I am having problems with LFS freezing which I suspect may be due to my GFX card. It's a Gigabyte FX 5900 XT -AGP.
So I'd like to try a new one. LFS is the only game I play and I believe it's not too demanding on graphics so i don't need anything too powerful. My current card is more than adequate. The cheaper the better because I can't be sure it'll solve the problem.
The performance will be a little better, but tbh investing any cash in your PC would mean an extra 512 MB of RAM, a new CPU, 6600GT etc, and for that price you might pick up some "old" 939 kit
Better! I was thinking it would be slower for £30! Thanks for the links. As I'm having suspected problems with my current card I'd like to go safe and buy from a big retailer and also get a decent brand. I've heard of ASUS - are they OK?
I noticed the 5200s are cheap (~£20) but found some charts on Tom's hardware for NASCAR which showed the 5900 maxing out at 60fps and the 5200 only managing 35fps so I'm guessing I'd be better spending the extra £10 on the 6200? Do you know if GFX RAM (128MB) is important for LFS?
If it doesn't fix the problem I'll just have to sell it on ebay.
Thanks for your quick help - really appreciate it! Had to borrow a laptop for my first league (Gentlefoot) race last night so need to get it working for the next one in 2 weeks time.
Edit: Forgot to mention my current card is only 128MB so I guess that would be OK.
Nick A, I'm in almost the same boat as you are. I have exactly $74 USD burning a hole in my pocket right now. As it's very difficult to save up any cash, I'm really tempted to purchase a card today before I change my mind and fill the fuel tank up on the way home from work.
My problem is, I haven't a clue on card specs. I see older generation cards with clock specs higher than newer cards. But I also see differences in pixel pipelines, mb, memory interface, etc, as well as not knowing anything about the companies selling them. This is what I get when filtering for "$50-75" and "128-bit".
I imagine since the 6600GT is still a good card for LFS, that these cards would also be just fine. But what about other stuff. I basically race LFS and fly FS9. I doubt currently I could run FSX, but hope to with a gfx card. It matters not what I'm currently running because many here know it is nothing. Onboard, but quite good in LFS for onboard. But any PCI-e card would be an improvement.
Can anyone tell me to buy or not to buy the EVGA 7300GT for $63.99?
The Biostar has better cooling, and would probably overclock a bit more - but if you aren't gonna overclock then chances are the eVGA is better (and has a better warranty) as it's cheaper.
You really can't compare cards on their specs, esp. not clock speeds - my ATi 9600XT had a 500 MHz core, wheras my 6600GT has a 500 MHz core, too - and yet i upgrade to a 580 MHz Core 7950GT, and that thing is 5x faster than the 9600XT was.