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What Graphics Card?


F-Stop Junkie

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After a new graphics card. Requirements are must have dual DVI output, be silent or quiet. HDMI would be nice. Good compatibility with games. Not interested in SLI, Crossfire or any of that business. 256-512MB, and about a hundred quid.

Thoughts?

Edit: Is it better to have more memory or a newer processor? I seem stuck between a 256MB 8800 GT and a 512MB 8600 GT.

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I'm pretty sure the 8800gt will be better. The larger memory only helps with playing games at large resolutions (meaning it uses large textures) or with some 3d rendering work. The 8600gt isn't that great, but the 8800gt's are, so its definately worth getting that one instead.

As for hdmi, its basically just the standard DVI format but with a different pin configuration, you can pick up DVI-HDMI cables from all sorts of places, i got one off amazon for £1.70. Don't be pulled in with the whole gold plated super shielded malarky, its a completely digital signal so it doesn't get affected by better contacts or radio interferance in the same way VGA signals do.

On a side note thats also the same for standard HDMI ones. The £100+ cables made by companies like monster are just trying to cash in on the publics naivity, gold contacts and better shielding doesn't do shit, neither do the expensive cables offer a better picture than ones for under £10. Anybody who says it does is either lying or too retarded to know the difference :D.

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Do you mean HDMI or HDCP? As Krisboats says, it's dead simple to convert DVI to HDMI and vice versa. For HDCP, as far as I know, most decent graphics cards from the last 2 years will support it (on the DVI port).

[/acronym soup]

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8800 = antialiasing and full on pixel shader effects at high resolutions due to having the double memory bandwith of the 8600

8600 = less texture thrashing when playing games on account of it having double the memory - but less fancy effects and performance will drop off quite sharply at high resolutions

erm

i'd probably go for the 8600 if i had a monitor that displayed at 1280x1024 or less purely because it has more memory (256 isn't really enough these days).

If i had a shiny new monitor like mine that displays at a much higher resolution I'd buy a 512mb 8800 gt and figure out how to justify the extra outlay later.

edit:

that's all with gaming in mind - if you're not all that bothered about games get the 8600

Edited by poopipe
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