[grim reaper]

Best Cards on various budgets

After seeing all the which card for £X threads i thought id create a definitive guide which ill try to keep updated.

Note: this guide was written with the British market in mind, beucase of the exchange rate and the fact that the US get cheaper stuff some of the $ figures may be inaccurate.

Sub £50/$90 - A used Geforce 4 Ti4200 (pay upto £40 for a decent one) or 9500np/pro (£50 will get you an average example) or a 9550 if you want new (just within budget). In this budget try for a 128mb card, a 256 card will bring no advantages as the cards here are not powerful enough to use it, and a 64mb card (some ti4200's) have pretty much had it for any texture intensive game at 1024x768.

<£70/$130 - basically the same as the £50 class, a 128mb 9550 /128mb 9600 (not SE!) would be great (NEW), you may if the seller is desperate, get a used 9700np/pro for this price, in which case it kicks everything else here. Again 256mb is stupid for this price, for the reason above.

<£100/$190 - A used 9800pro or 9700pro (new) is lovely. TBH id just get the 9700 as the difference is negliable. If you need to go NV (for linux support or something) then hunt around for a used FX5900XT or 5900ultra. New it would have to be a 5700ultra.

<£150/$280 - 6600GT is the current king in this segment. That or the 6800LE (if you can find it for this price its probably better as it can be modded for more pipes). Ati have the X700 which cant really match the 6600GT but is a good card none the less (about 9800pro levels)

<£200/$375 - 6800nu, no competition. ATi have nothing in this sector which comes close. The 9800xt is not even able to keep up with this little bargain, and surprise, surprise 256mb doesnt give the 9800xt any advantages.

<£250/$470 - now for the strange price bracket, no cards really fall here, a used X800pro or 6800GT may be had, but thats quite optimisitic tbh, if you want a better card than the last bracket, your gonna have to dig deep, sorry.

*A WARNING* - The Asus Asus GeForce 6800 GT 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail may seem like a bit of a bargain for this price range, but in reality its not worth it, it will perform every so slightly better than the regular 6800nu.

<£300/$560 - 6800GT or X800pro (if you go for a X800 , try to get a VIVO so it can be flashed to a X800XT ) both cards here are stonking, personally id go 6800GT but ATi are slowly clawing it back with excellent AA & AF performance. There are also reports of the Gigabyte X800pro VIVO coming pre-equipped with 16 pipes, making it a bargain XT. Nice.

<£400/$940 - GIT! you can afford practically any card you fancy, a 6800 Ultra or X800XT are going to suit you perfectly. Enjoy.

and now a new section....... if i were in your shoes......

<£50, save up, or 9550 (128mb)
<£100, 9700pro
<£150, 6600GT
<£200, 6800
<£250, scrape and scrounge to afford a 6800GT
<£300, Gigabyte X800pro VIVO (16 pipes baby!)
<£400, X800XT (not PE, as i dont believe its worth it)

"erm, well i want to run game X at X detail, how much should i spend??"

Depends what you want, quite simply for anything other than games onboard graphics will do but for games like farcry and doom3 your going to want any card here, yes even the base models ive recommended will do farcry/d3 on 800x600 @ medium/low detail. However for adequate performance in these games at 1024x768 your going to want a 9700 card or better. For 1280x1024 a 6800nu is perfect and 6800GT and above will do 1600x1200.

"so thanks, but im a bit confused about manufacturers and all these SE and LE models"

Manufacturers: Any that Major retailers stock are good really, the galaxy's and HIS's deserve a special mention for their luvverly coolers, but anything will do. Gainward still have a bit of a dodgy reputation for a bad bunch of Geforce 4's they made, but in reality they should be as reliable as anyone else now.

SE etc: Basically, avoid the SE and LE tagged cards if thou does not know what they are doing. These are heavily cut down cards which perform quite poorly in comparision to their cousins.

"Im a modder, any cards i should look out for?"

Well the X800pro VIVO can obviously be flashed to a XT quite easily, however reports are coming in of laser cut pipes, so now its not guarunteed. However the Gigabyte VIVO apparantly comes with 16 pipes already unlocked. WOOHOO!

The 6800 series is all based off the 6800Ultra GPU and so have the oppurtunity to be unlocked for the full 16 pipe "effect". Making the 6800LE and 6800non-ultra super value. However some pipes are often broken and dont unlock.

