PCI Express Graphic Card Help

jim1606

Hi,
I wonder if anyone knows of any good graphics card offers about just now up to around £80. I managed to get one of those ex display Packard Bell 1517s that were kicking about around a month ago, the only thing that lets it down is the x200 128mb integrated graphics card which pulls on existing memory, now I wish to upgrade it.
I was looking at the Sapphire Radeon 550 256mb@PC World £59.99
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0085305512.1144765690@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdeaddhhjiiflkcflgceggdhhmdgmk.0&page=Product&fm=15&sm=3&tm=undefined&sku=722712&category_oid=-25014
then I noticed this ATI Radeon X1300 512mb at Maplins for £79.99
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=49035&doy=11m4&ForceUpdate=Y#refreshstock

Second one I think is 512mb DDR2 Does this make any difference if my system is DDR?
Any suggestions on these or any alternatives would be appreciated.

Thanks

StockportGerbil

Hi!
There were a couple of threads on this subject a week or so ago. I think the concensus of opinion is a Nvidia 6600GT based cards have got very good performance for the price, but you're not going to get much change (if any) from £100. And that's buying it online (aria, microdirect etc.) rather than over the counter.

My budget was a little tighter than yours, in the end I bought an ATI manufactured X700 based board from retekdirect (https://www.retekdirect.co.uk) which is more than adequate for everything I've thrown at it so far....

I hope that helps

Kevin

Omertron

What chipset does your motherboard have? If you have a nVidia chipset then go for a gfx card based on the chipset, same for ATI. This will be especially true if you want to run 2 gfx cards in the future.

As for the choice of two cards, go for the 512Mb one as it'll last longer Don't think that the memory choice matters as it's local to the gfx card and not system memory, so the faster the better.