS2 gamer, but I'd like to give PC gaming a try. I know it's not a high performance video card, but will the Radeon X300 SE run a game like Morrowind, or do I need to upgrade the card before I even think about running most popular PC games? Will lowering the appropriate settings help me out here?
I just dropped a grand on the PC, and I'm buying a Canon digital SLR next, so I'm not inclined to run out and buy an expensive video card right away. Can I have a satisfactory (if not cutting edge) gaming experience with the Radeon X300 SE, or should I not even bother until I'm ready to upgrade the video card?
you should be able to handle Morrowind, hell even UT2004 (at 800x600) the x300 SE has the features to run any game out right now, but it won't run them very fast. You will have to do some tweeking (resolution and such) in order to get tolerable frame rates, the only game I would avoid with that card is Doom 3. Here are some benchmarks for ya.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/powercolor-x300se.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/powercolor-x300se.html
Lucky Forward
Member
Well, I'm pleasantly surprised! I bought Morrowind, and it's been running fine with my Radeon x300 se card. In fact, I've upped the draw distance, pixel shading is on (great looking water!), and I put the resolution on the highest setting.max_cool said:
I've never been one to worry about or even notice framerate issues unless it turns into a slide show. The only problem I've had was when I entered some kind of magical power station where patterns of glowing red light were emanating from these generator thingies, and things slowed way down. The game looks great to me (but as I mentioned, this is my first PC game), and I wonder if a better card would buy me anything more than better FPS during complex scenes (at least in this game). I read on a Morrowind forum that this game is really more demanding on the CPU than the GPU, and it seems like the P4 3GHz is serving me well.