Replacing graphics card - recommendations?

[Humbucker]

We've had various problems with this computer recently, notably it doesn't restart and crashes Cubase(music recording program) at a certain point every time. After having a technical guy thoroughly look at it in the last week, we've discovered it's my ATI Radeon 9800SE graphics card causing the problems. When we take it out we have no restart problems whatsoever with the onboard graphics. We've also replaced the power supply with a much better, 450 watt one and the processor fan. So this computer is now close to what I want it to be - which is a reliable system for home recording, digital photography and some gaming.

I think I'm gonna avoid the ATI cards altogether, cos it seems most graphics card problems I read and hear about are ones with ATI cards. This one is an AGP card so I guess I would be looking for something similar, preferably in the £100($200) price range if possible. Nividia seems to have a very good reputation - if I get one of their cards will it be easy making the change from the ATI card to that one? It'll just be a case of uninstalling the ATI drivers and software right?

I'm not too up on the technicalities of graphics cards so if you could recommend me some based on my needs(see 1st paragraph), and explain a little about them it would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

 

[m3trj]

The nVidia 6600GT is worth a look at, I think it's very slightly over £100, but you won't be dissapointed with your gaming performance.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Well by nature of manafacturing, some gfx card's dont work, ATI and Nvidia. I am sorry to hear about your 9800SE and it's 95% the problem.

If you want a really relaible card in your price range, a 6600GT would be good. The best manafactuers are eVGA and Leadtek

 

[Humbucker]

Cool, thanks guys - I'll take a look at it.

 

[Humbucker]

Seems to be a highly thought of card. I notice it has a fan on it, is the fan loud or quiet? I've just spent a fair amount of money on a quieter CPU fan and power supply so I don't want anything raising the noise level really. Also, what is the difference between a 128MB one and a 256MB one?

 

[ThE_MarD]

Heyyo,

Well, 9800 SE is technically the junk version of the 9800 series vidcards. Don't buy an ATI vidcard with the prefix "SE" it stands for Special Edition, but really means S***** Edition. the SE versions of the vidcards have lower clock speeds, and thus use cheaper parts that are obviously more likely to break down.

Nvidia's no saint either, avoid cards that say Ultra or XT I think it is.. I forget, but they have a bad set too.

For agp the 9800 PRO is stable. I've had np's with mine.. well.. until I messed up the thermal paste but that was my fault. So now I'm buying another one for $135 CAD, and that's not bad, especially since it has the R360 core, and not the original R350 core. Pretty neat eh?

Anywho, I've heard the 6600GT is great if you have PCI-E, but I've heard also that the AGP version is very buggy. A bud bought one, I think MSI.. and not a week later he sold it off cause it sucked. I think he sold it for only $160 cad he said, lol. I suggest not getting any vidcard below a Nvidia FX5700, or an ATI Radeon 9600 PRO, or else you'll be buying very low-end barely able to game vidcards.

I had a bud who had an Nvidia FX5950 and he said it was a good vidcard, but he's upgrading.. dunno to what though.

 

[Humbucker]

Heyyo,

Well, 9800 SE is technically the junk version of the 9800 series vidcards. Don't buy an ATI vidcard with the prefix "SE" it stands for Special Edition, but really means S***** Edition. the SE versions of the vidcards have lower clock speeds, and thus use cheaper parts that are obviously more likely to break down.

Nvidia's no saint either, avoid cards that say Ultra or XT I think it is.. I forget, but they have a bad set too.

For agp the 9800 PRO is stable. I've had np's with mine.. well.. until I messed up the thermal paste but that was my fault. So now I'm buying another one for $135 CAD, and that's not bad, especially since it has the R360 core, and not the original R350 core. Pretty neat eh?

Anywho, I've heard the 6600GT is great if you have PCI-E, but I've heard also that the AGP version is very buggy. A bud bought one, I think MSI.. and not a week later he sold it off cause it sucked. I think he sold it for only $160 cad he said, lol. I suggest not getting any vidcard below a Nvidia FX5700, or an ATI Radeon 9600 PRO, or else you'll be buying very low-end barely able to game vidcards.

I had a bud who had an Nvidia FX5950 and he said it was a good vidcard, but he's upgrading.. dunno to what though.

Many thanks for your input - I had no idea the 9800SE's were the 'junk' versions of the ATI cards but it figures as the company I bought this computer from seems to put in pretty cheap and unreliable parts. I'll take a look at the 9800 pro. Kinda worries me that you say 6600GT is buggy for AGP, has anyone else had any bad experiences with them? I really want to make sure what I buy is ultra reliable cos I've had so many problems with this ATI one.

 

[m3trj]

The 6600GT works fine for AGP, I haven't heard of any problems, nor have I had any.

 

[Humbucker]

To be honest I thought the graphical performance of this 9800SE card was absoloutely superb, particularly on FIFA 2005 - am I gonna notice a substancial improvement with the 6600GT?

 

[MADWAD]

I have never heard on this board or any other computer board that the "AGP version is very buggy" so don't dwell on what The_Mard said. The 6600gt is a fantastic card for the price, and yes you will see a substancial improvement upgrading to a 6600GT. The 6600GT destroys the 9800SE in gaming benchmarks, and is a far superior graphics card.