Which mid range graphics card?

[dave stockdale]

Which mid range graphics card?
Upgrading to AMD XP 2800 Barton on (possibly) an Asus A7N8X Delux Mobo and
512 Mb mem
I'm not a gamer.
Currently looking a something like the MSI GeForce FX5600
I'd be glad of comments/advice/opinion ref a decent graphics card.
Thanks.

 

[XXXX]

Which mid range graphics card?
Upgrading to AMD XP 2800 Barton on (possibly) an Asus A7N8X Delux Mobo and
512 Mb mem

Ive got that board and am running the Athlon 2500 at 3200 easy.
Everyone says its easy and it was. I got the retail version and am
using the stock fan and heatsink with no problems - very low temps.

The only thing you really need is DDR 3200 memory. I also was
surprised that almost any memory seems to work OK nowadays. Not that I
would get swapmeet generic memory or generic mem from some mom and pop
store. Dont know about that. But I did get Kbyte 512 stick and a
Kingston value stick 512 megs both 3200/400. Not the most prestigious
names in mem but they both work fine. Not only that my old 2100 mem
OCed to 3200 easily no problems too - two sticks of 256 . It worked
so well I decided to keep those sticks too.

Just stick the mem in and set it to 3200 mem you have a 3200 athlon
XP. Of course I cant guarantee itll work but posts about it are so
common that I had to try it and everything worked out exactly like
they say with ease , no straining with mem, temps motherboard, etc.
The mem too was so forgiving - with even the 2100 old Crucial sticks
working at 3200 that Im starting to believe everythings fairly decent
nowadays compared to 6-12 month ago when Id see wailings everywhere
about MBs and memory and powers supplies and graphics cards all having
massive problems.

I'm not a gamer.
Currently looking a something like the MSI GeForce FX5600
I'd be glad of comments/advice/opinion ref a decent graphics card.
Thanks.

Kind of depends on the price in your area. I think a recent test did
say the 5600 was now faster than various ATI mid range models.
Around here in the US there were some OK sales recently on the 9600 XT
129 megs - not the fastest card around but OK for $130-150.

 

[dave stockdale]

Ive got that board and am running the Athlon 2500 at 3200 easy.
Everyone says its easy and it was. I got the retail version and am
using the stock fan and heatsink with no problems - very low temps.

The only thing you really need is DDR 3200 memory. I also was
surprised that almost any memory seems to work OK nowadays. Not that I
would get swapmeet generic memory or generic mem from some mom and pop
store. Dont know about that. But I did get Kbyte 512 stick and a
Kingston value stick 512 megs both 3200/400. Not the most prestigious
names in mem but they both work fine. Not only that my old 2100 mem
OCed to 3200 easily no problems too - two sticks of 256 . It worked
so well I decided to keep those sticks too.

Just stick the mem in and set it to 3200 mem you have a 3200 athlon
XP. Of course I cant guarantee itll work but posts about it are so
common that I had to try it and everything worked out exactly like
they say with ease , no straining with mem, temps motherboard, etc.
The mem too was so forgiving - with even the 2100 old Crucial sticks
working at 3200 that Im starting to believe everythings fairly decent
nowadays compared to 6-12 month ago when Id see wailings everywhere
about MBs and memory and powers supplies and graphics cards all having
massive problems.


Kind of depends on the price in your area. I think a recent test did
say the 5600 was now faster than various ATI mid range models.
Around here in the US there were some OK sales recently on the 9600 XT
129 megs - not the fastest card around but OK for $130-150.

------------------
Thanks for that..couple of questions as I'm trying to keep the noise down:-
1. Is the standard fan and heatsink you used noisy?..any figs?
2. Again with the graphics card you use - which one and is there much noise
from the graphics card fan?
Cheers.

 

[kony]

Which mid range graphics card?
Upgrading to AMD XP 2800 Barton on (possibly) an Asus A7N8X Delux Mobo and
512 Mb mem
I'm not a gamer.
Currently looking a something like the MSI GeForce FX5600
I'd be glad of comments/advice/opinion ref a decent graphics card.
Thanks.

If you're not a gamer, they why are you wanting a card primarily
optimized for gaming, with a correspondant price?

What is your most demanding video useage? Any card will do regular
office/internet/etc 2D and play DVDs.

Considering you don't need games you might consider an Asus A7N8X-VM
motherboard (integrated Geforce4 video) with the 512MB as a pair of
256MB DIMMs, or use the savings from integrated video to get 2 x
512MB memory modules instead.

 

[DaveW]

Get an nVidia FX5700 Ultra for around $200 (minus rebate.) MUCH faster than
the 5600.

 

[XXXX]

Thanks for that..couple of questions as I'm trying to keep the noise down:-
1. Is the standard fan and heatsink you used noisy?..any figs?
2. Again with the graphics card you use - which one and is there much noise
from the graphics card fan?
Cheers.

Im not the best guy to ask about noise because its way down on my
list. Im always amused at the people who seem obsessed with noisy
equipment , but thats partially because I live in a palce with
amazingly high continuous background noise. You probaby wouldnt
believe the levels of noise. Its ina urban setting right next to the
beach a major global tourist spot.

However - the stock AMD fan besides being only $5 more than the OEM
from NEWEGG - Im assuming you are in the UK so I have no idea how any
of this works in the caculus of value in your regions prices -- its
very quiet relative to what Im used to.

