Buying a graphics card...

Im proberly going to purchase a new graphics card this week.
Even though its not the best, im going for the Geforce Asus EN6600.
Specs:

500mhz core clock.
256mb memory.
550mhz memory speed.
Slot: PCI express.
128bit.

Im getting a very good price for it, but I just never bought a graphics card before, so I wanna know what do you guys think. Dont say "Its s**t go 7800" or something, just tell me important facts and stuff.

I don't know squat about any of the newer cards, specifically the PCI-E versions but, you can do what I did when I bought my last one. research it.

Just type "Video card benchmark" in goggle. You will get some interesting hits there. You can refine it by typing your card in the "Search within these results" link.

You can also seek out sites like Toms Hardware for some results.

You can also search google with "6600 vs 6800" or whatever cards you want to see.

I did this last year and opted to by a slightly outdated 9800 pro 256 meg ATI card.. I was happy with it... till recently.

Cards get old fast. Buy the biggest you can afford.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Most people are brand fanatics.. for instance I love nVidia cards. others will tell you to buy only ATi.

I currently have a nVidia 5950 ultra card, it runs everything I have smoothly. Its about 2 generations behind.. nVidia now has the 7800 series, and before that the 6800's. I would buy a card in the 6800 range because its gonna be cheaper, and will do what ever you want right now. Game companies have not really used all the power the current cards can perform.

One thing to note.. make sure your RAM is at least 1gig, and that your CPU and MoBo is upto date. Because a new graphic card wont do you any good if your lacking in those areas.

When it comes to Graphic cards, both companies make great cards for gaming.. you just have to decide what is best for you. As orph said above, get a card just behind the current technology, you'll save money, and get plenty of bang for your buck that way.

Good luck with your new card.

PCI-E Is the newest technology, they have faster connection than a AGP port. they look like a PCI slot but are often a different color to seperate them from your other PCI slots. With PCI-E you can bridge two graphic cards together to give you better graphic perfomance, just like having two CPU's. You would need a Motherboard ( MoBo ) to use this technology. If your current MoBo doesnt have it stick with the AGP graphics card.

LOL, I should learn to read the post more closely.. I did some research and..

REVIEW OF CARD

It seems from what I have read to be a good card. you may need to watch its heat level though.. it seems to over heat easily.

I have 1gig of ram and 3.6ghz proccesor (P4).

I proberly wont do much overclocking, so it should overheat to much (Comes with lifetime garrentee + warrenty). And yes, my motherboard has PCI-E and says it supports that exact card. I would go for more expensive, but this is SA where computer stuff is very expensive =/

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Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

You sure that is the same card money? That review is of a GT, but Toast King didn't mention GT in the card name.

If it ISN'T a GT, then I think you should instead try to go for a 6600GT or 6800, but it really depends on your budget.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I don't have the 9800 XT, but its nice to know that they are still using the 9800 engine to do specs with. :smile:

sighs

Times were, I'd have sold my soul for a 9800, now... Mine is obsolete.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Your Soul Orph, or your card.. heh heh..

If your not going with the GT you may want to reconsider.. and try to spend a little extra to get the GT.

Soul, Money... Sadly, I don't think my soul is worth even a second rate vid-card.

As far as Toast's question goes... Advice is all well and good, but in the end, its his money and he will have to live with his choice. If he cannot research a good card.. Oh well.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Im pretty sure this is part of the GT family, because it is more expensive than the GT cards.

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The Geforce 6600 cards are good I'd go with them if I were you. I have a Geforce 6200 and it runs lgames like HL2 and DoDS on full settings.

Well, im not too worried anyway, cause my friend of mine has this exact card and he says it runs most new games on high settings pretty well (Depending on your CPU and RAM of course)

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Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

I'd wait till DirectX 10 comes out, then buy a card personally.

But, if your willing to cash out $300 USD, buy a Geforce 7800 GT. For games right now, it runs them all at max settings.

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Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

Yeah, the 7 series GeForce has radiosity too, and that's coming up into play. I think some of the 6 series support it, but I'm not sure. And the price difference between series 6 and 8 is very small. A friend of mine got ahold of a 7800GT for $299 when it was on sale a couple months back (NewEgg.com) So, it's not insanely expensive (Nor relativly cheap). It'd also "last" longer for what you want.

Something you want to pay attention to is power consumption, especially now. I'm sure an Asus isn't as much of a power hog (I think, not sure), I know the MSI PCI-E 7800GT uses ~430W in SLi. Which in comparison is a God send, considering the BFG, PNY, and XFX cards use something like 550W in single operation.

But, price matters more! so. If it's under like ... $220 USD, I'd say go for it. Some links for you though:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121192 (Asus 6800 GT)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143049 (BFG 7600 GT)

Not that I'd really suggest a BFG, but, that's freakin' cheap.

