Hi, I'm looking to upgrade my graphics card, and I'd like to make sure I spend wisely.

What's the best card(s) in the 50 - 100 quid range? I prefer to pay more around the 50 quid area rather than 100 though. PCI-e BTW.

My PSU is an Antec Earthwatts 380W, which I know isn't super powerful, but I'm not after 2 8800GTX's in SLI..

I've had my eye on this lately: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... p;catid=56&subcat=404

If you can live without DX10 the x1950 Pro is probably the best you'll get. If you would rather a nVidia card then a 7900GS is another option.

Unfortunately stocks of the x19xx and 79xx series have gone totally, so your best bet is to try to find one on eBay.

Do you reckon my PSU is fit for it? I've got hardly anything in my PC, so I would think it would be OK (no floppy drive, only one HDD etc)

I think a x1950PRO is a nice choice. I have a x1950pro to and it's pretty fast. (well.. I have a faster version and some more MB, but I think it's one of the best cards in that range..)

Anyway, it will be good enough to play LFS on all high settings.

Quote from DaveWS :

Do you reckon my PSU is fit for it? I've got hardly anything in my PC, so I would think it would be OK (no floppy drive, only one HDD etc)

I have a 1950PRO, no problems for almost a year, and my PSU is also 380W (Tagan). So i reckon you would have no problems with it.

Just a suggestion: if it would be radeon 1950 series, rather go for 1950GT over PRO model. There were lots of 1950 PRO models which had problems with overheating input power transistors. Mine is model without those problematic transistors (Gigabyte).

Only difference between 1950 GT and PRO is default clocks. And most GT's overclock more then 1950 PRO.

I think I'm gonna go with this: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139552

Free delivery too.

Good one Also as I've seen, 7900 GS are better overclockers then 1950

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/136197/show_product_reviews

7900GT, No picture but that review says its an XFX.

I looked at that, but it's 20 quid more expensive than the 7900GS which is only 60 quid!

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141268

7800GTX for £52 - 512 MB of vRAM, and is actually faster than a 7900GT.

Damn! That's cheap, although I already bought the 7900GS last night. Looks like the 7800GTX would stretch my PSU a bit more anyway so never mind.

Someone will have themselves a bargain though.

Seeing as theres one in stock and that link is all over the eBuyer forums all i can say is if anyone else wants it get it quick!

At first glance I was like, "JAKG!!! Quadruple post?!?!? TISK TISK." Similar-ish avatars.

Right I've got the card fitted. But I'm having some issues with it under certain situations.

I have an ASRock4CoreDual motherboard, and an E1240 processor, which I normally have overclocked to 2.4 Ghz (300 mhz is max fsb for that motherboard). Now this ran fine with my old gfx card. With the new one, the gfx card seemed to crash after a few minutes in windows (screen went black, came back, then finally froze). I now have the processor overclocked back to 2.14 Ghz, and no more problems. I'm just wondering why this happens in the first place? Another thing, which happens even now, is that when I'm playing a HD video the mouse sometimes seems a little jerky.

What is your full system specs? It does sound like it may be a power related issue. However, that Antec PSU should be up to the task. Out of curiosity, which drivers are you running for that GS?
~Bryan~

- Antec Earthwatts 380w, 2 x 12v rails each at 17A (which does seem a little crap)
- E1240 @2.14Ghz (was running at 2.4 before)
- 1 GB Geil 2 x 512mb @667mhz (was at 750mhz)
- ASRock4CoreDual
- 1 Ide HDD
- 1 CD Drive
- XFX 7900GS 256mb
- 1 case fan

I'm only using the ones which came with the CD atm (91.47)

If you can scrape up around £85, you can get yourself a 9600GT, and the performance is around the same as an 8800GT 256, or a Raedon 3870.

EDIT: Ah, sorry, I didn't see that you already got a card

That new 9600GT does look like good value but it's overkill for me. :P

Back to the issues I mentioned above, I've sorted out the jerky video issue with more up to date drivers.

However as soon as I try overclocking my CPU again, the gfx card just crashes, and the whole PC dies.

I can't see how it would be a power issue, because I've managed to overclock my new gfx card (to 550/760), and with 3dmark05 running, there are no problems or letdowns...

I was having a shower an hour ago, and left the PC on. I came back to find no signal to my monitor and the graphics card fan running at what sounded like 100%. I tried rebooting, and it got halfway into loading XP when the monitor lost the signal input again and the gfx fan went mental again.

After booting into safe mode successfully on the second attempt, I tried again to boot into windows normally, and everything is fine again.

My question is, WTF just happened?!

I've looked at temps and stuff in rivatuner and everything looks completely normal...

Bump. This is still happening occasionally. In fact atm I am on my laptop because the desktop will not stay on for more than 5 seconds before the gfx fan going mental and the moniter signal dying.

I think your PSU is causing this problem.

could be PSU. which graphics card did you get?

OT:just seen youre at loughborough uni, what course u taking? know someone whos there atm

Auto Engineering. It's a 7900GS. Can't get it to boot to windows at all now.

Right well I can't see how it can be the PSU now, as I have just unplugged everything else which isn't needed (Case fans and CD Drive), and the problem remains.

tried using ur old card? checked how hot the cables are where the PSU plugs into the mobo? thats how my pc went, wouldnt boot more then 20seconds then turned off, turns out the psu and mobo had melted themselves togther and it was turning itself off due to the immense heat created.