Video Cards

[xboxboy]

Hello people,

 

The last time I bought a video card was for a 486! My current AMD has only ever used the on board video. I am wanting to run (when i install 2008 in very near future) the Compiz 3d desk top running aswell. I am seeking advice on what I should be looking for in a video card. My board can take a agp 4x card.

 

Thanks

[adamw]

If all you want it for is to run Compiz, get a mid-range NVIDIA card. Go to a local PC store (or I hear http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/ is good) and ask for the best NVIDIA card they have for under AU$150. It'll probably be something like a 6600, 7600 or 8600. Make *sure* you specify that you want an AGP card, because the standard these days is PCI Express, and that's what they'll give you if you don't specify AGP.

 

If you'd prefer to use open source drivers, get an ATI Radeon 9800 or earlier, if they have one. Something between a 9200 and a 9800. That's the best discrete card you can get to use with open source drivers. But if you don't mind too much about the license, an NVIDIA card will work better.

[xboxboy]

But if you don't mind too much about the license, an NVIDIA card will work better.

 

Thanks Adamw, not quite sure what you mean by the above thou sorry, still a bit of a noob.

[esulcer]

not quite sure what you mean by the above thou sorry, still a bit of a noob.

 

I think he means, that if you weren't to concerned about whether or not the driver was open source or not. The open, or free as in speech, nvidia driver is not much good, (no 3d), therefore you would have to use the proprietary (closed source) driver, but if you went ATI you could use an open source driver.

 

I myself would go for nvidia, but that's just me. I just recently got a Leadtek 7600GT for my second PC, because the 6800GT it had died. I am quite happy with it, it's performance is practically identical to the 6800GT, with the added bonus that it runs much cooler, and is also quieter, I was a little worried that performance may have been lower due to only having 12 pipes as apossed to the 6800's 16, but the higher memory and core clock speeds pulled it through, I was so happy with it, I in fact purchased another one, and stored it away incase the 6800GT in this PC happened to die, as AGP may get harder to find in the future. I didn't wish to upgrade either of these 2 PC's to pci express, as I am building a new PC to get up with all the Core 2 Duo, PCI express etc goodness for Unreal Tournament 3 release.

 

I tend to buy most of my stuff from AusPCMarket, they are not always the cheapest, but still very competitive, plus for most stuff, except larger things like monitors, complete systems etc, freight is free, and delivery is lightning fast. I'm in North Queensland, and if I order something early in the morning (weekdays of course), I'll have it on my doorstep the next day. Here is a link to there nvidia AGP cards.

 

http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/index.php?re...ducts.php?input[category_id]=242

 

The Leadtek 7600GT that I got, is a little higher than $150, it's $205, but it is a good little performer, runs all my games including Doom3, Quake4, at 1280x1024 with maxed out settings, ET Quake Wars at 1024x768 all settings up, it also runs UT3 demo fine at 1024x768 low settings very well. But if you are not into gaming that much, there are others there to choose from.

 

And ATI AGP Cards

 

http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/index.php?re...ducts.php?input[category_id]=243

Edited October 27, 2007 by esulcer

[xboxboy]

I think he means, that if you weren't to concerned about whether or not the driver was open source or not. The open, or free as in speech, nvidia driver is not much good, (no 3d), therefore you would have to use the proprietary (closed source) driver, but if you went ATI you could use an open source driver.

 

Thanks, thats what I was guessing was meant about the drivers. Should I be focussing on the memery size of the card as well? I am so out of touch these days

 

Thanks

[esulcer]

Well, as they say the more the merrier, depends what you are doing I guess, if you are a gamer I would get a card with more, and faster memory, ie ddr3 instead of ddr2 etc, but if you are not into graphic intensive stuff, it's not such a worry. I think a card with 256MB would more than handle your needs. If you look at that site above, you can get a 256MB 7600GS for $132, or 512MB 7600GS for $148, would not be as fast as say a 256MB 7600GT for games, but surely more than enough for other stuff, if gaming was higher up on your list, I would go for the GT, if not GS would be fine.

[xboxboy]

get a card with more, and faster memory, ie ddr3 instead of ddr2 etc

 

Ok thanks for that. My mother board doesnt support ddr2 or ddr3 (yes its getting long in the tooth) will there be issues if the video card is ddr2?

[esulcer]

Ok thanks for that. My mother board doesnt support ddr2 or ddr3 (yes its getting long in the tooth) will there be issues if the video card is ddr2?

 

No, no, your motherboard doesn't have to support it, it's on the Video card, nothing to do with your system RAM, it's just the type of memory that is on the video card, it doesn't effect anything else. I'd say whether or not the card you buy has DDR2 or DDR3 wouldn't even bother you, so I wouldn't worry about it. The video card will be fine regardless of if it is DDR2 or DDR3, it's just a performance thing, and something that most people would probably not even notice.

Edited October 27, 2007 by esulcer

[Dark]

Far as I know and seen, The memory on the video card is soley for the Video card. Thus it only matters that your motherboard can handle the agp port speed, yours is 4x and I have ran a few 8x AGP cards in a motherboard that could only handle 2X, granted I lost some performance but it worked. My brother has a Desktop running with DDR System Memory on a AMND64 Clawhammer which does not support DDR2 but the video card has 256MB of DDR2.

[xboxboy]

Ok thanks guys. I'd hate to buy a part that is no use to me. Thanks for you input