What's your price range anyway? And do you have a huge preference over ATi or Nvidia? (They both get the same job done, arguing numbers is just asinine, however, you get into problems depending on your motherboards chipsets. Such as, if you have an nvidia chipset, it probably isn't the best idea to get an ATi card, I've heard of many problems when interfacing the two. That goes the other way around too: Ati chipset and nvidia card)

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

The card is costing $233, and in south african standards that is very cheap.
But anyway, my manual for my motherboard has this exact card under the cards that are supported, so I shouldnt have those types of problems ( I hope)
I wish I could buy a 7800 for that cheap, I can certainly afford it, but here it is about $580, which is becoming a bitty expensive. Keep in mind Im buying this off my pitiful pocket money :wink:

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MSI Geforce 7600GT Check this out. This is $184.99 USD on NewEgg. MSI tends to have really nice circuitry and cooling designs (they use copper a lot as the heat-sync) ... I think they're German too.

Is that $233 USD or ZAR? If that's USD, I'd recommend looking at this card. It's cheap, has everything you want with more speed. You shouldn't have any problems with either card, I was just mentioning that people have had trouble's mixing the two, chances are you don't even have either of those manufacture chipsets. Maybe a Intel or VIA chipset? I wouldn't know since you didn't give any other specs on your computer. You're looking for a PCI-E card though, right?

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

@ Crono: It is 233 USD.

And I have a ASrock motherboard. (Or maybe it is Intel?)
And yes, its for PCI-E, and yes, I have a PCI-E slot.

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Ah, so look, I found you a better deal.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

OK, my motherboard is by ASRock but its chipset is Intel.
http://www.asrock.com/support/PCIE/775Dual-915GL.html
Here is the PCI-E gfx card support list (For my model)
@ Crono: Do I have to have it shipped over? I would buy it, but its out of stock and I have to spend loads of money on shipping, and stuff. I do agree that most gamers here buy their stuff from the USA.

<div class="abouttext">Message submitted 5 minutes after original post:</b></div>
Update: The price for my card has gone down to $166. Nice :biggrin:

<div class="abouttext">Message submitted 5 minutes after original post:</b></div>
Update: The price for my card has gone down to $166. Nice :biggrin:

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Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

Wait until the dx10 cards arrive, that's what I would do.

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

I don't know much about hardware (especially the latest cards) but price is very imporatnt for me, too so I at least know your problem.

What irritates me is that I've never heared of an "EN6600" it sounds like a "special" version of another card and those are often problematic. They cut out key features and sell an "XTC ABCSD-ect." version that is slightly less expensive but not much faster than an older model that costs half as much. I'd get a more popular name (radeon X800, geforce 6800 come to my mind) that has proven to work well with many people because otherwise you might be disappointed.

EN6600 = Extreme N6600.
It is just a normal 6600, but with 256ddr and 500mhz core, and for PCI-e.
EN6600 is just the model name.

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Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

Wait until the dx10 cards arrive, that's what I would do.

Agreed. The cards out now, even the best like quad 7800GTX's aren't able to run DX10. Thats what I have heard though, because DX10 is supposed to change EVERYTHING.

Like DX9 before it?
And DX8?
DX7?

It won't change everything, probably just a few more features. Meh.

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Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directx_10

If you scroll down to the "future of directx" you can see what microsoft plans to do. Pretty much DX10 includes stuff (WGF 2.0) that no video card now can run.

So on a current video card, they will be disabled, and youll likely end up with better overall performance at the expense of shinier walls. My old 1ghz machine runs any DX9 game faster with an mx440 than a radeon 9600 for this very reason.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

It's a difficult time for buying a graphics card.

reaper47 said:
It's a difficult time for buying a graphics card.

Not really. The underlying reason still remains. Even if the DX10's came out today, damned few of us could afford one so they wouldn't be bought.. That simple.

The basic truth of the matter is, we buy what we can afford to buy. The sad thing is, damned few research their options and buy whats convenient. I bought my ATI 9800 pro 256 after researching my options. I waited 2 weeks for it to arrive and so far have been pleased that I did. Most run down to the nearest store and buy one "today".. and regret the decision immediately.

Basically, if anyone can buy a DX10 card, then they prolly have more money than sense anyway so its a moot topic.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Who actually buys their computer s**t from a shop? It is SO much cheaper buying it from dealers or online.

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Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

I was always under the impressions that PCI-E was a fad that came and went in a year. Didn't they find that AGP 16x was actually faster, and considerably cheaper to buy/manufacture?

Crono you'll know this one.

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-[Better to be Honest than Kind]-

I haven't heard anything about AGP16x before, but I don't see any reason to think PCI-E is a fad given that it has become the new standard.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I don't think so. The bandwidth capable on the PCI-E bus is much higher than doubling the AGP 8X bus (I believe, you can find actual figures, if you like). That's why you'll see a lot of boards with built in stuff using the PCI-E bus for things like Gigabyte-network.

