PCI Graphics card

[Andikins]

Sorry not sure if the link worked.

It's a Hightech ATI Radeon 9200 128MB PCI TV-Out DVI Retail Box from ebuyer for £60.

The ebuyer description is:

"Powered by ATI RADEON 9200, the Excalibur RADEON 9200 enables end users to experience the most realistic, life-like images, and visual effects on the next generation 3D games or multimedia application. With advanced graphics architecture, Excalibur RADEON 9200 provides best-of-class performance to accelerate all popular 3D applications. Among other high-end features, Excalibur RADEON 9200 is Micosoft DirectX 9 compatible for faster gaming, SMARTSHADER technology for more complex and realistic lighting effects and SMOOTHVISION technology for smoother-looking images. Excalibur RADEON 9200 also features VIDEO IMMERSION II and FULLSTREAM technologies for unprecedented video quality."

[ArchAngelCD]

You said you can spend between £50 and £100. The card you described above is high in price. Hightech cards are not bad but tend to be overpriced. Sapphire Tech cards are probably the best 3rd party vendor since they manufacture most of the Built By ATI cards for ATI. You can get a much better card for a few more pounds.

Sapphire has 9600 for £84.40 including VAT. That would be a much better choice.
Look here http://www.cclcomputers.biz/acatalog/

-edit
On the link above, Goto:
System Components
Graphics Cards
ATI Sapphire

[Andikins]

right thanks

I was under the impression that an AGP 8x card would not be compatibable with my 2x slot. Is that not correct?

[ArchAngelCD]

I'm almost sure it's the other way around.
I know you can't use an AGP 2X card in an AGP 8X slot because of the voltage difference.
Newer video cards are backwards compatable though.
Goto the Sapphire Tech site and write their customer support department and tell them you are looking to buy a Sapphire Tech 9600, tell them the motherboard you own and they will confirm you can use that video card on your motherboard. (Tell them who makes the MB and the board #) I'm only telling you to do this to assure you it's OK.

That Sapphire Tech 9600 will make you MUCH happier than a 9200. (The 9200 is an AGP 8X version of the 9000 which is really an 8500.) That's already too old to buy as a new card and not a DirectX 9 card.) Just be sure not to buy any Radeon card that has a SE in it's name. They are sub-standard.

Here is the link for the 9600 so you can see the specs on the card.
http://www.sapphiretech.com/vga/9600.asp

Here is the support and contact page.
http://www.sapphiretech.com/contacts/contact.asp
They have a contact in the UK on this page.

[peonyu]

Andikins, definately try to get a 9600 non pro or PRO [non SE or LE of course] over a 9200 if you can. 9200 cards are based on the Radeon 8500 and are somewhat old nowadays, they are not bad but with a 9200 you will probably find yourself wanting something a little more powerful pretty quickly. The 9600 otoh, for 20 pounds more will definately be powerful enough and last a year or two on new games at max detail.

heres a link to Tom's VGA chart with comparisons of 48 or so different cards at a few games -

http://www20.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html