Buying Graphics Card Help

[Sambob]

I'm looking to purchase a new graphics card, unfortunately I'm not up on the graphics cards scene for gaming. So I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips or buying advice on what I could get for £150 - £200 that would be able to run the latest games, or for another comparison Oblivion on medium.

Thanks in advance.

[Calum]

AGP or PCI-E?

[Neil]

To clarify Calum's question, there are two types of graphics card: AGP and PCI-E. Your computer is compatable with only ONE of those types, and buying the wrong type can result in a waste of money. Do you know your current motherboard model? You can use this program: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html to find out. I suggest you create a report and attach it on a message. We are looking for if you have AGP or PCI-E slots. Also, don't confuse PCI-E with PCI.

[Calum]

Thank you for clarifying that Neil.
I wasn't in a very talkative mood, so my post was a little . . . brief, lacking in detail, not very clear, and so on.
Anyway, that's pretty much what I would've said if I'd been a little more talkative lol.
Thanks for clearing it up for the OP.

[Sambob]

Nuts I knew there was something I forgot. It's PCI-E I'm after.

[Calum]

That makes it easy then.
Hold on and I'll go and have a look, I'll post some links when I find something.
What card do you have at the minute?
Any preference for ATi or nVidia?
Edit: See what you think of this

[stones]

Nvdia 7600gt and up
or
ATI    X800 and up

Those will play pretty much anything, one thing to note is that you need to make sure you computers power supply is powerful enough to handle a high performance graphics card.

[Calum]

Whilst the 7600 and X800 are powerful, they are not the top performing cards, and the X8X0 series don't support newer technologies such as SM3.0, required for Oblivion.

[Serrik]

Well for less then 200 euro I am sure you could get a Nvidia 7900GS which is a good chunk better then the 7600GT for only a few bucks more.

But my advice is to wait 3 months if you possibly can, ATI is gonna release their new DX10 cards soon, Nvidia is rumored to be working on new ones, and competition may drive down the prices on all the current video cards as well.

[Calum]

Well for less then 200 euro I am sure you could get a Nvidia 7900GS which is a good chunk better then the 7600GT for only a few bucks more.

But my advice is to wait 3 months if you possibly can, ATI is gonna release their new DX10 cards soon, Nvidia is rumored to be working on new ones, and competition may drive down the prices on all the current video cards as well.

Check the link in my reply #5 - X1950 series is there, better than the 7900 series.
ATi's R600, their first DX10 chips, are out soon, and nVidia's DX10 cards are already out - 8800 series - but are very expensive, around £350 upwards.

[Serrik]

Thats why I said to wait 3 months, I think in 3 months you will be able to get a far better card for 200 euro then you can today.  Possibly a direct X 10 card which we will all need one day anyway.

[Calum]

If you ever wait to buy, you'll wait forever, because the next big thing will always be just around the corner.
Prices will continue to come down, but that's true of all hardware - you can get a much better card for the same price now than last year, and next year you'll be able to get a much better card for the price than now.
We won't all need a DX10 card unless you have Vista and want to play games which don't support running in DX9 mode.
It'd be nice to have one, but not completely necessary.

[Sambob]

Thanks guys. I have no preference between ATI or nVidia and yes my PSU is definately powerful enough to handle just about anything.

Also I am planning on eventually upgrading to a dual card system would you reccommend SLI or Crossfire.

[Calum]

SLI or Crossfire depends on whether you have ATi or nVidia cards.
Each has advantages and disadvantages, but neither has a clear lead over the other.
If it was me, I'd decide on the card and worry about dual card solutions later.
SLI on Wikipedia.
Crossfire on Wikipedia.
Hopefully those articles will explain more.
From what I can remember, prior to the X1950 series you needed a special Crossfire edition card for Crossfire.  These are notoriously hard to find and can be expensive, so I'd recommend an X1950 series card if you go with ATi and you want Crossfire.
Edit: the articles explain the advantages and disadvantages of each compared to the other, including master cards etc.
So I'll leave it to Wikipedia to explain it.

[Sambob]

Yeah for Crossfire you need, or at least needed, a Crossfire master card. I had read that with Crossfire there were slightly more and better options for the graphics split.

But thankyou I think I have found the card that I'm going to go with. If like you said the Radeon X1950 XT can be used along with another of the same kind in Crossfire mode then that's the one I'm going to go for.

After some research it would appear that the X1950 XT still needs a master card which retail at about £250, that was for the X1950 XT-X on Overclockers.co.uk though.