GFX buyer desicion maker.

GFX card buyer desicion maker

Before you buy anything, ask yourself some questions:
1) Do I need a new card? Is it necessary?
2) Any other more easy ways to get the performance I need? Like overclocking or upgrading mobo+cpu instead.
3) How much more performance do I need?
4) How much am I willing to spend?
5) What will I be doing with the card? Gaming?Or just surfing the net?
6)PCIexpress vs. AGP
7)Dual core vs. single core CPU
8)SLI and Crossfire
9)Influence of cache memory in game

1)Mostly if you into gaming,you need to upgrade if you already have a slow gfx card like GeF2,and want to play DX9 games like FarCry,you need at least 9600,but a 6600GT is better
And also you need at least 2GHz CPU if you want to bring justice to both game and the gfx card.
To buy a new gfx card,you should look your hardware first,if you have Celeron 500MHz and wanna buy a R9800 for example is only
waste of money and you better shell that money on a new CPU+MoBo.
2)If you got at least 9600/5600 and want to upgrade,I suggest wait for new card (X1600XT,6800GS)

3a)Before you buy anything,look at this com config and you know what is the bottleneck:

Suggested Com configuration(Entry-Level for a bit gaming)
P4/Sempron 1.8GHz/2800+or faster
256KB L2 Cache or more
512MB or more ram
7200rpm ATA100 HDD at least
Suitable cards
PCIe setup:
Radeon X300/X550
Geforce 6200
AGP
Radeon 9600
GeForce 6200

Suggested Com configuration(Mainstream for gamers on a budget)
Athlon 64 3000+ P4 2.8GHz or faster
512KB L2 Cache 512kB recommended
1GB of RAM
7200rpm ATA100 HDD
Suitable Cards
PCIe:
Radeon X800GT/(or wait for X1600XT,6800GS)
GeForce 6600GT/6600NU/LE(both good)
AGP
Radeon X700
GeForce 6600GT/6600NU/LE(best)

Suggested Com configuration(High-end for gamers)
Athlon 64 3200+/ P4 3.2GHz or faster
512KB L2 Cache or more
1GB or more ram
7200rpm ATA100/SATA150 HDD
Suitable cards
6600/6600GT(best budget)
X700Pro/XT(best budget)
X800GT or 6800NU/LE
X800Pro/XT or 6800GT/Ultra(maybe little CPU limited)
For PCIe:
X800XL/GF 6800GT/X1600XL/6800GS

Suggest Com Configuration(Ultra high end for rich one...)
Athlon 64 4000+/Athlon FX-55/FX57/P4 3.73 EE(I recommend Athlon FX bcoz superior game performance)
1024KB cache
2GB RAM
10000rpm ATA150 RAID
Suitable cards
7800GTX(ultimate card)
X1800XL/XT
GeForce 6800/Ultra
Radeon X800Pro/XT
Radeon 9800XT/Pro
For PCIe:
GF 7800GTX/6600GT/6800GT/6800Ultra SLI

3b)Speed chart for most recent AGP cards(Overall Performance)
GF 7800GTX SLI
RadeonX850XT Crossfire
GF 6800Ultra SLI
GF 7800GTX/Radeon X1800XT
GF 6800GT SLI/Radeon X1800XL
RadeonX850XT-PE/GF 6600GT SLI
GF 6800Ultra/X800XT-PE
Radeon X800XT
GF 6800GT/X800Pro/X800XL
GF 6800NU/X800
GF 6800LEGF 6600GT/X800GT
X700Pro
ATI Radeon9800XT/GF FX5950 Ultra
ATI Radeon9800Pro/GF FX5900 series
ATI Radeon9800np/ATI Radeon9700Pro
6600LE/X700np
ATI Radeon9700np
Radeon9600XT/FX5700Ultra
Radeon9800SE 256-bit
GF FX5700nu
GF FX5600 Ultra
Radeon9600Pro
GF FX5600
Radeon9600np
GF4 Ti4600
GF4 Ti4400/GF4 Ti4800SE
GF4 Ti4200/8X
GF FX5200 Ultra
Radeon8500/Matrox Pahelia
Radeon8500LE/Radeon9000Pro/Radeon9200Pro
Radeon9000/Radeon9200/GF FX5200/GF4 MX440-8X

4)Budget-based gfx buyer:
Best Low End Budget Card:<$200
GeForce 6200 TC
Radeon X300 HyperMemory

Best Upper End Budget Card:
GeForce 6200 128-bit
Radeon X550 128-bit

Best Lower Mid Range Card
GeForce 6600
Radeon X700

4)Best Upper Mid Range Card
6600GT
x800GT(wait for X1600XT or 6800GS)

Best Mid-High-end Card
GeForce 6800GT/Ultra,Radeon X800XT-PE/XT/PRO
6600GT/6800GT/Ultra
7800GT

