graphics card recomendations

[venerable bede]

Following some advice I have just bought the Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-087-AS) and a 3500 winchester CPU.

Next on my hit list is the graphics card.

I read a review somewhere on the web (cant remember where) that the 6800 cards didn't work as well as was expected when 2 cards where in place but that the 6600 cards worked great.

At the end of the day I have limited funds and am looking to spend no more than about £160.00 on a card with the intention of purchasing a second in 6 or so months time.

Can anyone recommend a good card for this price and maybe even better, some bench tests so I can decide for myself.

Thanks to everyone so far.

[NoteMe]

What are you going to use it for? Gaming? Programming? And if so, what kinds of games, or what type of programming?


ØØ

[Sastraxi]

For 40 quid more you can have that 6600 GT you're looking at from PC World... if not, you're going to have to be looking at the 5900 FX, which I don't believe is really a comparison at all, and it's 150 pounds. The VAT would probably put it over your amount, anyway.

[NoteMe]

I would rather go for a 9800PRO (and clock it) or a 9800XT then the horrible 5900 FX. But then again, I don't like NViDiA when it comes to an end anyway...



PS: Is there a PCI Express slot on your MB?

ØØ

[<ABX]

Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard

Sleepy are we?

Edit: SLi needs PCI-Express

[NoteMe]

Sleepy are we?

Edit: SLi needs PCI-Express

Must be. Was thinking about looking up the MB, but was too lazy too do that to.



Well one last Q..:...when you are talking about buying even one more GPU, are you talking about using them togheter at the same time? SLI? You know that not all games works with SLI. And BTW ATI will soon come with their own version of SLI. I havn't seen anywhere that SLI doesn't work as good with GF6800. At least the GF6800GT has SLI, so there should not be any problem there except if the game doesn't suport it that is...


ØØ

[<ABX]

The last time i checked there were only a few games that supported SLi

heres a article: http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzEx

[venerable bede]

Would I be correct in assuming that if I had 2 cards working and I ran a game which did not support SLI, the second card wouldn't cause any problems ?

The problem I am having is that this SLI is fairly new which means that there are few bench tests on the web to look at.

What do you think of the athlon 3500 (winchester) I bought ?

I'm hoping it aint overkill. I want something which is going to last a few years.

[NoteMe]

Would I be correct in assuming that if I had 2 cards working and I ran a game which did not support SLI, the second card wouldn't cause any problems ?

That is corect. The other card will just lie around dead looking at the other card work.



ØØ

[<ABX]

Personally... if i'd really wanted SLi, i would atleast wait till ATI released cards aswell that way, I would then have some options and having two major vendors creating SLi products game developers would be more inclined to target SLi.

I'd pickup a 64mb ati/nvida card for $60 and wait (or keep the one you got till then) -- that would be if the new mb has regular pci (i never bothered to look)

[plenderj]

I've had PCI Express for quite some time now, and did loads of research into it when it came out first. Last time I checked, nVidia's cards used an AGP-PCIExpress bridging chip, which introduced a lag in data transfer. So basically its an AGP card with a PCI Express connector on it, and some interfacing bits and pieces between the two.

ATI on the other hand came to market with their products after nVidia, but, their cards are true PCI Express. I would recomment anything based on the ATI X850 chipset if possible.
When I was putting together my machine I was trying desperately to find an X800, but I couldn't source any cards. I would imagine the X800s should be a little easier to find, but that the X850s are like golddust....

[Kasracer]

I read a review somewhere on the web (cant remember where) that the 6800 cards didn't work as well as was expected when 2 cards where in place but that the 6600 cards worked great.

The last time i checked there were only a few games that supported SLi

heres a article: http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzEx

This is because the cards have two seperate modes they can run in. Sometimes one is more efficient than the other in certain types of games (I forget the two names of the modes).

nVidia has their own utility with their drivers that allows you to setup your own profiles so if it doesn't come with a profile, you make your own in a few seconds and you'll be using both cards at once. It works quite well and definately enhances performance like nobody's business.

Personally... if i'd really wanted SLi, i would atleast wait till ATI released cards aswell that way, I would then have some options and having two major vendors creating SLi products game developers would be more inclined to target SLi.
)

It's more of a graphics-vard industry side of things than a game-developer side because it's only splitting the rendering tasks. Nothing very fancy and developers can't rely on SLi to be present.

That said, SLi is a 3dfx technology so I don't know when you'd see ATi releasing something similar but right now nVidia is offering comperable or better performing graphics cards to ATi and they offer some of the more advanced features of DirectX9 which ATi doesn't support yet(I don't think they offered support yet, anyway).

[Ideas Man]

IMO, I'd got for a 6600GT card. Here in Aus, it's the best value card for features, plus it's SLi ready. It reminds me of the GeForce 4 Ti4200, the card that was perfect in the bang for buck department.

Last time I checked, nVidia's cards used an AGP-PCIExpress bridging chip, which introduced a lag in data transfer. So basically its an AGP card with a PCI Express connector on it, and some interfacing bits and pieces between the two.

I remember that too, but I think that with the 6600GTs, it's native PCI express and they are adapting to AGP, not the other way around. I could be wrong, but the performance of this card is nothing short of sweet for what it costs in comparison to the 6800GT.