Seeing as my PC configuration is finally set in stone, and I shall hopefully get it soon.  What card should I get for it?

• AMD 64-bit 3.0 Ghz
• 1Gb of RAM, later to be upgraded to 2 or 3
• Asus K8V Deluxe
• PNY NVidia Ti4200 64Mb
• Windows XP Home
• Philips sonic edge 5.1

I can't think of anything else relevant, and I'm willing to pay up to $200.  Fire away with your suggestions, gentlemen!

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Scorpion, my old friend, nice little rig there sir!

Let me just say this to you and anybody else considering a "new" Graphics card, FORGET ABSOLUTELEY ANY OF THE OLD GeForce FX or ATI Radeon's, period.

Why? I think your just throwing your money down the pan! I'd personally sit back & wait a while for prices to level off. If you insist on the (excellent in its day) 9800, then wait again, this card is now old hat & frankly overpriced by a considerable sum.

Nvidia have their new 6800 Ultra, Ati have their X800Xt,  if you fancy an average of 40+ fps @ 1600x1200 with 4xAA & 16(!) x AF in FS2004  then you really have no other viable option, not to mention future games performance.... - Far Cry will slow to a crawl with more than a few 9800's I've seen and Far Cry is no where near as performance intensive as the likes of Doom3 / Half-Life2 or FS10 / CFS4 no doubt will be.


Buy an FX5900 or 5950 / Ati 9800 by all means just remember they are now utterly obsolete.

To quote this months PC Gamer magazine, "No Touchy" !

http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTA4ODEwMzE5ME9waVhxWmxmUU1fN18yX2wuZ2lm Read & weep

I was quite literally about to buy a new 5950Ultra from my local store www.overclockers.co.uk the bod behind the counter gave me some quiet heads up and strongly advised me to wait until the newer cards either reduce in price, or the 5950's / 9800's drop to a more realistic level.

I'm keeping my wonga in my pocket for a month or so, I'd advise you to do the same sir.

Paul.

Only reason I said that card was the guy said he has got a $200 limit.

If money is no object then yes get one of the new gen cards.  My money this time is on the Nvidia 6800 series as they are gonna develop a lot and support sm3.0

Hence I got a nice 6800 ultra on order 

I can afford to wait, although how long are we talking here, a month, or two years? I do consider myself particularly patient.  While not a speed demon, my Ti4200 bears all my gaming, graphical and 3-D work just fine.

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I'd stick with the Ti4200 and see how the land lies at Christmas, the new hardware alone will give your card quite a kick up the rear in performance stakes - when I upped from a 1.8 p4 to my current 2.6, wow! I thought I'd got a new card into the bargain!

Paul.

If only I was so sensible

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Erm, Far Cry with 4xAA 16xAF @ 1600x1200, MAX settings with playable framerate? 40 fps average at the same settings in FS9?  An average 50% advantage in terms of speed with most benchmarks???

The FX 5950 cannot stand upto the new Ati & Nvidia beasties if they gently tap it never mind if they were thrown at it!!!  

Hmm, Graphics card chucking, a certain Olympic sport of the future!  

As annoying as it is, the new 6800's show up the FX's for the frankly lame cards they are, don't forget, Far Cry is a full DX9 game, the 5950 Ultra is the 3rd revision of the top line FX card (FX 5800, 5900 & 5950) you'd have thought after 3 attempts they'd get a card that ran Far Cry well with full quality settings, even at lower resolutions, the plain fact is it could'nt cut the mustard and has been hastily replaced, and replaced by a card that once again has been immediately been pipped to both the market and in performance by their biggest competitor - ATI - some of us will recall a similar thing happening a few years back with an old company with its name linked to the very card you own Daz, 3DFX the FX in FX5950 is a direct reference to the 3DFX team, supposedly.

All in all, 3DFX were beaten and ultimately swallowed by there upstart competitor, history repeats itself, it seems to be doing so as we speak.   and if ATI ever manage to get their drivers upto standard (a reason I've always avoided ATI) I'd say Nvidia should have great reason to worry if they arn't doing so already!

grr im not saying that the 6800's arent beastly sons of a bitches im even thinking of getting one in my new machine just stating the point that the 5950 is not outdated yet

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i have mine locked at 25 fps and it stays there as well on them settings but then again i have overclocked it

core clock 525 mhz
memory clock 1.07 GHZ

the 5950 ultra is not lame by any means and until i buy a game that it struggles to run then i wont replace her

heck even the old ti4200 8x cards are doing well even though they are pretty old now

daz