Scooby-kid

HIS ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ICEQ 3 V2 TURBO SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (H195PRQT512DD-R)

or

HIS ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT ICEQ Turbo 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail


Any other sugestions? I originally thought about some of the Nvidia ones, but with ATI you seem to get more for your money. The sort of games I wil be playing are Toca race driver, Halo 2/3, Colin Macrea Dirt and CMR5, Call of Duty, and some others, but these are the main ones.
All advice welcome,

Thanks,
Scott.

bob269

I've got the HIS 1950 (Not sure about all the turbo bobbins) but yeah it runs HL2 Ep 1 perfectly in full resolution with all the HDR lighting stuff turned on.

I paid around £420 approx 12months ago when it was *state of the art* for 10minutes.

D16GER

The best value for money cards at this very moment are either the ATi HD2900 Pro or the nVidia 8800GTS 320. Both are in the £175 region, but they are both light years ahead of the cards you listed in terms of performance, especially at higher resolutions.

Just make sure your Power Supply is up to the task.

bighead

iTrader: (1)

8800gtx

slipstream_uk

iTrader: (1)

I would go with nvidia brands. I used to use ATI cards, but moved over to Nvidia after having so many issues with the Ati drivers with games. Also all I see in games forums is I cant get this game to work with this ATI card.

D16GER

To be fair I read every bit as many nVidia users having issues. And ATi have a much better driver rollout (1 WHQL every month).

All you need to do is take a look at the release notes of both. You will see that nVidia have just as many issues as ATi do.

I had ATi cards ever since the 9700Pro, and wouldn't have even considered changing to nVidia where it not for the HD2900XT and it's horrendous fan! Why oh why they designed it with a fan like a jet engine is beyond me.

HankScorpio

In that price range, I'd be looking at an 8600 GTS.

Toms Hardware have a good test of DX10 cards I was reading last night.

Allan

iTrader: (1)

I've got the 256MB version of the HIS X1950 Ice Q3, looks exactly the same. I can't fault the performance although I don't run complex games, however in the last few weeks I've noticed a rattle from the fan, it's only a couple of months old.

Don't know if this is a common problem with this card, certainly never came across it when I was looking at reviews.

Allan

Deano_P1

I would definitely go with the Nividia 8800 series. I have got a 8800GTS 320Mb, paid £160 for it and its awesome

D16GER

Exactly the same thing happened with mine when I had it too mate. I think it is a common fault. Barely audible, but annoying.

Allan

iTrader: (1)

Interesting, did you live with it or get it changed. One of the main reasons I chose this card was that it was supposed to be very quite.

Allan

D16GER

Just stuck it out. I found if you hit it a tap, the noise improved.

EddScott

I have a 640 but from what I've read the extra ££ isn't worth it.

Buying now I'd get a 8800 320.

Never bothered with high end ATI. Personal choice rather than anything else.

Scooby-kid

cheers for the advice, my first choice was the 8800 series but was just trying to work with more of a budget. Idealy, 8800 GTX would be the one!

Thanks,
Scott.

HankScorpio

you can get fanless 8600 gts for around about that money...

D16GER

The 640 is well worth the money if you run on large screens with high resolution. Then the extra memory really comes into play.