I'm looking to upgrade my graphics card, i currently have a Radeon X300SE and tbh, it suxors. I dont want to spend too much on it, probably AU$300ish. Problem is that there are TOO MANY and i have no idea whats good and what's not so if someone can point out some good models then that would be good.

to answer what i would be doing with it:  I'm not the biggest gamer but i do play a few so something that would be suitable to games would be good. other than that just watching movies, doing other general things, graphics editing etc.

EDIT: I probably should add that it is preferable it's a PCI-E card

Well, I don't know the prices of graphics card in australia so, I converted to EUR and checked what you wanted to spend, and I only checked prices here in Portugal (that's where I'm from ), which are usually more expensive than other places I've checked like German, France, USA, Canada, etc..

What I advise you to pick is a nvidia 6600GT or if you want to spend a little more the 6800GT since these cards support SM3.0 (Shader Model 3.0) and I don't think that there's any ATI card for this price with SM3.0 which allows you to play games with a more detail in graphics.

Are they PCI-E cards? I've added that i want it to be a PCI-E card into my first post so you probably wouldnt have read it

EDIT: i had a look and i couldnt see any 6800 Cards that are PCI-E, but the 6600 series all come in PCI-E AND AGP 8x. so i think if i was to choose between them id go for the 6600GT

does anyone else have any more suggestions?

EDIT2: I just looks in my magazine and there was a review for the 6600GT and they said it was one of the best value for money cards on the market, so im thiking i might well go for this one. but if anyone has any other suggestions, im all ears

EDIT3: I'm seeing another 2 different version of the 6600GT PCI-E, the TD and VIVO, can someone esplain those to me?

GeForce 6600GT. go for it, it is a really good card and compares with $1000 cards, like you said its one of the best

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Originally posted by lordy16
Are they PCI-E cards? I've added that i want it to be a PCI-E card into my first post so you probably wouldnt have read it

EDIT: i had a look and i couldnt see any 6800 Cards that are PCI-E, but the 6600 series all come in PCI-E AND AGP 8x. so i think if i was to choose between them id go for the 6600GT

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Originally posted by lordy16
EDIT2: I just looks in my magazine and there was a review for the 6600GT and they said it was one of the best value for money cards on the market, so im thiking i might well go for this one. but if anyone has any other suggestions, im all ears

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Originally posted by lordy16
EDIT3: I'm seeing another 2 different version of the 6600GT PCI-E, the TD and VIVO, can someone esplain those to me?

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I recently got the 6600 GT OC, amazing card. great for gaming. I can run Fable and Counter Strike Source and max graphics without a problem, haven't really tried anything else out yet except for the HDTV adapter that comes with the card, PERFECT for watching films (I've currently got it hooked up to my 51" HDTV, great stuff.) I'd totally recommend it.

sounds like a winner i think

now to find a place to buy it from HAHA... I'm thinking eBay

EDIT: 128 or 256MB of memory on it?? what does it really make a difference on? would it really matter to me?

you can get new cards delivered to your nearest post office from this site, and you can get any other peripherals you want as well.

Happy Buying

thank you for that link! looks good...

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Originally posted by lordy16
128 or 256MB of memory on it?? what does it really make a difference on? would it really matter to me?

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gotcha its not all that more expensive than the 128MB one so ill go for that

well, the 6600GT with 256MB Mem is $AU300-350, where as the 6600 is $AU200ish

so you think there would be a major, noticible difference between the 6600 and the 6600GT?

Bump!

Yes, there's some difference, this site gives you extensive info/benchmarks about many 6600/GT cards and compares them with faster ones.

I got mi  6600GT from MSI, after many review reading and it is the best upgrade I have done to my pc, with my ATI AIW 9000 64MB scored 1426 3DMarks03, and with this one it scored 7489...

I can play F.E.A.R. with everything maxed out (except AntiAliasing and textures, only one level down, video memory limited) at 1024 x 768, Call of Duty 2, the same, Need For Speed Underground 2 all maxed out including antialiasing, Prince of Persia SOT at 1600x1200 and AA maxed... darn, didn't realized it had such beautiful graphics!!. All with zero lag... sweet!

Yup, go for 256MB, I didn't go for it because I was on a budget

In short, I think is the best value for the money.

Later...

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Memory doesn't noticeably improve performance, but makes games look prettier, more memory means you can load more and higher resolution textures and more effects, like FSAA (full scene anti-aliasing), lights, bumps and many other effects on surfaces. The F.E.A.R. game showed red numbers when I tried to move the texture slider to high on my 128MB card.

Check this link for details on video memory.
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