I'm looking to upgrade my Ati X300SE graphics card (that came with the PC) to something a little better. I play mostly HL2 and Counterstrike Source, and my settings are at minimum with average framerates resulting... I want to spend less than £100 (£110 maximum), I want the option of running two VGA monitors, I want it to run nicely on Medium settings on the HL2 Engine, and it must be very easy to install, preferably using my Catalyst drivers... I assume you get quite a few threads on here about this kind of thing, but I wouldn't know the correct "Search" result if it smacked me in the face with a 2 by four... Thanks, CC
If it has to be ATI, you can probably find an X1650Pro or XT version in your price range. Those will be your best bets with an ATI card.
I've found the X1650 Pro for £75 on Amazon. The X1800 GTo is £130, so it's a bit out of my price range. Thanks for the help guys, CC
word of warning the x1650pro is a pretty awful graphics card http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/110809 x1900gt 104 http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/118618 x1900gt 108 sorted
Ok, so is the 1900 better than that lot above then? Thats a pretty damn good price if it is. What's the difference between the 104 and the 108? CC
no major difference, just one has only 3 in stock so i thought id post the 2nd link which has loads those are propper graphics cards, faster than a x1800gto by quite a way. Talking hl2 max detail all the way thats for sure.
Cool. I'm impressed at how low prices can be for that kind of performance - which is fairly good, even a year or two on! Thanks for the link. For reference (and beatings! haha) I'm running: 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 1 GB of RAM X300SE (at the moment) which is not too shabby considering its a year or two old now (again ), but I know next to nothing about generally running a high speed system. Mine is completely stock from (dare I say it here?) PC World... (appaling service) CC
You can get a nvidia 7900GS for that money. A better bet than the X1900GT imo. Don't bother with any of the X16xx series, they are a waste of money.
So it doesn't matter what company the graphics card in relation to other components - it'll all just plug and play? Do you have any real "data" on which one is better - or is it subjective? CC
Well, an X1650XT card will be the lowest, then the x1800gto, then the 7600GT, then the X1900GT and 7900GS are a tie at stock speeds, but if you chose to overclock the 7900GS you will get more performance. That is pretty much everything good in your price range. Everything is plug and play, but if you get an nVidia card you must un-install the catalyst and put on the nVidia drivers from nVidia's website(the ones on CDs with the video cards are usually outdated). Do you know how powerful the power supply in your current computer is? You may need an upgrade if you get an new video card.