I think the entire architecture needs a change anyway, so perhaps I'm not the best person to ask :smile:

But, it isn't a fad. The bus' are suppose to be far more efficient. And, to top it off, even if there were cheaper AGP architecture, it wouldn't matter. PCI-E is already slated to do a lot more than video hardware. This is where the the duel slots will come into play. There's a few expansions in development, which can run concurrently with the graphics card to provide better experiences.

I think it'd be adequate to point out that the PCI bridge is a slow mo-fo. This is to speed that up. I think they initially will work with graphics cards, since those require a lot of bandwidth, but, eventually, I hope they really expand it. Something like four PCI-E slots that can all work in sync with each other would give many options.

But, if it's just for graphics, yeah, there'd be no reason to change it. But no one is supporting anything higher than 8X AGP, so.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

PCI-E is over a year and a half old Reno, hardly new...

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-[Better to be Honest than Kind]-

Myrk, thats what he was saying.. like DUH.

I have just recieved it, and installed it, and so far it has made a HUGE diffrence. Now Instead of running games of medium with a bit of lag, I now run 'em on high with perfect framerates. Seems pretty good imo.

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Orpheus said:
Not really. The underlying reason still remains. Even if the DX10's came out today, damned few of us could afford one so they wouldn't be bought.. That simple.

I didn't mean "wait until the DX10 cards" in order to buy one. When they arrive, the DX9 cards will drop in price, and all the 300-400$ cards on the market now will be cheaper.

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

Hehe, even though I only have 512 ram (Getting a GIG on monday) I can play BF2 on max setting with hardly any lag, except that it sometimes starts thrashing when I run out of ram =[ SO more ram. But still runs great =]

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Enjoy the joys of having a superior graphics card :smile:

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Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

Hehe, even though I only have 512 ram (Getting a GIG on monday) I can play BF2 on max setting with hardly any lag, except that it sometimes starts thrashing when I run out of ram =[ SO more ram. But still runs great =]

Yea BF2 is probaly the most ineffiecent game I have ever played RAM wise. It uses up my whole gig, and i don't even play on all high.

Hehe, but BF2 has massive open spaces with loads of objects, but it does use quad tree, but still occasionly lags for a few seconds.

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Dammit, ive becomed so damb hooked to BF2 =D
Awsome game, especialy with lovely crisp dynamic shadows and hi-qual models and shiny water.

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Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

Unfortunately, crisp dynamic shadows and high-quality models and shiny water dont make it as fun as battlefield 1942. If they removed the whole RTS element from it (squads/commanders etc.), and fixed their stupid patch programs so I could patch it, it would be a whole lot better.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

Pfffft, Battlefield 1942 is SOO boring Im proberly gonna delete it, after playing BF2 is way more enjoyable + nicer graphics + more playable and fast. Nicer weopons, and BF1942's command interface does not exist. BF2 has proper command and sqauds. With top-down displays. And the game is more detailed with props. While the command interface makes it more controllable of your team, I do agree it is damb confusing at times.

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Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

whats your in game name?

mine is JoeMah
stats----> Here

As you can see, I am also addicted to BF2.

Mine is also Toast King :smile:
I brought another 512 ram today, so I now have a gig.

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Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

sorry a bit off topic but i customized my own pc :razz:

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0>

<TR>
<TD class=summary_body id=summary_price name="summary_price">$7335.00</TD>
<TD class=summary_right></TD></TR></TABLE>
<TABLE id=summary_content cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 name="summary_content">

<TR>
<TD class=summary_left></TD>
<TD class=summary_body>
<DIV class=summary_item></DIV>
<DIV class=summary_item>CASE : Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ01 Workstation Aluminum Case 420 WATT (BLACK COLOR)</DIV>
<DIV class=summary_item>CPU : (939-pin) AMD Athlon?64 FX 60 Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology</DIV>
<DIV class=summary_item>MOTHERBOARD : (Sckt939)ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIE MB w/GbLAN,USB2.0,IEEE-1394,&7.1Audio</DIV>
<DIV class=summary_item>MEMORY : 2048 MB (1GBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Kingston Hyper-X High Performance Memory w/ Heat Spreader)</DIV>
<DIV class=summary_item>VIDEO CARD : NEW! NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GTX 512MB 16X PCI Express Video Card</DIV>
<DIV class=summary_item>VIDEO CARD 2 : NEW! NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GTX 512MB 16X PCI Express Video Card</DIV>
<DIV class=summary_item>LCD Monitor : ViewSonic VP2330WB 23" Wide Screen Color TFT Active Matrix WUXGA LCD Display Monitor</DIV>
<DIV class=summary_item>HARD DRIVE : 1TB (500GBx2) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive</DIV>
<DIV class=summary_item>Hard Drive 2 : 1TB (500GBx2) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive</DIV>
<DIV class=summary_item>Optical Drive : COMBO DRIVE (16X DVD-ROM & 52x32x52 CD-RW) (BLACK COLOR)</DIV>
<DIV class=summary_item>Optical Drive 2 : COMBO DRIVE (16X DVD-ROM & 52x32x52 CD-RW) (BLACK COLOR)</DIV>
<DIV class=summary_item>SOUND : New! Creative Labs X-FI Elite Pro 24-BIT PCI Sound Card</DIV>
<DIV class=summary_item> </DIV>
<DIV class=summary_item>way too expensive but oh do i wish!</DIV>
<DIV class=summary_item>www.cyberpowerinc.com</DIV>
<DIV class=summary_item> </DIV></TD></TR></TABLE>

