2 Graphics cards. Which one?

[the_solidshadow]

Ok, so i want to get a new graphics card. today i went out with a friend, and went in PC World as i was in the area. in the graphics cards area, two cards caught my eye:

-GeForce FX 5200 -=>£79.99

and

-GeForce FX 5500-=>£109.99

which should i get?

[the_solidshadow]

pics i took with my phone when i was there

[the_solidshadow]

the other:

[the_solidshadow]

anybody know the difference between the two besides the numbers in the name, and the price?

[the_solidshadow]

anybody know what overclocking is?
i've heard about the oc (overclocking) forums, but i dont know what its about.

[Fusion]

well solid, usually when companies release product such as these (jumping from 5200 to 5500) usually that means that the benchmarks are slightly different but nothing noticably different unless you were one of those freaks who calculate ever aspect of the card under every condition.

As for which one to buy, well i'd hate to tell you to get one thing and it end up being not what you expected but you should base your decision on what your budget is right now and what you might buy in future times. Perhaps you will be needing an advanced graphics card a little later down the road and it would be a shame to invest much into this. Or if this will be your main then maybe investing a bit more money into the 5500 might not be such a bad idea.

as for overclocking, well basically put, its pushing your card to an extream. You install a program that deals with such things and tweak to your likings. You have your clock speed (lets say 400 streight out of the manufacturer) overclocking would be to take that maximum 400 clock speed and force it to go 450 (if allowing) and i say if allowing because its like making a fat kid sprint for hours, let along a couple mins. If you push that fat kid to much hell burst and there will be no more fat kid, but if you push him the right way he will become fit and run marathons for you (i havent used an analogy for a while so bear with me ) I think that about covers pretty much the generall idea, but you wont have to worry about that too much becuase if your happy with your card then there's no need to push it to its limit.

I hope I answered your questions to your best of liking. Happy buying/overclocking

[ross_coe]

hey solid - can't u get those cards for cheaper than 79 and 109 quid??? from the pic looks like u're in pc world....am sure you could get em cheaper elsewhere (or get a 5600 or 5900 for the same price).

dunno if i'm right in thinking that overclocking would mean adding a few extra fans to avoid overheating???


edit: slightly cheaper card....dont seem to have the 5500 tho
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=118630&cks=PRL

[andoy]

both good card really i use a 5600 and find it fine really with no problems when gaming or using 3d programmes.
for more info on the cards you like check out.
http://www.tomshardware.com/

[indy jones]

I personly would go for a 5600 agp or above.
Overclocking means that the memory and chip settings have been turned up
to run faster than normal hence "overclocked"

i own a nvidia 5900 its a great card
i bet you could find a decent second hand one on ebay very cheap

[the_solidshadow]

well, i just bought PCGamer magazine today, and there was a section on how to build your own PC for under £500. and what a PC it was, can handle farcry and doom 3 on MAX quality settings smoothly. thats what im going to do. found some better cards on aria.

anybody got any suggestions from here? my budget is £100 +/- 20 for the graphics card.

[indy jones]

LOL i,m not surprised you only have £100 to spend on a card
after shelling out £3000 on 3ds max 7 j/k

the Asus Geforce FX 5600XT 128MB DDR @ £80
seem,s like a really good deal
i,d be tempted with that one
better than the 5200 and 5500

[the_solidshadow]

lol, im literally laughin out loud here lol

but, i dont know why, but i'd like a card with 256mb and not 128mb. I dont know why, heck i dont even know what the difference is, apart from the fact (i think) that it's better in some way...

anyone care to explain?

EDIT:
PS. im loving max 7 btw

[andoy]

the onboard vga card Ram is faster than normal pc ram, so you are right 256mb would be a better choice.
it basically speeds up certain things like pixel shading and real time stuff, it won't really help when rendering any faster but worth it if you are gonna be playing games.
my 5600 nvidia handles far cry quite easily and doom3 although not on the max settings, just about medium high.