Cheap GFX cards

[MasterOfMaloris]

Hey there, my old Radeon 9200 has finally met its boundaries when I got a copy of NWN 2 (ill admit to crying when I realised it was incompatible)

im looking for a mid range card of the under Ј90 variety that isnt going to be a peice of scrap in a week and I havent got a clue where to go, having looked for a card for about a week now without understanding anything.

I'd also rather go for an Nvidia card having heard better things about them than my Ati card has shown me.

thanks in advance

[Reef]

I think a Geforce 7600GS is about that price (they're around 125 Euro's here, which is a little less than Ј90), and it performs quite well. You probably will need an AGP model for your motherboard. But you better check that out first, so you don't buy an incompatible card.

[et1990]

ge-force 7600gs is cheaper at "eclipsecomputers.com" Ј81 for a gigabyte one.

[MasterOfMaloris]

Thanks for the heads up Reef, I only have an AGP slot, so the search is a bit tighter now.

Then again, I have been considering getting a new motherboard in the last few months, in which case I could do with some motherboard advice too (though I still dont want to shell out too much)

[snafuu]

I just got a 7600GT (with free USB controller) for 105 Euros (160 Canadian, specifically) though in my case I'm looking to upgrade to something else within the year... or use my new SLI motherboard (95 euro-ish, only 2 normal pci slots)

[snowcheetah]

For those in the US or Canada

Neweggs.com got 7600GS for $90 USD and NCIX.com got them for $150 ca

but for $30 USD more you could have a rocken 7800GT.... at least at newegg... if you had a US credit card... sigh...

[Jito463]

There's also a 7800GS on Newegg for $209 with a $50 mail-in-rebate (so $159 after rebate).

[Dllfile]

BFG has a nice 512MB AGPx8 Card for $159 (few dollars more or less depending on the site you get it from,) there are some sites I havev seen selling it for around $200. But most are selling it for around $160 USD.

BFG Geforce 7600 GS OC 512MB AGP

Links:
Tiger Direct ($159)
Newegg ($159)
Overclockers (£83.99)
Nextag (Various Site Listing from $144-$200)

Bought one myself about a week ago and the card handles Oblivion, Gothic 3 on high settings including HDR ect.. Checked out Rainbow Six Vegas as my friend has the game and ran on high as well. not all laggy ect.. Anyhow, it is a good card for the price, comes "pre" overclocked at 420MHz Core instead of 400MHz and also maintains the Lifetime warranty from BFG.

Is an AGPx8 card, but supports both 4x and 8x. Make sure your board has a 1.5 volt AGP Slot however. (it should) but some older models are higher such as 1.6, 1.7, and 1.8.

The 512MB Memory though helps greatly with some of the newer games. Where it may not be "as fast" as a GT for example, it does handle games very well and compared to a 256MB GT, I think it runs better. (I know my buddy has a couple rigs with GT's in them same series 7600) One from Leadtek and another from MSI I believe.

Here is the Display Section of my DXDiag for the card:

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
        Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS 
     Manufacturer: NVIDIA
        Chip type: GeForce 7600 GS
         DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
       Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_02E1&SUBSYS_21C319F1&REV_A2
   Display Memory: 512.0 MB
     Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (85Hz)
          Monitor: NEC MultiSync E750
  Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
      Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
   Driver Version: 6.14.0010.9381 (English)
      DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
 Driver Date/Size: 11/17/2006 17:29:00, 4541824 bytes
      WHQL Logo'd: No
  WHQL Date Stamp: None
              VDD: n/a
         Mini VDD: nv4_mini.sys
    Mini VDD Date: 11/17/2006 17:29:00, 3994688 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-41A1-11CF-E45E-C90103C2CB35}
        Vendor ID: 0x10DE
        Device ID: 0x02E1
        SubSys ID: 0x21C319F1
      Revision ID: 0x00A2
      Revision ID: 0x00A2
      Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_B ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D ModeWMV9_B ModeWMV9_A 
 Deinterlace Caps: {212DC724-3235-44A4-BD29-E1652BBCC71C}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive 
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch 
                   {212DC724-3235-44A4-BD29-E1652BBCC71C}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive 
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch 
                   {212DC724-3235-44A4-BD29-E1652BBCC71C}: Format(In/Out)=(YV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive 
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch 
                   {212DC724-3235-44A4-BD29-E1652BBCC71C}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive 
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch 
         Registry: OK
     DDraw Status: Enabled
       D3D Status: Enabled
       AGP Status: Enabled
DDraw Test Result: All tests were successful.
 D3D7 Test Result: All tests were successful.
 D3D8 Test Result: All tests were successful.
 D3D9 Test Result: All tests were successful.

