Graphics Card Recommendations

[pmeswani]

Bear in mind that lot of modern video cards take up a lot of real estate in your PC case and many require two slots width to accomodate the cooler fan and other hardware. Some cards are also very long, check for obstructions in the case. Lastly, modern video cards take al ot of power and they typically need supplementary power connectors in addituion to the juice they draw from the PCIe slot. Make sure that your power supply is upto the job and that it has the required connestors. I fitted a 1Gb DDR5 ATI 5750 card to my lads PC a few moths ago and upgraded the power supply to a 750 watt unit by Corsair to supply the power the card required.

Went to the Computer Fair after my earlier post. Toss up between the GeForce GT220 and the GeForce GT 430. I went for the GeForce GT 430 (GeForce GT 430) in the end. Had all the requirements I required, plus DDR3. Yep, would be nice to have DDR5, but not a must have. No additional power cord required.

[Fred Bloggs]

Bear in mind that lot of modern video cards take up a lot of real estate in your PC case and many require two slots width to accomodate the cooler fan and other hardware. Some cards are also very long, check for obstructions in the case. Lastly, modern video cards take al ot of power and they typically need supplementary power connectors in addituion to the juice they draw from the PCIe slot. Make sure that your power supply is upto the job and that it has the required connestors. I fitted a 1Gb DDR5 ATI 5750 card to my lads PC a few moths ago and upgraded the power supply to a 750 watt unit by Corsair to supply the power the card required.

[pmeswani]

You also face the decision between getting something that was cutting-edge a year or two back and is now reduced, or a new budget-range card. Older cards may still have more raw speed but newer ones tend to cram in all the newer features, at slower speeds.

Best advice is to just find some online review site, or a magazine reviewing a dozen cards, I'm afraid. Or read wikipedia to understand what all the different ranges and numbers mean, so you can tell if GX2000 is faster than FX50, etc.

ps: 1GB RAM seems quite high for a non-gamer, unless you have other intensive apps. Even gaming cards didn't really start breaking the 256/512 barrier as a matter of course that long ago.

Here are nVidia cards with HDMI, PCI-E on dabs.com:

Graphics products at great prices - dabs.com

Sadly, I use Second Life a lot. I need a graphics card that is capable of handling the load with some ease.

[d000hg]

You also face the decision between getting something that was cutting-edge a year or two back and is now reduced, or a new budget-range card. Older cards may still have more raw speed but newer ones tend to cram in all the newer features, at slower speeds.

Best advice is to just find some online review site, or a magazine reviewing a dozen cards, I'm afraid. Or read wikipedia to understand what all the different ranges and numbers mean, so you can tell if GX2000 is faster than FX50, etc.

ps: 1GB RAM seems quite high for a non-gamer, unless you have other intensive apps. Even gaming cards didn't really start breaking the 256/512 barrier as a matter of course that long ago.

Here are nVidia cards with HDMI, PCI-E on dabs.com:

http://www.dabs.com/category/compone...000-4294955174

[pmeswani]

I've had the opposite experience, and favour nVidia. If you don't play cutting-edge games I'd spend no more than £100.

Point taken. I am pretty much sold on nVidia. I'll take the cost factor into consideration.

Thanks for the pointers everyone.

[d000hg]

I've had the opposite experience, and favour nVidia. If you don't play cutting-edge games I'd spend no more than £100.

[pmeswani]

NVIDIA is going through very bad patch during which their products are not as good -- too hot (consume too much power), not that cheap either - it's the first time they had this tulip for so long ever since I first used them more than 10 years ago..

Now using ATI card and pretty pleased

I've been a long time ATI fan, to be honest, I am disappointed that my current ATI graphics card stopped working. Also I have major issues with their drivers on Windows 7. The quality of ATI products have gone downhill for me.

[AtW]

NVIDIA is going through very bad patch during which their products are not as good -- too hot (consume too much power), not that cheap either - it's the first time they had this tulip for so long ever since I first used them more than 10 years ago..

Now using ATI card and pretty pleased

[pmeswani]

Avoid NVIDIA get ATI (now branded as AMD) instead.

To be honest, there is little difference in QA between the 2 brands. Have used ATI most of my career, but don't have much issue with NVIDIA to be honest. I know NVIDIA is (or at least was) targeted towards gamers and ATI is (or at least was) targeted towards business / noddy users, but to be honest, no real issues between the 2 makers.

[AtW]

Avoid NVIDIA get ATI (now branded as AMD) instead.

[pmeswani]

So do you actually need a high end graphics card?

In the big scheme of things, probably not, but I have a sad fetish for higher end graphics cards. I look for a reasonable performance out of my computer. I also watch Blu-Ray films on my computer, and hate those jitters.

[DimPrawn]

Looks good, not bothered about the game. Got an XBox for gameplay.

So do you actually need a high end graphics card?

[pmeswani]

Gigabyte GTX 460 OC 1GB GDDR5 OC Edition Dual DVI HDMI.. | Ebuyer.com

Very powerful, good price, free game.

Looks good, not bothered about the game. Got an XBox for gameplay.

[DimPrawn]

Gigabyte GTX 460 OC 1GB GDDR5 OC Edition Dual DVI HDMI.. | Ebuyer.com

Very powerful, good price, free game.

[pmeswani]

I'm looking to replace my dead graphics card with a new one.

Preferably 1GB onboard processing, VGA & HDMI output and PCI-E based.

Any recommendations?

Thanks.