My PC specs

[stuartw101]

Im looking to buy a new graphics card as i have a ATI Radeon X300se. My budget is maximum £80 and possibly less if possible.

What do you think of the specs? And how much would you say the pc costs?

Thanks for your help.

 

[floppybootstomp]

In that price range you're pretty much limited to the Nvidia 6600TD, which will be an improvement, though a limited one.

Specs are Ok, another 512Mb of memory wouldn't go amiss.

I have no idea what the PC cost

 

[stuartw101]

It will allow me to play the latest games though? The PC cost me £530 few months ago.

 

[stuartw101]

What if i put my budget up to £100? THIS?

 

[PotGuy]

the x800gto is by far and away the best value card out there, and gives extremely impressive performance.

I cannot stress how much of a better card this is over the x300se.

 

[Me__2001]

the X800 series is amazing value, you'd be much better off with that than your X300

 

[ChristopherP]

Don't kid yourself though - a mid range card wont allow you to play THE latest games at max settings...

 

[stuartw101]

What about the 6600GT? Which one should i get? X800GTO or 6600GT?

They are around the same price arent they? Im not a serious gamer, i just want to be able to play the latest games without any lag and crashing etc

 

[ChrisIMRIE]

I have a 6600GT and it's fine for the latest games

 

[tomsega]

Providing you have an okay processor and a gig of RAM, the 128mb 6800LE is a more capable card than a 256mb 6600gt. I just upgraded from a 6800LE to a 6800gt, and it only really made the difference of upping the texture setting from 'Medium' to 'High' in most games. Pretty much all of the other settings in a games options that make it look better are based on the processing power of the card, not it's texture memory.

But yeah, you would NEED to share 256mb of a gig of fast system RAM to make it worth while, and you'll struggle to find a new 6800LE anyway.

If I were you I'd try and see what second hand 6800's are available on Ebay, or get an x800.

 

[stuartw101]

i think i will go for the x800, ive posted my specs at the top, 512mb RAM should be enough?

 

[Me__2001]

the X800 GTO is a good card but i think the 6600GT would be the best choice, but then its your choice

 

[stuartw101]

Its not my final choice, still considering it.

I have to wait a couple of months for my warranty to run out before i can add anything, i know i could do it now i wanted but i dont want to take any chances not that it stopped me on my last pc.

 

[tomsega]

Make sure you go for the Sapphire X800GTO - It is absolutely guarenteed to let you unlock the extra pipelines.

Its certainly more powerful than the 6600gt, but then again it doesn't support Shader model 3, which is now pretty much the standard, and makes alot of games what they are. Doom 3, Quake 4, FEAR, and Splinter Cell chaos theory, are all absolutely MADE with SM3 in mind - and suffer a great deal graphically when it is turned off. Also, all of the new consoles are going to support SM3 - so massive waves of SM3 games will be arriving soon.

Still, its a toughie, and so close that it almost doesn't matter.

 

[stuartw101]

Yeah, its a really hard choice. Maybe i should post a new thread with a poll?

 

[PotGuy]

Personnally i would go for the Sapphire x800 GTO2 because as tomsega said, it will unlock and overclock to nearly x850 speeds from stock if you are lucky.

Also you can unlock the Connect3d x800GTO to 16 pipelines as well, but as it uses slower memory chips it will not overclock as well.

 

[stuartw101]

Just to let everyone know that the PC cost me £530, 10 months ago without a monitor.

What do you think about that? Good/Bad value?

 

[tomsega]

It's not bad, but it looks like a typical chain store PC.

The likes of PCWorld love displaying specs that appear good, but skimp on the details. They will show a decent processor speed, RAM quantity, Hard drive size and so on, but won't tell you about the actual memory speed, hard drive speed, cooling/quietness capability, power supply quality, upgradability...

But yeah, chuck a decent graphics card in there and you have a nice system.

 

[stuartw101]

Not sure if i have posted enough specs dor you to tell but would you still say the quality is good? I can find out more info for the bits of hardware so you can decide.

The RAM is 512MB DDR 3200, not sure how to find out any more specs?

 

[stuartw101]

To let everyone know, i think i have decided on the X800 GTO. Unless anyone can talk me out of it How much do you think i can get the card for?