Im used to 7000 rpm 60mm screamers and even 80mm operating at full
speed 5400. I can say that the AMD appears to be a lower rpm low
height fan which is far quieter than what Im used to , and still keeps
everything quiet. Will it be quiet enough for you? Have no idea but I
would say its not in the screamer high performance category though it
works fine.

Most do say get the barton 2500 and OC it , they usually say all the
chips above it tend to OC up to about the same range 3200 so its not
worth spending the extra $$ . Of course Im assuming you will be able
to OC it but it really seems like the rare case where you cant.

Im using the ATI 9800 - once again Im used to super high background
noise. On top of all that noise I mentioned I have a fan on or air con
a lot - I live near the equator , very humid - so Im not the best one
to judge but it doesnt seem any worse than the other cards Ive used
like the mx 400 etc. Ive read reviews about the NVDA and ATI early on
which did say both were really noisy. There are actual add on coolers
I think they were called "heat pipes" that are said to be really quiet
- for the ATI and NVDA I think.

In the old days people rated the ATIs as better in graphics quality ,
not sure if they still do.

 

[dave stockdale]

Im not the best guy to ask about noise because its way down on my
list. Im always amused at the people who seem obsessed with noisy
equipment , but thats partially because I live in a palce with
amazingly high continuous background noise. You probaby wouldnt
believe the levels of noise. Its ina urban setting right next to the
beach a major global tourist spot.

However - the stock AMD fan besides being only $5 more than the OEM
from NEWEGG - Im assuming you are in the UK so I have no idea how any
of this works in the caculus of value in your regions prices -- its
very quiet relative to what Im used to.

Im used to 7000 rpm 60mm screamers and even 80mm operating at full
speed 5400. I can say that the AMD appears to be a lower rpm low
height fan which is far quieter than what Im used to , and still keeps
everything quiet. Will it be quiet enough for you? Have no idea but I
would say its not in the screamer high performance category though it
works fine.

Most do say get the barton 2500 and OC it , they usually say all the
chips above it tend to OC up to about the same range 3200 so its not
worth spending the extra $$ . Of course Im assuming you will be able
to OC it but it really seems like the rare case where you cant.

Im using the ATI 9800 - once again Im used to super high background
noise. On top of all that noise I mentioned I have a fan on or air con
a lot - I live near the equator , very humid - so Im not the best one
to judge but it doesnt seem any worse than the other cards Ive used
like the mx 400 etc. Ive read reviews about the NVDA and ATI early on
which did say both were really noisy. There are actual add on coolers
I think they were called "heat pipes" that are said to be really quiet
- for the ATI and NVDA I think.

In the old days people rated the ATIs as better in graphics quality ,
not sure if they still do.

------------Thanks for comprehensive reply. Yes we are in quite, rural
England. Again I understand the Barton 2500 will clock up to similar to
2800..however since I/m not into OC...
Thanks again.

 

[dave stockdale]

If you're not a gamer, they why are you wanting a card primarily
optimized for gaming, with a correspondant price?

What is your most demanding video useage? Any card will do regular
office/internet/etc 2D and play DVDs.

Considering you don't need games you might consider an Asus A7N8X-VM
motherboard (integrated Geforce4 video) with the 512MB as a pair of
256MB DIMMs, or use the savings from integrated video to get 2 x
512MB memory modules instead.

 

[kony]

Ok, many thanks - am slowly coming to the conclusion I don't need such
an advanced card - something like a NvidiaFX5200 or Radion9200 would
probably suffice....or even the mobo you suggest.....don't think I'd get
much advantage from 2x512MB memory though - would I?

Some people prefer the image quality from Matrox cards, if you really,
truely, don't care about 3D performance they might be the better
alternative, even the old G400 or G250 have top-notch image quality.

Some people can easily benefit from more than 512MB of memory, and
others don't... depends on exactly what you'll be doing. Many people
buy a certain amount of memory, making due with it then someday
finally get around to upgrading it, for nearly the same cost, but they
could've benefited from it all along. In your case, you'd have two
256MB modules, so you'd end up scrapping both of those if you ever did
want to upgrade the memory. If you went with the nForce2 integrated
video, you'd definitely want to use 2 memory modules for the
signifcant performance increase, but without integrated video it might
be as well to start out with only a single 512MB module, then later
if/when you upgraded the memory it would still stay in the system
instead of being wasted. Maybe you'd never upgrade the memory, but
better to have too much than too little.

 

[dave stockdale]

Some people prefer the image quality from Matrox cards, if you really,
truely, don't care about 3D performance they might be the better
alternative, even the old G400 or G250 have top-notch image quality.

Some people can easily benefit from more than 512MB of memory, and
others don't... depends on exactly what you'll be doing. Many people
buy a certain amount of memory, making due with it then someday
finally get around to upgrading it, for nearly the same cost, but they
could've benefited from it all along. In your case, you'd have two
256MB modules, so you'd end up scrapping both of those if you ever did
want to upgrade the memory. If you went with the nForce2 integrated
video, you'd definitely want to use 2 memory modules for the
signifcant performance increase, but without integrated video it might
be as well to start out with only a single 512MB module, then later
if/when you upgraded the memory it would still stay in the system
instead of being wasted. Maybe you'd never upgrade the memory, but
better to have too much than too little.