Graphics cards advice

rchddap1

Hi,

Giving my step daughter a PC for Xmas. Its currently missing a graphics card. In our PC there is a Geforce FX 5500 256Mb card AGP. Her PC is also AGP.

In her old machine she has a Radeon 7500. She needs to be able to run Sims 2 at a decent sort of level.

Now, we have to decide whether to upgrade our machine and buy a better graphics card, giving her our old card. Or whether to just buy a cheaper card for her use.

Our max spend is £150 on a card for us.

I assume that it would be better for us to get a new card for our machine, but open to suggestions. Am also looking for suggestions on a decent card for under £150.

Our machine is used to run games (including Sims 2), as well as being used for the internet. Otherwise it is an AMD3200+, with 1Gb Ram and plenty of Hard Drive space.

Thanks for the help....OH has been going round in circles not knowing what to do for weeks. Perhaps you can help me 'sort him out'

Cheers

brummybloke

hmmm £150 is a tricky amount.

although for agp your choices will be limited as most of the higher end graphics cards are pci-e.

i have this one

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/6600AGP_Series.html

a good price and the card can be overclocked easily ( made to go faster than it says it does) . it works fine on all newer games like call of duty 2, F.E.A.R., ages of empires 3.

dont get me wrong here, it is no 78oogtx but you are not paying £260 and for the price and agp you wont get better value for money ( you may want to search and see if you can get that card cheaper).

i had a 5200fx for 3 years, it was fine, i thought, until i decided to play a couple newer games.

CIS

In the spirit of monesaving

IMHO,

You dont need an expensive card to play those games to an acceptable level, a 64mb or 128mb card can be picked up for a lot less than £100.

I wouldn't dream (or afford ) of paying £150 for a graphics card. I currently have a 32mb Geforce card and it runs games like DAK or Flight Sim, just turned to graphic slightly and they're still quite acceptable.

Rex_Mundi

Overclockers is a good place to get an idea of products, but their prices can be a bit over the top. A quick check on Froogle found the first card on this link at £60.54inc VAT as compared to overclockers at £103.34inc VAT.

heatherw_01

To run the sims 2 you should get the best you can afford.

Nvidia GEForce 5xxxx and ATI Radeon 9xxxx are evenly matched. If you need a new graphics card and money is an issue, a low end GEForce 5200 or Radeon 9200 will do the job nicely. Both of which retail for £30-40.

brummybloke

heatherw_01 wrote:

To run the sims 2 you should get the best you can afford.

Nvidia GEForce 5xxxx and ATI Radeon 9xxxx are evenly matched. If you need a new graphics card and money is an issue, a low end GEForce 5200 or Radeon 9200 will do the job nicely. Both of which retail for £30-40.

they already have a 5700fx, that is better than the 5200. it wont run the newer games decently, i had the same problem, my 5200fx wouldnt play the games properly. jerky graphics, bad scrolling and in some cases wouldnt work because the card just didnt cut the mustard anymore.

and a good spot on the froogle thing, however the 60 quid one is pci-e not agp

they do however have the 256 meg version for £107

http://www.shopmagenta.com/stores/cat/85/products/LEADTEK-3D-Graphics-WinFast-A6600-series.aspx


well worth a punt.

Mark_LJ

I would go for an older range card such as the 9800pro from the likes of Re-Tek. I've bought about 15-20 cards from them. One was faulty and their returns procedure. Overclockers on the other hand have an abysmal returns policy - I'm currently £160 out of pocket with them and have been waiting over a month for a refund.

The Radeon 9800 pro on the Re-Tek list will perform as well as current cards up to about twice its price. The 9700 pro for £45 is a cracking piece of kit.

pardal51

Mark_LJ wrote:

I would go for an older range card such as the 9800pro from the likes of Re-Tek. I've bought about 15-20 cards from them. One was faulty and their returns procedure. Overclockers on the other hand have an abysmal returns policy - I'm currently £160 out of pocket with them and have been waiting over a month for a refund.

The Radeon 9800 pro on the Re-Tek list will perform as well as current cards up to about twice its price. The 9700 pro for £45 is a cracking piece of kit.

Wonderful suggestion Mark...You can even try a Radeon 9500 non-pro with L-shape memory layout and then you can softmod it to 9700. I've got a hercules 9700 Pro which runs any game with a charm!!! Also ask Re-tek, they often sell Hercules, which is the best card assembler for radeons up to XT (they stopped their GFX business!!!). Don't waste ££ on expensive GFX