Graphics card

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Kieran
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Graphics card

Post by Kieran » Wed Feb 20, 2008 6:13 pm

I'm looking for a new graphics card for my Windows box.

The basic requirements are:-

- Must be low profile
- Have a DMS-59 socket (to support my dual DVI monitors)
- Have 256Mb of memory and any other requirements for the game below

I recently acquired Half Life 2:Episode 2 and my graphics card is not up to scratch to play it.

My current card does everything else with respect to dual screens and such delights but game-play support is rather poor. My current card is an Nvidia Quadro NVS 280.

Ideally I'd like to get an ATi card next as these have had good reviews when it comes to Half Life ;)

I cam across the following card
http://reviews.dell.com/2341/A0655899/reviews.htm
which seems ideal but haven't been able to come across any sources to make a purchase.

All help appreciated :)
Kieran
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Post by Shotokan101 » Wed Feb 20, 2008 6:19 pm

Kieran - why not go for a dual-dvi card - is it the low-profile issue ?

I'd have thought that an X1300 would be underpowered for HL2....

WHAT SLots you got in the PC ? PCI PCIe......
Jim

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Post by Kieran » Wed Feb 20, 2008 6:21 pm

Shotokan101 wrote:Kieran - why not go for a dual-dvi card - is it the low-profile issue ?
Yes, needing low profile makes it almost impossible to go for dual-dvi :(
Shotokan101 wrote:I'd have thought that an X1300 would be underpowered for HL2....
Thanks for the heads-up; I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to hardware.
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Post by Shotokan101 » Wed Feb 20, 2008 6:23 pm

I'll have a think - I changed the original post to ask about PCI slots.... so what has your PC got available ? - better still what's the spec. of the PC just in case :wink:
Jim

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Post by Kieran » Wed Feb 20, 2008 6:31 pm

Its a PCIe slot, low form factor restricted because of the case.

With the exception of the hard drive and current graphics card the PC is unchanged from an out of the box Dell Optiplex GX280. Not sure of the precise spec, but I currently have a 3.2Ghz P4 in there and 1Gb of RAM (told you I was bad with hardware ;)).
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Post by Shotokan101 » Wed Feb 20, 2008 7:18 pm

Not too shabby Kieran :wink: apart from the graphics it should be fine - I'm running HL2 on an Athlon 3000+ CPU with 2 Gig Memory and an nVidia 7600GT and it runs fine so a graphics card upgarde should be fine for you - I'll have a hunt around and check out what might do the trick at moderate cost - any particular budget you've set ?
Jim

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Post by Shotokan101 » Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:36 am

Check this out Kieran

http://www.kikatek.com/product_info.php ... s_id=29450

The XT1300 Pro should run HL2 at reasonable rates at 1024x768 and possibly higher - although it's a bit pricey for the spec these days but you're pretty constrained by the low profile requirement.....
Jim

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Post by Kieran » Thu Feb 21, 2008 9:50 am

Looks good :)
Shotokan101 wrote:The XT1300 Pro should run HL2 at reasonable rates at 1024x768 and possibly higher - although it's a bit pricey for the spec these days but you're pretty constrained by the low profile requirement.....
It is a bit pricey but as you say, its so difficult to find a card with suitable capabilities that will fit in a low profile slot. I'll see if I can find one on eBay....

And I have. Has a starting price of £30. 5 days left to run yet though so it will most likely go up in price. Still shouldn't be as expensive as the shop you linked to.

Thanks for your help :)
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Post by Shotokan101 » Thu Feb 21, 2008 10:12 am

You're welcome Kieran - I exepectd you to shop around - I was only linking to give you an idea of the Max. Price really and to point out that the "Pro" version was more competant - and of course to show that if necessary they were available retail :)
Jim

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Post by Shotokan101 » Thu Feb 21, 2008 10:45 am

Kieran,

Just had a look on eBay and theer are some USA/CANADA sellers with these cards and some are selling them at around $19 + shipping so might be worth looking into them perhaps ?
Jim

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Post by Kieran » Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:36 pm

Shotokan101 wrote:Just had a look on eBay and theer are some USA/CANADA sellers with these cards and some are selling them at around $19 + shipping so might be worth looking into them perhaps ?
Could well be, if I wasn't bothered about playing the game this side of Christmas ;)

Seriously though, you usually have to pay upwards of £15 delivery charge if you want products shipped from the US to arrive within a week or so which hurts a bit.

But obviously if the maths works out favorably I'll take these sellers up on their offers :)
Kieran
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Post by Shotokan101 » Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:43 pm

Kieran wrote:
Shotokan101 wrote:Just had a look on eBay and theer are some USA/CANADA sellers with these cards and some are selling them at around $19 + shipping so might be worth looking into them perhaps ?
Could well be, if I wasn't bothered about playing the game this side of Christmas ;)

Seriously though, you usually have to pay upwards of £15 delivery charge if you want products shipped from the US to arrive within a week or so which hurts a bit.

But obviously if the maths works out favorably I'll take these sellers up on their offers :)
Indeed - but even if you can't find the postage cheaper then it's still likely to be sub-£30 total which was why I mentioned it (but I know that you know that) :D

Worth bearing in mind that there do seem to (bizzarly ?) be some "not low profile" XT1300's out there - don't know if it's older cards or what..... :?
Jim

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Post by Kieran » Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:45 pm

Shotokan101 wrote:Worth bearing in mind that there do seem to (bizzarly ?) be some "not low profile" XT1300's out there - don't know if it's older cards or what..... :?
I have noted this too; I'll make sure the one I buy is definitely low profile before I splash out :)
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Post by Kieran » Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:52 pm

This one seems to be good but all these listing keep mixing up DVI and DMS so I'm never sure what they mean.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=013

Are there any low profile XT1300's that only have one DVI port?
Kieran
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Post by Shotokan101 » Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:12 pm

There seem to be some with one DVI and one VGA so you'd need a dongle.

BTW that's one of the cards I spotted and and NOTE that the piccie is an MSI AGP Card so ignore the picture - I'd always get the seller to confirm the details anyway....

FWIW - the original XT1300 (non-pro) should also be fine at least up to 1024x768 res.
Jim

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