"will my CPU do these cards justice?"

A common question, hopefully this should help:
(when referring to Ghz, im also referring to the Athlon XP PR rating)

1.5ghz cpu and below : sorry, any of these cards will be bottlenecked, go out and buy the best components you can afford.

1.6-2.0ghz : anything from the ti4200 to the 9600/5700 series would be ideal, although obviously the 9600 is more suited to the 2.0ghz end.

2.0-2.4ghz : A 9600/9700/9800 and nvidia conterparts 5700/5800/5900 would be well suited.

2.4ghz-2.8ghz : 9800/6600GT/6800nu

3.0ghz+ any card really, although for the X800XT's and 6800ultras of the world your looking at A64's.

"ok, i have my card, what scores should i be getting on 3dmark 03?"

Common cards:

Ti4200 - 1300 (only poor because it cant run a certain test)
9550 - 3300
9600pro - 4000
5700ultra - 4000
9700np/pro - 5000
5900XT - 5600
9800pro - 5800
5900ultra - 6000
9800XT - 6300
6800nu - 9500
6800GT - 11,000
X800pro - 11,000
X800XTPE - 13000
6800Ultra - 13000

These are only a guide, most people on here will beat them with uber systems backing them up. Oh and dont be fooled by the 5900ultra's high bench, it aint as good as the 9800pro in the real world.

"So the X800/6800 guide you promised us, where is it? hmmm?"

Its here...... finally

The 6800 series, the card for most people, its not THAT keen on AA or AF (in comparison to the X800's). But in OpenGL (doom3 and other ID projects) expect it to blitz the X800 series, EASILY. Note these cards are stll very new, so expect future drivers to really yield large improvements.

6800LE - The same 6800 GPU but with 8 pipes (as opposed to 12 of the nu) which puts it in the same league as the 9800pro, however its equipped with the same (quite fast) memory as the non-ultra. It is a little more expensive than the 9800pro, and this is reflected in the performance (slightly better). A 9800pro killer.

6800nu -
the 6800 non ultra is probably the best value card on the market today, simply outstanding for the price, it can even compete with the X800pro which is designed to compete with its older brother the 6800GT. One word: Superb.

6800GT - The overclockers dream card, EXACTLY the same core as the 6800ultra, and quick memory too, meaning it should easily reach 6800ultra speeds, a super quick card, quite pricey but when you consider it can become a 6800ultra easily, quite a bargain.

6800Ultra - The most expensive card on the market (for gamers) so for that title you would expect super performance, and thats exactly what you get. 1600x1200 on farcry/doom 3? No problem, super badass n00b pwning framerates? you got em. Simply, if you can afford it, probably the most powerful card around. Ultra clock rates can vary between manufacturers, and as ive just been told by jamesj, this can make alot of difference. 425/1200 is vastly superior to 400/1000, in fact how does 1000 3dmarks difference sound?

The X800 series, a pretty basic upgrade on the R300 series (9700/9800) its basically the same core, but manufactured using a better process to allow for more pipes to be squeezed in and higher clocks to be achieved. Therefore it has the same strengths as the 9700/9800 such as unparalled AA/AF performance. Being an extension of the R300 series, expect it to gain minimal benefits from drivers compared to the 6800's.

X800SE - Not much is known about this card, basically its an 8 pipe version of the GPU, but with fairly decent clocks. I know what your thinking, 8 pipes? based on R300? so 9800 performance then? well, maybe, id expect it to be a bit higher, but i dont really know, its not available to my knowledge for a retail release yet, but someone (plz step forward) on these boards has one in a pre-built pc. Expect it to fall between the 6800LE and 9800pro.

X800pro - ATi's rival to the 6800GT, but with only 12 pipes, which is a severe hampering to it. However decent performance especially with AA and AF means it is a worthy rival in my book. Oh and of course VIVO models can be modded into the beast below:

X800XT/XTPE - ATi's flagship products with the PE having slightly higher clocks (an extra 20 on the core, and 120 on mem). These are the full fat 16 pipe versions, and by god they are fast. Put it this way with 1600x1200 pixels and AA/AF this is the BEST CARD bar NONE. the catch? it lacks PS3 (wow?!?!?!) and speed in openGL. You play with AA/AF? Save for this.