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When i get games, it's usually around £30 online, so say around $50 a pop.
What monitor are you using with the system? I think you should be okay for BF2, it's just for the gaming nuts who play at super high res and detail.....even though the top teams play at low res, thus seeing everything better, as it is bigger on-screen.;)
Liam
Opinions..observations...I am looking at these two cards: 1. Sapphire 100119 -HS Radeon x550 256MB 128-Bit DDR PCI Express x16...( has passive cooling). or: 2. Asus EAX 550GE/TD/256MB Radeon x550 256MB DDR PCI Express x16...( has fan). I am not familiar with any other brands but I am open to suggestions.
Hey Liam...my monitor is a Samsung 700DF 17"
Sorry about the BF2 comment wheere i mentioned a 7800, i was getting confused with another thread.....
I would push the budget to about an X700 if you can, they are a lot better than the X550, and probably don't cost that much more.
How much are you planning to spend on a graphics card?
Liam
Liam...the two x550's are $70.00 each...I know what Judge John is going thru.."system cost creep!!" I certainly want to put together a solid performing system and I could go another $20.00, maybe a wee bit more if I can see a sustantial improvement. I'll look at the x700 at newegg...do you have any recommendations for a dependable brand?
Not that my choice in cards have been particularly brilliant :: cough 6600:: But ive always gone with the Nvidea brand myself.
I saw this: Sapphire 100122L Radeon x700 256MB DDR PCI Express x16 ...$99.00...has a fan. Hmmm....I'll need to think about that....have to draw the money line somewhere...sure need to find that long-lost-rich-uncle!!
oh look, i've been quoted :) . i personally am a fan of buying the very best you can now in order to save money in the long run. for instance you could spend $50 on a gfx card now and in a few moths time when you have more money upgrade to say a $200 gfx card. while if you just splashed out in the first place it would have saved you $50 in the long run. but then again my budget went from $500 to about $1200 :eek: .Quote:
Originally Posted by stevejr
and here is quite possibly the most used link on this site; http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/...iii/page4.html
but i doubt that has any cards that are in your price range. so here's another one i came across with Google; http://techreport.com/etc/2004q3/doo...w/index.x?pg=1
have not read it myself but it seems to compare the lower end cards.
Hold on.....i forgot you were going for 2 cards....you can't run 2 ATI cards on an SLI mobo, SLI is Nvidia's dual card thingie, ATI have their own called Crossfire, so if you want 2 x ATI cards, you're gonna need a Crossfire compatible board, and not an SLI board......
Liam
Judge John...now you are FAMOUS...people are even quoting you !! I agree with your premise of getting the "best" that you can get, in general terms...I know all of us have had situations where we bought a widget for $$'s...then later wished we had just gone ahead and spent the extra money for what we really wanted. But sometimes ( quite often a lot of times), the hard reality of money says that we just have to try and be satisfied with less than the "best". In my case, I do not need the "best" due to a business factor or other income generating situation. My life has been one of pragmatic necessity...raising my two children by myself showed me that there are many things that I did not absolutely "have-to-have" in order to survive. So many times I would see people with their brand new 'whatever', and part of me would naturally envy those people...man, that hurt!! I sacrificed several opportunities for myself that would have made me real good money but it would have required me to be away from my kids too much....and they had no one else but me...I could not trade my kid's emotional stability, their critical formative years...for a new house, or new car...boat...etc..My son and my daughter are now young adults...very stable...very down-to-earth...very realistic about Life..kind and considerate to others. Perfect?...of course not...Now I think that having neat stuff is just fine...I would like to have more 'stuff' myself...and slowly but surely I am acquiring some of that 'stuff'...but it will all go through my pragmatic filter. Hey Judge John...thanks for those links..I did the cpu comparison area of Tomshardware and that's where I decided that for my situation the Sempron 3400+ was a good choice. Hey Liam...man, I'm sorry if I made it sound like I wanted to do double cards...I was just meaning to show you the prices of two different cards...probably too much info. from this end...!! I appreciate this forum very much...I feel like I'm talking to some good friends who tolerate my ramblings! ( Is that warm & fuzzy, or what!!)
LOL Steve, that's what VDr is for. :)
I know what you mean too, and i was confusing this by mentioning dual cards, i guess it's a common topic and it was fresh in my mind....
I'd try and push for the X700 if i were you, i had one, but i paid £80 including VAT and Delivery, but still $99 sounds like a bargain from this side of the pond with the whole maths/exchange thing.:)
OR
As i went over to the dark side....which is Nvidia.....check how much a 6600/GT is in $USD, if that's cheaper than the X700, go for one of those, the software/driver is a lot easier to use/customise/overclock.
Liam
Liam...sure will...thanks..
Liam...??? All I found were some GeForce 6600LE...could not find nVidia...now I'm confused...I thought nVidia and GeForce went together...did I leave my brain at work today??
Nvidia is the manufacturer, Geforce is like the product line, or "Series" So it's a Nvidia Geforce 6600...in a sesame seed bun.:D
Look for AGP GT's, the GT is better than the standard.
Hmmm, a quick search shows them at about $115. :(
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ice=&maxPrice=
Liam
Ahhh..I'm only half-way brain-dead today...that's where I had looked. The m/b that I will be using does not have any AGP slots, just PCI slots and PCI-E slots. Since the video card was gonna be PCI Express x16, I didn't see any point in having an AGP slot. Q: the cards that you pointed me to what does GDDR3 mean? I thought that the ram of the card had to match up with the system ram...and I also saw that those cards were all 128MB...and the cards that I was considering have 256MB...so would one of those 600/GT cards with 128MB outperform an x550 with 256MB.?