Hardware Best Graphics Card for £50 or less

[Prime]

Now, Time to discuss getting a Graphics Card for me.

I'm on a Budget of anything under £50. Is it possible to get one which Runs Team Fortress 2, Half-life and Left 4 Dead which such a budget? I want them to run nicely but I don't require them to be lovely to look at. As long as I can play them smoothly.

 

[Lee79]

Who about this one

Sapphire RADEON HD 3650

Review
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140617/show_product_reviews

 

[xcalibur]

What resolution?
If its 1280x1024 then the 9400gs would do the trick.

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+...productId=33346

EDIT: A 9500GT f0or only £48.24
Thats probably the best deal you'll get.

 

[Joe88]

radeon hd 4650
beats the 9500gt for cheaper
£45.94

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/...productId=33881


reviews:
http://www.neoseeker.com/resourcelink.html?rid=168681

http://xtreview.com/addcomment-id-6278-vie...nce-review.html

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,659355/...9355&page=1

 

[Prime]

Well it looks like it is between the HD4650 or the 9500GT. On aria.co.uk the 9500GT is cheaper which is a advantage and that beats your "beats the 9500gt for cheaper" reason Joe88.

Which one folks?

 

[Banger]

£45.94 inc. VAT for the ATI
£48.24 inc. VAT for the Nvidia

umm no? Maybe I am blind?


Also I would go with the ATI. Although I am a bigger fan of Nvidia.

 

[Prime]

Ahhh I never noticed the VAT.

edit: Found the 9500GT for £45

 

[Banger]

Better 3rd party drivers. And higher clock speedz

I do not think there is a newegg for you guys huh? I just found this on there.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...eForce%209500GT
£45.7999326 after a mail in rebate.

Also I think the Asus Nvidia > Inno3D Nvidia


Thought those games could all be ran on an 8 series well as for Left 4 Dead I am not really sure but HL2 could run easily on a 6 series.

 

[Prime]

newegg doesn't ship to the uk.

 

[polle123]

I'd take the Nvidia if your intressted in playing games else I'd take the other one

 

[Taza]

nVidia ALWAYS, 100% of the time beats ATI. This is a fact and fanboys can go home and cry.

The specific issue lies within the drivers. Namely, where nVidia drivers are bloated, ATI drivers experience random corruption and crashes.
ATI recently opensourced it's drivers to mend the issue but that will take a while (read: a few years) to kick in.

Now, the Asus 9400GT Silent is a good choice, as are the Asus non-silent, XFX, Gigabyte, EVGA and PNY models. Don't bother with the MSI, Elitegroup, Biostar, Galaxy or Sparkle models.

Overall, the 9400GT is a good new budget chip, though the performance is according to the price. The new 9800GT budget chip could come in under £100 though, and it's guaranteed to run all of the games you mentioned no hiccup whatsoever.

Now, 9500GT isn't bad either, but follow the brand advice above. Best brands for graphics cards are Asus Silent, XFX and EVGA.

Also, reference: I have the Asus 9600GT Silent, which runs TF2, L4D and HL2 at 1600x1050 at medium settings perfectly smoothly. The 9800GT is a fair bit better (but not available in silent), so it should run all you have at max settings at low resolutions.

 

[Prime]

Ok following your advice taza I found the XFX 9500GT for £52 which is £2 over my budget but I guess I'm asking for to much for under £50 and £2 isn't high.

 

[Taza]

Not a bad card. The performance's a bit underwhelming - but then again, it's XFX and they can be counted on to factory overclock it - but all I know it's a very solid card.

 

[Scorpei]

nVidia ALWAYS, 100% of the time beats ATI. This is a fact and fanboys can go home and cry.

Riiiiight,

linky, great useful one too!

Now, as for my point in this one

. First of all you need to look around at the 9 series on Nvidia as for a large part they (were/)are rebranded 8 series (not the case with the 9400 / 9500 series). That's not bad per say though, and shouldn't bother you with the 9400/9500 as they are G96.

But, if you are shopping around that price range why not spend the 14 pounds more and get an 9600GT?
link

Anyway go check out the charts @ tomshardware and you should be set. As for the whole Nvidia versus Ati/AMD debacle, choose which you like. I personally dislike AMD because of their drivers and Nvidia has pretty good linux support. Granted though Nvidia doesn't have great drivers either.

 

[Taza]

Benchmarks are meaningless in the ATI/nVidia/Intel debate.

Intel has underpowered cards, ATI has shit drivers, nVidia has bloat. That makes Intel best for nongamers, nVidia best for gamers and people needing OpenGL, and ATI best for masochists.

But you're right in the 9600GT being miles better - as long as you're buying a good brand. Elitegroup being one of the brands not so good. They may be good, but they don't have a solid performance record to know. XFX has made a lot of good cards for a long time.

 

[Prime]

Right. Would it be worth waiting and trying to save up £15 more for the 9600GT? Is there a massive performance between the 9500GT and the 9600GT?

 

[xcalibur]

Right. Would it be worth waiting and trying to save up £15 more for the 9600GT? Is there a massive performance between the 9500GT and the 9600GT?

It depends. What resolution will you be playing at?

 

[Scorpei]

@Taza: Intels are great for simple desktop tasks. Something for which you simply don't really want something taking over a 100W.

As for saving the extra 15 pounds, I'd say yes. On paper, aside from having a slightly older core, the 9600GT simply owns the 9500GT. Even putting two 9500GTs in SLI you are still better off with one 9600GT.

Granted though I don't know the brand that much.You could look up a bit of reviews on it see how it performs.

 

[Prime]

Right. Would it be worth waiting and trying to save up £15 more for the 9600GT? Is there a massive performance between the 9500GT and the 9600GT?

It depends. What resolution will you be playing at?

I don't mind the resolution. What ever is best for playing on a 19" screen. My current PC is set to 1400 x 900 on a 19" inch screen which i find nice.

This graphics card will be for the new pc I'm building in college btw

 

[Scorpei]

Right. Would it be worth waiting and trying to save up £15 more for the 9600GT? Is there a massive performance between the 9500GT and the 9600GT?

It depends. What resolution will you be playing at?

I don't mind the resolution. What ever is best for playing on a 19" screen. My current PC is set to 1400 x 900 on a 19" inch screen which i find nice.

This graphics card will be for the new pc I'm building in college btw

Aka your best resolution = 1400x900. Don't see how that matters much though (unless you would count AA and such in the equation).