[markybloke]

Hi all,

I'm a humble consumer who is a little confused by all the jargon surrounding graphics cards, and I'm thinking of upgrading soon.

I currently have a Nvidia Geforce 5900ZT (which cost around £80 / $150), which runs FarCry, Doom 3 etc all pretty well. Things just get a little jerky in games like Oblivion or Hitman Blood Money occasionally though, and I'm hoping to give things a boost. My system is a 2.8GHz Pentium w/ 2GB DDR RAM.

I'm looking to spend no more than £140 (about $250) on a new card.
Can anyone help with the following queries?

1. Is the Geforce 7600GT a good purchase - i.e. will I get good performance and longevity on the Oblivion level etc?

2. What's the difference between AGP and PCI? Is one better than the other? Will my motherboard limit me to one kind? (I think my current 5900ZT card is AGP.)

3. Whats the difference between different brands of Geforce 7600GT - e.g. I just saw ones by Asustek, Gainward, Gigabyte, MSI, etc, but they are all called 7600GT. There is a small price variation between them but I'm not sure what the real difference is here?

Any help or advice on the above would be much appreciated, as well as any other recommendations or suggestions.
Cheers!

Mark, London

[turtile]

The 7600GT is good but if you can get the 7900GT for the US price - get that.

[IfYouHaveToAsk]

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/109721/rb/19864359239

im gonna get that soon, it looks awesome.

the 7600gt will be much faster than a 5900 imo.

One thing is its currently pci-express only not AGP so double check what connection your current card uses (note pci is different to pci-express)

[FlashDude]

Your system probably has an 8xagp slot, You are thinking of pci express that is the newest and best interface, pci video cards (not pci express) suck!!! An agp card is much better. Post the specs of your motherboard and we can look it up for you. Nvidia only makes the chips and the other company's (OEM'S) make the cards. I would stick to the top video card maker's like XFX, BFG, EVGA and PYN. It might be worth it for you to spend a little more and get a 6800gs (becoming hard to come by, I have one and love it) or even a 7800gs. If you can find a 7600gt in 8xAGP then that would be fine as well.

XFX Geforce 7800GS PVT70KUAD7 Video Card - Retail

[aaronkupen]

From all the benchmarks I've seen, the 7600gt beats the 6800gs out, but he is most likely running AGP so I would say the 6800gs is a pretty good bet. They don't make the 7600gt in AGP, the only card currently for AGP is the 7800gs (not counting the gainward ones like the 7800gs+ etc.).

[markybloke]

Thanks very much for your responses so far, Kind & Lovely people.

Here is a summary of my system specs:

http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/advent/pc/3511.htm

The description confuses me slightly but I'm pretty sure it's an AGP motherboard.
The only other differences to the description on that link are that I currently have a Geforce 5900ZT and I've upgraded to 2 GB RAM.

Does this info suggest I move in any particular purchasing direction?

Cheers all!

M

[aaronkupen]

Yah you have AGP from that description. Although, your power supply will probably not be able to handle a 6800gs. I would try to find out the details on your power supply if I were you.