[BG-0]

Originally Posted by Mosquito555

Your CPU is far better than the minimum requirements for the cards. You won't have any problems regarding CPU power.

Both NVIDIA and ATI cards use a numbering system to identify their cards. Generally, look for the 3 last digits. For example the equivalent to the Geforce 7300 is the Radeon x1300, for Geforce 8400 is the radeon HD2400 etc. Just pay attention to the model you get, for example an x1300xt is better than an x1300pro, a gf7300GT is better than the GS etc.
Try to avoid models followed by LE or SE as they are usually much underpowered cards aiming for the ultra low budget market. I've seen the x1300xt running and I believe it's quite powerfull for the price. The pro wasn't that bad on the same games (WoW, PES5 if I'm right, and Half Life 2).

Just to make sure, in case you need to get a better PSU in the future pay extra attention to the amperage value of the +12V rail. Many PSUs come with more than one +12V rail. Add those values together, if they are about 30-35amps then your PSU will be good enough for most of today's cards and safe for future use. The same rule applies if the PSU has only one rail. Well, that's general rules it is more complicated but you get the idea!

The numbers tell very little about card performance(more than the vram amount, lol), and there's no actual relevance and especially that "equivalence" between Radeons and GeForces.
And about PSUs, in all cases, having as much (or even about 25% less!) Amperage on one 12 V rail is always better than having that much combined on multiple rails (especially two rails is very bad).

[Mosquito555]

Here we go again!!!

Let me rephrase, they are not equivalents, they compete with each other! So the radeon x1300xt competes with the gf 7300gt and not the simple x1300.

FYI both of the above cards outperform an 6600Gt so they are almost identical in performance with a 7600gs/radeon x1650 pro. Their GS/Pro versions will be of course slower.

[WoodyGoody]

Right i think im overall sorted now, Ive got a choice of the

GeForce 7300GS
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/nVIDIA-GeForce...d=p3286.c0.m14


And the
Radeon X1300
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ATI-radeon-x13...d=p3286.c0.m14


Thankyou all for your help and patience.

[BG-0]

x1300 Pro wins. Get that.
EDIT: ... double the price.. :/ Still, why not spend a little extra... It's not that much anyways.. And... Umm.. ebay's a auction site, right?

[Mosquito555]

This may help you decide:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2699&p=4

My vote for the radeon

[Triple6]

II think you'll be disappointing in any of the choices you are considering. Both cards only provide acceptable performance in Battlefield 2, and if you decide to get any newer games you'll see the cards struggle; I'm sure at some point you'll get bored with your current games an dyou'll be shopping yet again for a new video card.

If you take a look at some newer benchmarks then you'll see neither card does good at all, in some cases not even producing playable results: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/g...-v1-6,741.html

Considering this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...)%20-%20Retail

And this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...c%20500W%20PSU

These fit within your original 100 budget and will give you easily 10 times the performance.

[BG-0]

Almost fit, if I may add But still, I would rather recommend getting a good vid card straight off, than getting something that is near useless within a few years...

[Triple6]

Oh yeah, correct you are but its darn close.

Anyway's I was looking at another UK site and found these:

Radeon 4650 512MB for 46.94 inc. VAT: http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...on+4000+Series
/ATI+Radeon+HD+4650+Super+PCIe+512MB?productId=33881

Thermaltake TR2 450Watt PSU for 37.54 inc. VAT: http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=28847

Thats £84.48 with VAT included as a total.

[WoodyGoody]

Right thanks you guys, Youve all helped me alot! thanks for your suggestions and your time in searching for alternatives and comparisons, thanks again people.

[Courtneyc]

Here's the trade off: the X1300 will not require you to upgrade your power supply. It uses less power than the 7300GT and is a PCIe X1 card. It will fit in the little PCIe slot on your board.

Note also, the larger PCIe slot on your motherboard is a PCIe x1, x8, and x16. Any one of the three types will fit in the slot. But note that x8 is mainly used for SLI/Crossfire, which your board does not support.

Courtney