On Wed, 2006-04-12 at 10:17 +0100, Anne Wilson wrote: > My grandson is about to embark on a university course for computer graphics > and animation, and as such, he keeps an eye out for graphics card > developments. He has spotted that cclonline are offering a 512MB graphics > card for under £100, but on investigation it turns out to be PCI Express, > which his motherboard doesn't support. Upgrading card, mobo and cpu (and > possibly RAM) is beyond his budget. > > The question, then, is whether such an upgrade would provide a truly useful > improvement, with regard to his uni work. I am happy to finance the move if > it does, but not if it only improves game-playing. > > I'd appreciate any comments. Reply off-list, if it seems appropriate. Thanks > > Anne I did some looking around after you send me that off list email, and there are a bunch of AGP video cards that have 512 megs and will more than get the job done. The first link I have for you is an XFX card http://pcldirect.com/store/product_info.php? cPath=281_311&products_id=12449 It's a Geforce 6200A with 512 megs of ram; the detailed specs are above, it's got alot more. Price: 119.00 US bucks. Second link I have for you http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp? Item=N82E16814121216#DetailSpecs This is an Asus N6800/TD/512M Geforce 6800 with 512 megs of ram. The url gives you the specs. Price: 173.75 us bucks as of today. If you want to see where these cards are in the overall scheme of things I suggest toms hardware both for individual roundup reviews and a birds eye view of the performance ratings. Here's a bird's eye view of all card types rated by OpenGL performance: http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/05/vga_charts_vii/page9.html The game that's being used for benchmarking is one of the most math intensive programs that there is; it's an excellent way to test the whole scope of the system, from the rendering all the way down to the processor. I make max use of my hardware here and all I have is an Nvidia Geforce5700 FX, if that tells you anything. Don't have any problems. The bottom line is that you don't have to change out the whole system to get him decent graphics power. You can spend under 200 bucks on his box and I don't see anything he wouldn't be able to do. LX -- °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° Missiles of ligneous or osteal consistency have the potential of fracturing osseous structure, but appellations will eternally remain innocuous. Registered Linux User #268899 http://counter.li.org/ °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