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Bullet Control: $5000 for a bullet.
"I would blow your f**king head off! ...if I could afford it. I'm gonna get another job, start saving some money... then you a dead man!"

I would strongly suggest you get a cheaper CPU. The speed will be utterly wasted if you're running windows. Even for a dream machine, a faster non-FX chip would do wonders, or even an X2, if you really want dual core (which is not utilized at all, you should know)

That aught to knock off a good $2k off the pseudo pricetag.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Grab two or three monitors :smile:

And go with 4 GB of memory if you want to go that extreme.

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Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

Dark_Kilauea said:
Grab two or three monitors :smile:

And go with 4 GB of memory if you want to go that extreme.

There wasnt an option for 4GB RAM! :razz:

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Bullet Control: $5000 for a bullet.
"I would blow your f**king head off! ...if I could afford it. I'm gonna get another job, start saving some money... then you a dead man!"

That's because you want duel channel. Which wont really effect anything nearly as much as having 4GB of physical ram. Fitting more into memory at a time will always be faster than a quick swap ... since you know ... chances are the program already resides in physical memory ... in other words under 10 cycles is faster than 20,000 (HDD access approximation). :razz:

It's also quite humorous that you think having two 512MB video cards will work with only a 420W power supply. Sadly, it uses A LOT more. (With only one card, it'd fly, but with two you need at least 550W ... says the manufacturers)

And the motherboard you're listing is just ridiculous. You could build a machine close to your specs for FAR less money ... example (this is built with the benefit of the doubt. Meaning, the general specs are the same, you'd have the same if not more performance Although, those SLI cards is an easy $1000 on their own:

(Note, I like MSI, they're usually a little cheaper, yet provide a tremendous amount of quality for their products. They usually design things with efficient circuitry) All prices are USD, from either newegg.com or zipzoomfly.com

MOTHERBOARD: MSI K8N SLI-F ATX ($99.95)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700 ($219.00) [1MB L2 cache]
MEMORY: 2 x A-DATA V-Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) (2 x $132.99) [Total of 4GB]
VIDEO: 2 x MSI GeForce 7900 GTX PCI-E 512MB (2 x $559.99) [Disregard the fact that you can only buy 1 per order ... and that they're ludicrously expensive]
HDD: 2 x Maxtor MaxLine Pro 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s (2 x $320.00) [You can settle for one terrabyte, I think :razz:
DVD: Pioneer 16X DVD%uFFFDR DVR-111D Black ($37.99)
CASE: SILVERSTONE SST-TJ01 Black ($89.50)
POWER: Antec NeoPower NeoHE 550W ($118) [Efficiency Ranges from 76 - 85%]

TOTAL: $2,590.40

Of course, I didn't include a monitor, but you could grab a nice plasma HD TV to do the job since the video card(s) output up to 1080i. And why, not, let's go crazy! Let's get you a 50" Plasma TV ... and an 8 Speaker surround sound system.

So ...

MONITOR: SAMSUNG PPM50M5H Black 50" Wide Screen Plasma Monitor ($2,999.99)
RECEIVER: Yamaha 770W 7.1-Ch. XM Satellite Radio-Ready Digital Home Theater Receiver ($499.99)
SPEAKERS: 3 x Athena Technologies Audition Series 2 5-1/2" 2-Way Bookshelf Speakers (Pair) (3 x $149.90)
CENTER SPEAKER: Bose Center-Channel Speaker ($199.99)
SUB: Athena Technologies Audition Series 12" 800-Watt Powered Sub-woofer ($399.99)

Grand Total: $7,140.06

With that $194.94 left over you can go buy yourself a table to put all that crap on.

I hope I introduced a new standard for "dream machine" in some of your guy's eyes.

Playing games on that thing would be incredibly amazing.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

You must be mad to go for 4 gigs of ram. Your PC will NEVER use proberly even 2 gigs of ram (Which to me is also insane).

That GFX card is great, go for it :biggrin:
You dont need a terrabyte hardrive.

Btw, my new ram is nice.

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