Ultimate Gaming Card
GeForce 6800GT/Ultra,Radeon X850XT-PE/XT/PRO
Radeon X1800XL/X1800XT
7800GTX/7800GT/6600GT/6800GT/Ultra in SLI mode(PCIe only)

Recent Card DirectX Support:
GF3 Series -> DX8.0
GF4Ti Series ->DX8.0
GF4MX Series ->Exceeds DX7 requirement
Matrox Parhelia/P750/P650/Radeon8500 -> DX8.1
Radeon9000/9100/9200 -> DX8.1
FX5200/5600/5700/Radeon9500/9600/9700/FX5900/5950 -> DX9
Radeon9800/Radeon9800XT ->Better DX9 performance
GeForce 6800LE/NU/GT/Ultra/7800GTX/GT -> DX 9.0c
Radeon X800/XL/SE/XT/XT-PE/PRO ->DX 9.0b
Radeon X1300/X1600Pro/XT/X1800XT/XL -> DX 9.0c

5)If you are only surfing the internet,a low-cost gfx card is good enough like FX5200 or MX-440.Dont use integrated gfx because it use system ram

6)With latest 7800GTX only out in PCIe platform,you should upgrade to PCIe if you have the money and want fastest gaming performance(especially SLI and Crossfire) and future proof

7)No games is multithread for now,so buying dual core CPU purely for gaming is worthless for at least 24month

8)SLI stand for Scalable Link Interface,use by nVidia for its dual card to boost performance and only available in nForce 4 SLI mobo for now.Supporting card include 6600GT 6800/GT/Ultra and 7800GTX,need to buy same card e.g 6600GT and 6600GT to enable SLI and the exact same brand.While Crossfire is ATi answer for SLI.Only avail in ATI Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition chipset for now.Supproting card is X800/X850/PRO/XT/XT-PE,need to buy a master card to enable Crossfire

9)Cache memory did influence heavily in games especially for NetBurst architecture,it needs at least 512kB L2 cache bcoz didnt have any exclusive L1 cache and its the major storage space for this architecture unlike K8 architecture (Athlon64)which have 128kB L1 exclusive cache and on-die memory controller which reduces latency and faster performance than Intel counterparts

 

Nice post najmi....lots of info there for people with questions about when, why and how much to upgrade. I'm sure some people would differ with some of your information, but generally its a good source of info for people who don't know alot, and are considering upgrading.
(probably make a good 'sticky'....)

 

Dude, we dont need your input atm. Best, to reply directly to poeple that need help on hardware advice.

 

So what should I get for this system? I'ld be gaming with DirectX 9.0B and open GL as well as direct Draw. heh I know the latter 2 APIs are ancient but still very usefull.

Note: Current system specs are on the right.
Note: I can't do Mother Board or CPU Upgrades But I can upgrade the Ram, Video Card, and sound card.

 

Good work Najmi, your making the place a more efficient forum, saves people asking a million questions in-order to get the same answer as we give to all the others.

Captian, put another 256MB of RAM in and put something no lower than a 9600np/5700 in.

 

very helpful

I have just registered with guru site, i was trying to get info on graphics cards and found you info very helpful
Thanks

 

i put in a good word. maybe you get a sticky.

 

Is there anything to change or lack of anything I,ll try to repair it.Tell me if something wrong.

 

I think in 3b a GF3 Ti200 outpeforms a mx460

 

Have any proof to what U sez?

 

ummmm the fact that its an MX card....

 

OK,OK I have fixed it. Anyhing else? I also have update it a little bit

 

Added SM3.0 vs. SM2.0.

 

i dont mean to offend but you write a guide to buying graphic cards yet you have a GF4 MX card in your system, notoriously the worst cards ever.

Bizarre...

 

FYI b4 this I already have a GeForce 4 Ti4200, Radeon 9000, Radeon 9600ProEZ,Radeon 9600XT 2.8ns FX5200, FX5700, and Radeon 9600XT 2.5ns Some of it destroyed during Voltmod and the rest of it I sell already.

 

Another update: Added PCIexpress vs. AGP.

 

Tip: i dont think 9500 models are faster than 5600 models..

 

Please man, 9500Pro vs. 5600Ultra 9500 wins bcoz of its 8 pipeline while 9500np vs. 5600nu 9500np wins bcoz most of it have 256-bit and even 128-bit are faster.

 

Please dont take this the wrong way but could some with thier native language as English re-write that. I cant stand people using inproper language to that extent. bcoz itz annoyin

 

LOL im jus still shocked how close a 5200 ultra comes to a 5600 its amazing how bad they messed up the fx line...

i think i have a semi 5200 ultra lol 320/475 does this beat a 5500? i belive so