Looking at upgrading my PC sometime soon, but i want to start with the graphics card first. Have a few hundred to spend on one, but not sure what to get?

Going by Tekheads, the ATI cards seem to top out at £170, whereas the Nvidia ones are way more expensive?

I want a card that will be able to run games pretty much maxed out, but really have lost touch with whats good and whats not!

Oh i have a SLI compatible PCI express motherboard.

 

well if you have a few hundred to spend then id get one of these http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/124861/rb/26235257145

The Nvidia 8800 series cards are the newest breed of cards and the first in the world to support the new DX10 games(which are coming out soon and work on vista only) but they will play DX9 games aswell like half life 2, Battlefield etc etc, it will max all games out aswell

Whats your currant spec though? as you wont be able to take advantage of a powerful card like the one above unless you have a decent processor etc

 

i would go for a cheaper card than that on!

vista is not any point to install yet.. and if u dot have vista, or is planing to upgrade to it its no idea to buy that card, only thing is that it have dx10 support, noting more.

i would go for a nvidia 9700gs/gt or the 9750gt/gs

they are good all around cards, and you can play all the games on max

 

I have a AMD 64 3500+ on a Fatailty AN8 SLI board ith a gig of ram, but that is all going to change in a few months once i can afford it.

Was looking at the 8800's but are they worth the extra££ over the top flight ATi cards?

 

Top flight ATI cards? the only ATI cards that can compete with the above card i posted would be the new r600, that will be faster but it will also cost alot more no dout.
Trust me you will be blown away with any 8800 series card, and it WILL run anything out today at max settings(providing you dont have a 30" screen or something ridiculous)

By the way you definatly wont get the best from the card until you upgrade but it will still kick some ass

 

See that the other dilema - do the mobo and processer first? or the graphics card first?

 

well it doesnt matter what you get mobo and processor wise, the graphics card will work with anything as long as the mobo has pci express slots(which all new boards do nowadays) so id get the mobo and processor first, not much point installing a top of the range graphics card into what you have right now!
If you want help choosing a processor and mobo then let us know

 

(GTX )

 

Yeah billy but he said he has "a few hundred to spend on one", the cheapest GTX 8800 is like £390+ i think.

 

I'm just suggesting he should splash out

 

yeah if hes got the cash then its certainly worth it to get the GTX versions