New PC - already want to update bits
 

Right, I've recently bought a Compaq 1080 & LG 17" LCD screen.
The Compaq is P4(3.2), 1Gb ram, onboard sound, but has a Nvidia Fx5500 256Mb graphics card... Now for things like Unreal 2004 its ok at medium res, but Far Cry will only run smoothly in the low settings (low res, low detail etc).

Someone has recommended the Gigabyte 9800 256Mb card (circa 220 quid from DABs).. But do I really it need it to run Far Cry and Ultra high settings in a max resolution of 1280x1024???

Or would a 128Mb version of the card be fine or a 5950 ??

HELP!!!!

Cheers, Alex

PS. got an Epsom R300 printer as well, very impressed with the quality of the photo prints..

You'd notice no diff between the 128 & 256mb version of the 9800pro - can get them from around £130 now too.

Jay

A few games do require 256mb to run at their max highest settings/textures, Call of Duty being one, and I'm sure most of the latest up comming games like Doom, Stalker etc will use 256mb to their advantage.

Just gone from a 256mb fx5600 to a sapphire 9800pro 128mb -- the rest of the pc got changed as well - but 9800pro is handling far cry at 1600 with no problems at all

Dave.

Indeed. The 128MB 9800 Pro was a £200+ card approx 6 months ago.

I'd avoid the 256MB 9800 models at £200+ and go for a next generation X800 Pro which is a little more but the latest and greatest.

Or get an alienware motherboard controller and two X800 256mb and double the throughput - have 512mb texture memory and 32 pipelines.


Although may be a tad dearer than the 128 ati 9800 LOL. ;)

Got one of these myself yesterday and have to agree the photo quality is quite amazing, especially for a printer only costing 100 quid. :)

Cheers all, I'll have a think about the advice about.