Hi, im in the market for a new graphics card. Only got £100 - £150 to spend on it, but still theres a lot to choose from. I was just wondering if anyone has suggestions. Really i want it to play games like Rainbow Six Vegas and Bioshock flawlessly. Ive been looking at the Gainward GeForce 8600GT 1GB and The BFG GeForce 8600 GT OC 512MB DDR3 PCI-E DVI. Am i close? My specs at the moment are... p5b-vm (sadly using the Intel G965 onboard graphics, whick suck.) Q6600 Geil Value DDR2 2.0GB PC6400 Dual Channel memory kit (2 x 1GB) 800MHz (5-5-5-15). Some Sata 1 Hard Disk, will upgrade that soon. 720watt PSU. Thanx for any advice you guys can offer. Eddie
That's got to be the most powerful PC I've ever seen still using integrated graphics! First of all, don't get the 8600GT, it's not fast enough to warrant the cost. Second, which 720W PSU do you have? Adding extra load to cheap power supplies can cause big issues. Thirdly, I'd recommend http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=521951 I know it's well under your maximum budget, but in truth I think that's the best card out for less than £150. It performs similarly to my X1900XT which could run Bioshock at 1920x1200 Maximum detail, and Rainbow Six Vegas at 1680x1050 with most settings turned up.
LOL yea in writing the INtergrated graphics looks good in practice whole different story, especially mixed with Vista nightmare. I think my PSU is an Xilence Gaming edition if i remember correctly. But you saved me quite a bit with this card so could probably upgrade that anyway if its usless. Talk about cheap and cheerful your a star. Eddie
No problem, the X1950 Pro is incredible value for money these days. Xilence power supplies aren't the worst of the bunch, but perhaps you could get a Corsair HX 520W (fewer watts but it doesn't matter, your system won't even need 400) and then sell the xilence on ebay.
