Graphics card help

Broken_hearted

Hi,
Can any of you techies out there help me out. I am after a graphics card for a PC I am getting but not sure what is best. I have £50 (inc VAT) to spend at Aria so one from them would be great.

http://www.aria.co.uk/

It will be used for video and photo editing as well as some games (the kids have all the Sims packs for a start lol)

If you could tell me which card and why you would choose it/ why it is better than the rest would be great

Forgot to say PCIe slot

Thanks in advance.

Conor_3

TBH, unless it's 3D shooters, you don't need to go mental.

This will play most things you can chuck at it, even current 3D shooters.
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+8+Series/nVidia+GeForce+8600GT+512MB+DDR2+PCI-E+?productId=27199

aliEnRIK

I second Conors choice. Its a very good card for the cash

niceguyrichy

another vote for Conor's choice, you won't get a better card for the money anywhere

Broken_hearted

Conor wrote: »

TBH, unless it's 3D shooters, you don't need to go mental.

This will play most things you can chuck at it, even current 3D shooters.
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+8+Series/nVidia+GeForce+8600GT+512MB+DDR2+PCI-E+?productId=27199

It does look like a good card but is showing out of stock atm. Am not buying till Wed so hopefully they will have some more in by then

Thanks

mikey-boy_2

I agree, you don't need to go mental for what you want to use it for, however, you might aswel get the best card you can for your money and to be honest, NVidia isnt the way to go at the moment.

The Brand new ATI Radeon 4650 from aria at £47 will far outperform the ageing 8600.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/ATI+Radeon+4000+Series/ATI+Radeon+HD+4650+Super+PCIe+512MB?productId=33881

If money allows, my personal choice at this price range would be the 4670 at about £12 more.

Take a quick look at this Heirarchy chart from toms hardware, it gives you a rough general performance comparison between the main graphics chips. The ATI 4650 is 8 down from the top on the right, and the NVidia 8600 is 14 from the top on the left, nowhere near in performance.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Best-Graphics-Card,2033-7.html

regards

Mikey

Ice_2

Broken_hearted wrote: »

Hi,
Can any of you techies out there help me out. I am after a graphics card for a PC I am getting but not sure what is best. I have £50 (inc VAT) to spend at Aria so one from them would be great.

http://www.aria.co.uk/

It will be used for video and photo editing as well as some games (the kids have all the Sims packs for a start lol)

If you could tell me which card and why you would choose it/ why it is better than the rest would be great

Forgot to say PCIe slot

Thanks in advance.

I think it would depend on which memory you have...there is no point in getting that one if your memory isn't DDR2 as it wont be compatible with your other conponents...check which memory you have DDR 1 2 3 or 4 first...

Broken_hearted

Ice wrote: »

I think it would depend on which memory you have...there is no point in getting that one if your memory isn't DDR2 as it wont be compatible with your other conponents...check which memory you have DDR 1 2 3 or 4 first...

Hi the memory I have is 4GB PC2-6400 800MHz which is 2x2GB sticks

mikey-boy_2

Ice wrote: »

I think it would depend on which memory you have...there is no point in getting that one if your memory isn't DDR2 as it wont be compatible with your other conponents...check which memory you have DDR 1 2 3 or 4 first...

The only compatability issue that you really need to be concerned about with graphics cards is the socket type, whether it's AGP or PCIe. You can put a DDR5 memory graphics card in a machine with DDR2. For example, My machine uses DDR2 for main memory and my graphics cards uses DDR3.

To Broken Hearted, you say you have 4GB PC2-6400 800MHz memory, that is fine, that is alot of memory and is fast DDR2 memory. I hope you have a 64 bit operating system to compliment it otherwise your computer will not be using it all.

Mikey

Conor_3

Ice wrote: »

I think it would depend on which memory you have...there is no point in getting that one if your memory isn't DDR2 as it wont be compatible with your other conponents...check which memory you have DDR 1 2 3 or 4 first...

Completely and utterly irrelevent as to what type of memory is fitted in the system. The only thing that matters is that it's the right slot for the card.

Ice_2

thankyou both for that...
well I'll be a son of a gun...
I didn't know that so this tie around I'll be able to get a better GC...thanks...:j you have learned me something else today...:j