I am pretty satisfied with it honestly, I have bought cards before obviously, but never was as "impressed" with them as I would have liked to be, such as the case with my old FX 5900 SE (128MB Model) though I know it was a "budget" card, and it could handle things well, it did run Oblivion, X3 ect.. but just kinda, unimpressed with the overall performance of the card as I had usually would have to massivly tweak a games ini ect.. to get it running without lag. The BFG card is pretty sweet out of the box.

[Dllfile]

Was too late to edit my last post to include this, so sorry for the double post:

Here is an example of R6 Vegas recorded with Fraps.
Keep in mind this is using a AMD Athlon 1900+ CPU @ 1.6GHz and PC2100 (266FSB DDR) I hope to upgrade this system later as it can take up to a 3000+ AMD (2.1GHz) and PC3200 (400MHz FSB) So my CPU and DDR are a massive bottleneck atm and because of that bottleneck, the card is not running at full potential. your system is only as fast as your slowest component.

Fraps is massively killing me on CPU Usage with the game set up on high. Fraps is also resource intensive when recording.. This is with HDR Enabled, Blur set settings on High, Shadows on High, Hardware Skinning Enabled. Also forced AF set to 8x. I don't think AA and HDR work together on nVidia cards. At least I have read so I left AA set to Application Controlled.

So, to get quality like this with a low end CPU+DDR with the card I mentioned above speaks for itself. Since saying and showing things are 2 different things, I have included a video below as well as my full DXDiag so you can see the system it is running on.. I did however have the brightness up a little to high, normally I would get a video that was too dark so I recorded with the brightness up a bit, but was a bit too much.. :P

Included also a short clip of Oblivion running on the same system. I was going to record a longer one, but I really don't feel like waiting on the encoding process of Media Encoder again as it is 6:39am here and I am ready for bed.. But it is using some lod texture packs ect.. to make the distance view better. Along with a bunch of mods for various textures and not to mention alot of mods that add content.

If my CPU could handle recording it at 1024x768 I would, but when I do that my CPU lags out badly, the video card keeps on ticking however.

Video is WMV encoded with Media Encoder 9. So you should be able be to play it no problem. If you do not have Encoder/Decoder 9 Series just download it from MS here: MS Link

Rainbow Six: Vegas Video: 6 Minutes 57 Seconds 640x480 (Fraps Half Size) 46.3MB WMV
Download Here

Oblivion Video: 30 Seconds 640x480 (Fraps Half Size) 5.47MB WMV
Download Here

System Specs:
MSI (MS-6570) K7N2G nForce 2
AMD Athlon 1900+ @ 1.6GHz
1GB PC2100 DDR (266MHz FSB)
BFG GeForce 7600 GS OC 512MB AGPx8
Creative Audigy 2 ZS
2x Maxtor 40GB Fireball 3 (5400 RPM) (C: and D
1x Maxtor 40GB DiamondMax Plus D740X (7200 RPM) (E
1x LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1633S (Dual Layer) (F

Download my DXDiag Here

[Jito463]

Just to clarify, too. The 1.5v AGP slot is the 4x/8x slots. The 3.3v is the other voltage that it would be, which is the 2x and below slots. If the motherboard supports at least 4x AGP, then it's a 1.5v slot.

[Dllfile]

Just to clarify, too. The 1.5v AGP slot is the 4x/8x slots. The 3.3v is the other voltage that it would be, which is the 2x and below slots. If the motherboard supports at least 4x AGP, then it's a 1.5v slot.

Yeah, voltages are like this:

AGP 1.0 (2x) = 3.3v
AGP 2.0 (4x) = 1.5v
AGP 3.0 (8x) = 0.8v

AGP 1.0 - If supports 1x and/or 2x = 3.3v
AGP 2.0 - If supports up to 2x = 3.3v
AGP 2.0 - If supports up to 4x = 1.5v
AGP 3.0 - If supports up to 4x = 1.5v
AGP 3.0 - If supports up to 8x = 0.8v-1.5v (unless specifically specified that it only supports 0.8v, normally they are compatible with 0.8v and 1.5v cards.)

(some also can be adjusted higher for overclocking from 1.5v-1.8v, such as my motherboard supports, however not recommended and make sure it is 1.5v unless you really know what you are doing as it WILL damage the card or motherboard if done incorrectly.)