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PC Gamers - GFX Card question

VampyreVampyre
edited November 2007 in Chit chat
I'm looking to upgrade my gfx card due to my ATI x1550 not really being up to the latest games at any kind of a decent resolution. There's two of them that I have my eye on. The first one is a x1950GT:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/125020

and the second is 2600XT:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130589

Both have got 256mb onboard which is a downgrade from my current 512Mb model but the extra umph they have should more than make up for that. I don't think the x1950 is a DirectX 10 card, and the description of the 2600XT indicates that it is, but it seems a bit too cheap for a DX10 card.

I'll be playing games on both XP and Vista, so I'm after a DX10 card for the Vista stuff like Crysis, Bioshock but if the 2600XT is less powerful than the x1950 I'll go for the 1950 instead.

Or should I plumb for a nvidia 8600 for a similar price and it's DX10.

Or should I just wait until the 8800 cards are cheaper?

Choices, choices!
Post edited by Vampyre on
ZXSR - Speccy Mags Reviews

Comments

  • dekhdekh
    edited November 2007
    Keep your old card, buy a spectrum and PlusD.

    :D
  • VampyreVampyre
    edited November 2007
    I've decided to go for the x1950. It's in my budget and it will give every game I have installed a major boost to just about the limits my display could cope with anyway.

    Some of the DX10 stuff looks uber-cool. But I can't afford to build a Crossfire system (which is needed for the top-end stuff) so it's top-of-the-range DX9 stuff or nothing.

    I have seen Crysis running through a top-of-the-range DX10 PC now though. It's the fourth game in my life to make my jaw hit the floor. The others were Knight Lore, Mario 64 and Half-Life 2 so that gives you some indication of its pedigree.
    ZXSR - Speccy Mags Reviews
  • ArjunArjun
    edited November 2007
    Vampyre wrote: »
    It's the fourth game in my life to make my jaw hit the floor. The others were Knight Lore, Mario 64 and Half-Life 2 so that gives you some indication of its pedigree.

    Wait till you play Bioshock then! It's the only game in recent times (Half-life 2 episode 2 included) that's actually made me want to stay up all night playing it! To say it's a feast for the senses is an understatement.
    Zero - A modern Spectrum emulator for Windows.
    Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
  • ADJBADJB
    edited November 2007
    Vampyre wrote: »
    I've decided to go for the x1950. It's in my budget and it will give every game I have installed a major boost to just about the limits my display could cope with anyway.

    Any chance of a quick report when your up and running?.
  • JamesWJamesW
    edited November 2007
    Arjun wrote: »
    Wait till you play Bioshock then! It's the only game in recent times (Half-life 2 episode 2 included) that's actually made me want to stay up all night playing it! To say it's a feast for the senses is an understatement.

    I find Bioshock a bit strange. I love the graphics, it looks great with my nVidia 8600M GT, and story line, but I'm a bit undecided on the game itself. On one hand I found it quite hard: you can't just lay into the enemy like DooM, Quake and HL.x; but the regeneration points mean it doesn't really matter if you die. I think I'd prefer easier enemies, but less forgiving restart points.
  • ArjunArjun
    edited November 2007
    JamesW wrote: »
    you can't just lay into the enemy like DooM, Quake and HL.x; but the regeneration points mean it doesn't really matter if you die. I think I'd prefer easier enemies, but less forgiving restart points.

    It's not meant to play like Doom or Quake - there is more than one way to skin the cat in this game. Like System Shock 2, hacking can be decidedly useful skill to have. I usually hack every single turret or camera that I can in the game, and let them take out the enemy whenever possible thereby saving me some precious ammunition. Stock up on plasmids and open as many plasmid slots as you can. The best trick, which you may already know, when you are near an enemy plus some body of water is to to switch to the incinerate plasmid, set the enemy on fire, and then when he runs to the water to douse the flames, switch to the electric plasmid and electrocute the poor sucker. There are some very useful tonics to have as well - in particular the one which gives you some health plus eve points every time you successfully hack something, and the one which gives you the ability to slow down the flow of water during a hack.

    I myself haven't found it particularly tough, apart from the big daddies, who are supposed to be tough. The ability to regenerate does make things a bit easier admittedly.
    Zero - A modern Spectrum emulator for Windows.
    Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
  • VampyreVampyre
    edited November 2007
    ADJB wrote: »
    Any chance of a quick report when your up and running?.

    No probs.

    In the end I went for a Nvidia 8600GT as it offered DX10 full support over the other DX9 cards I was looking at. The 8800 is stunning, but not 100's of pounds stunning more.

    Card: 1 x Inno3D 8600GT 256MB 128bit DDR3 DVI PCI-E Graphics Card

    Got it from www.ebuyer.com for ?60 as it was ?20 cheaper than the x1950.

    I'm running both XP SP2 and Vista x64 (as a secondary) with 2Gb RAM.

    My old ATI x1550 ran the likes of FEAR with medium settings in 800x600 adequately wiht massive slowdown sometimes. Bioshock in 640x480 poorly. Crysis 800x600 okay in places of low activity, high was very poor. PES 2008 640x480 poorly.

    The 8600:

    FEAR - -full everything, perfect. Bioshock - everything on, 1024x768 - perfect. Crysis - medium settings (good for that game) - perfect. PES 2008, perfect, patch to incorporate 1400x900 still perfect.

    I also tried Crysis on x64 Vista. It was stunning through DX10 in places.

    Best ?60 ever spent!!!
    ZXSR - Speccy Mags Reviews
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