Graphics Card For Around £100

[Hector]

Hey everyone, been preparing myself for the big virgin PC build for a while now, researching all the best bits I can afford. Not got loads of cash but so far the two main components I have settled on settled are:

AMD Athlon "Barton" XP2500+ cpu
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe nForce2 moboard

I've been looking at the Asus V9570TD GeForce FX 5700 256MB card recently but havn't been able to find any reviews on it anywhere and it is about £20 over my price range, so if anyone knows if it's worth the extra that would be a help. I've been kind of fond of Nvidia cards in the past (I'm still getting plenty of use out of my old Geforce 2 MX with my Athlon 800) but everyone is saying that ATI is better (though less reliable drivers).

Anyway, any suggestions would be a help.

By the way, is it really nesessary to get Corsair or Kingston or another premium type Ram or is Crucial still pretty good. I'm gonna need at least a Gig and the prices of the top stuff makes me nervous!

Thanks.

[RGX]

no 1. Dont get a 256 MB card, because at the moment its pointless, as by the time games need 256Mb of graphics memory, your cards architecture will be out of date, so i'd stick with 128Mb

no 2. In terms of memory...I've heard good things about crucial...the higher brand memory tends to be more stable, with better timings, but I doubt it will make that much difference unless you plan to overclock.

no 3. Graphic cards for under 100....its going to be a little tight unless you up it a bit....can you stretch to 130? That'll get you a nice ATI Radeon 9600 pro, which a few members here use...do you plan to game?

Justr found a nice XT for that price:

Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9600 XT FIREBLADE 128Mb inc. Half Life 2 Retail Boxed
The terrestrial plane has never been touched by technology the likes which has arrived today.

In Stock
[SHIPS TODAY]
£98.80 ex.VAT £116.09 inc.VAT
(€139.69 ex.VAT €164.14 inc. VAT)

http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/home.php?cat=416

[Hector]

Thanks for the reply,RGX. just read a similar comment about not bothering to get a 256mb card. Think I'm gonna stretch a little more on the Graphics budget, especially seeing as I'm not the sort of person to fork out for a new one every year. gaming is always a top consideration, but I'm also using my system for a lot of design work, including the occasional bit of video editing (hence opting for a pricey Moboard with all the trimmings).

Thanks for the tip on the Ram. perhaps there is a very good reason, but it sucks that most Moboards only have 3 dimm slots, who can afford to fork out for 1gig or 512mb of ram every time without wasting some??

Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9600 XT FIREBLADE 128Mb card looks good...

But I'm still happy to plump for Nvidia if anyone can come up with something equalling it or better (for the same price)!

[adam_tomlinson]

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?action=...F&CatID=&GrpID= (http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?action=info&AvdID=&sku=122900&cks=WOF&CatID=&GrpID=)

[Hector]

I havn't looked into the Saphire cards much but they seem to be frequently recommended on here. And that one looks like an absolute bargain!
Does the Lite-Retail mean that it just doesn't come with a bundle of games? I'm not too bothered about them as there is plenty on KL!

Thanks a lot for the link adam! ( was beginning to wonder where all the die-hard graphics card experts had gone ). :D

[adam_tomlinson]

yeah comes without all the crap like free games (which is worthless old tomb raider or something), just get the stuff off kazaa :D basically you get the card and the driver (and presumably the box)