Decent cheapish graphics card?

rev_henry

Thanks for all that guys. I was outbid on the 7800GT last night on ebay that Conor mentioned. No I'm fine with ebay btw! But thanks anyway. I've read a few reviews and seen the 7800GTX, which seems to be a beefed up GT, and the 7900GTX, which is the next years model I think, for around £50 on ebay, are these still DX9 cards and would they be any better with my system?
Thanks again.

rev_henry

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BFG-GeForce-7800GTX-OC-256MB-DDR3-7800-GTX-Card_W0QQitemZ140237618133QQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

7800GTX factory overclocked, £56 BIN, albeit from China. What do you all think?

Conor_3

Under £10 ATM..
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/XFX-7800GTX-256mb-dual-DVI-Graphics-card-Nvidia_W0QQitemZ330243327491QQihZ014QQcategoryZ3762QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

BillScarab

All 7xxx series cards are DX9, DX10 was introduced with the 8xxx series of Nvidia cards. Bear in mind a lot of the original low end 8xxx cards were rubbish for gaming. The first ATI DX10 cards were the 2xxx series but they wern't great, the 3xxx series are better.

If you're looking at older cards, especially second hand, then 7800, 7900 or X1950 are probably the best bets.Performance charts showing the relative performance of cards can be found here.

Ignore any that have SLI or Cf after them as that is the performance of two cards in one system.

rev_henry

Thanks again guys. Yes, I suppose if I really wanted to I could get another card at some point and SLi or crossfire them together.
Thanks.

rev_henry

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/__Graphics-Video-TV-Cards_XFX-GeForce-7900GT-Extreme-Edition_W0QQitemZ200232027420QQptdnZGraphicsQ2cQ20VideoQ20Q26Q20TVQ20CardsQQptdiZ2292QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item200232027420&_trkparms=72%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C65%3A12&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

7900GT £40 BIN. Is the 7900GT better than the 7800GTX?

rev_henry

I've just taken a look inside my computer and I have a 400W PSU so any card should be fine, but I can't find the 6 pin wire that would go into one of these cards. Is this a problem? Am I missing something?
Thanks again.

rev_henry

If I use a 3 way molex splitter, then a twin molex to PCI express, will this work or will my PSU go bang?
On second thoughts, I am currently running 2 optical drives, 1 floppy and 2 hard disks off the PSU. Will adding the graphics card overload it?
On third thoughts, I can unplug one optical drive and a floppy as I don't really need them. Then I could just use a twin molex to PCI-E to power the card. Would my PSU cope with that?
Thanks.

rev_henry

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=150260346339&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=005

7800GTX £35 BIN. My hand is hovering over the button...

rev_henry

...and my hand slipped. I hope its ok with my PSU, if anyone can advise I would be grateful?
Thanks again.