Need some advice on getting a new Video card.

[MG42Maniac]

My current card is way past its sell by date and 20 fps just isn't funny anymore so I am going to buy a new Graphics Card. But there seems to be so many different types of cards out there

I have heard that the 9800 is a good card but the 9800SE sucks. I was thinking of getting a 9600XT 256MB but for a few more £ I could get a 9800 pro with 128mb. But withhalf the RAM is it worth it???

I have heard about unlocking more pipes on the 9800's but being a computer n00b I probobly could not do that.

I am going to spend £150 max as I want some money left for summer thats $274 or 228 Euros.

The only thing I want is 60fps+ on FH and the ability to run the newest games i.e BF2 & HL2 without much lag.

[BAM]

get a 9800 pro 128 mb with 256 bit memory bus with then get ATI tool and max it in sweden the best perforamnce for less money is 9800 pro im not sure about were you are from but here it is so ... ohh and stay away from the SE (shit edition) cards ...

[Kämpfer]

256 mb = low quality ram

128 mb = good ram and if lucky you might get some great ram

The 256mb is a waste of money, they use low quality ram but I do not think 9800 Pro will give you 60+ FPS on FH(most maps).

[PanzerAce]

get a 9800 Pro with 128mb, its what im using and FH doesnt even lag with all grfx settings on high!

[Froggin_Ashole42]

Remember, you could have a geforce MX with 3.4 64 bit processor and 2 gigs ram and get a great FPS and you could have a 1 ghz processor with 256 mb ram and a X800 Pro and get a crappy FPS. You need to have good stuff to work with the video card because FPS isn't totally relient on video cards by themselves .

[BAM]

no it dosnt really matter in FPS games they mostly rely on graphic cards but not even a 3.2 ghz can use the full power of the X800 (i heard)

[Witch Hunter General]

CPU(and the rest of the system) only creates an upper limit for the framerate. The only thing it actually do for the graphics card is to tell it what to draw, that is never a bottleneck. The reason why CPU matters in gaming is that it's used for all sorts of other things like AI, physics calculations and so on. You can find games that have been CPU-limited when they shipped(always the case when pretty much every card achieve the same framerate in benches, Jedi Knight 2 is a classic).
A geforce MX would have shitty framerates no matter what CPU you use(provided that the application is not CPU-limited), simply because it doesn't have enough power.

[Dee-Jaý]

Not sure about the exact prices, but the best búget card you can get at the moment for 150-200 bucks is a Radeon 9800 128 RAM with 256 bit-architechture.

But things may change in the near future since ATI and Nvidia will be releasing their new buget cards soon...

[Mazz]

I have a 9800 pro 128 and you say you can up its output. Is there somehwere I can go to look into this more (like 42, I'm a hardware n00b).

[C38368]

9800 Pro. Nevermind the SE cards, and the 9800XT costs far more than it is worth.
The 9600XT is a solid performer if you're strictly budget-limited (but dollar--or whatever currency you're paying with--for dollar, the 9800 Pro is almost always better value).

While I'd *love* to have an X800XT, it's going to be some time before we start seeing games that demand such a card, and given it's current price now, I don't think it's worth it. The same goes for the 6850U, for all you nVidia fans out there.

Also, 128MB onboard video RAM is perfectly fine, if you've got a decent payload of system RAM. Don't bother worrying about getting a 256MB card. And since when is DDR2 crap?