What’s the best gaming graphics card for about £150? I am only interested in playing games, so I don’t need any TV-in, TV-out, AV-in crap. (My current card has all these features and I never use them)
I have no idea what £150 is in dollars or how much computer stuff costs overseas. However, I did just buy a new video card for the sole purpose of playing Half Life 2 and Doom 3. It’s a GeForce 6800 GT w. 256 megs of ram, around $400 on http://www.newegg.com. My setup is otherwise very similar to the one you describe in your Pit thread (Doom 3 requirements). I bought it based on the Hot Rod setup on this site. They say you can save money by going with the non-GT model (I think that’s only about $260 or so).
Unfortunately I haven’t actually tried it out yet, as I just ordered it and it hasn’t arrived yet. But that’s what my research led me to buy, for what it’s worth.
£150 is about $280. I did a price comparison on kelkoo.co.uk. It seems that only low to medium cards are in this price range. 
Good cards cost 250-300 pounds.
I’ve got a 9800 pro. It plays Doom 3 fine, and every other game I’ve tried on it perfectly.
Hi Dog80. I was in the same situation as you. I had an older video card and not to much cash on hand. I wanted to be able to play FarCry and Doom3 at a reasonable framerate. I checked TomsHardware and read through the reviews. I ended up buying a GeForce FX 5900 XT for right around US $200. This is the BFG version so is overclocked out of the box. I couldn’t be happier with the purchase.
Hope that helps. I can play Doom3 now on high at 1024x768 and I get ~40 fps.
-K
Being on a tight budget, I’ve always bought my pc gear from Eclipse Computers - I’ve found the customer service to be excellent, and the prices among the best.
I’ve had a look, and under the graphics cards generic section they have Radeon 9800 Pros for ~ £140 inc VAT.
It may also pay to look for a computer fair in your area. They more often then not outdo store prices, and you get to talk to a human being who actually knows what they’re talking about 
Avoid GeForce FX 5xxx anything. Crap. That generation from nVidia just didn’t come out well… the mildly challenged cousin at the family reunion that nobody wants to talk about.
A Radeon 9800 Pro will do you excellently, and that’ll be well, WELL under your price range.
A GeForce 6800 plain (no GT or Ultra or anything) will fall into the upper end of your price range. However, it has excellent performance, surpassing the $400 ATi cards in many instances, for well more than $100 less.
So I’d say either the Radeon 9800 Pro, or the GeForce 6800, depending on just how much money you’d want to spend.
Whoa! SPOOFE I normally agree with you on most things you post but the card I mentioned is doing exceedingly well for me. I’ll agree that the 9800 pro is a good card(comparable to the GeForce 5900)…but I was posting in the price range he suggested. A 6800 is out of the range, as is the x800.
-K
I don’t know…the 5900 looks just a little better than the card I already have (FX 5600 Ultra).
Besides I downloaded Asus drivers (I was using generic nVidia before that) and SmartDoctor which overclocks the card automatically when the load increases. The difference in performance is dramatic now. Maybe I don’t really need a new card yet!
I’m glad Dog80…sometimes it’s just the drivers. I must confess that I hadn’t read your pit thread about the subject before I posted. I feel a bit stupid now. :smack:
Our systems are comparable and I’m playing both FarCry and Doom3 without a hitch(and Doom3 is scaring the bejezus out of me). Minor differences may be motherboards and the amount of DDR. There are also a ton of tweaks at PlanetDoom that have helped…namely the image cache one. Take care Dog80…maybe I’ll see you online! 