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XFX GeForce PCX 5750
by GrayWizard
I bought this nifty little card for my younger brother for Christmas and I wish I hadn't. Don't get me wrong, the card itself is a decent performer.
This is around two generations (now to be 4 generations) old but it is capable of playing Call of Duty and Battlefield series of titles; albeit not at maximum settings. ...
Don't get confused by the name, this is not a ATi 5750, in fact it is an nVidia GeFroce card. XFX didn't throw in any extras like Sapphire do with their cards; there were no DVI/HDMI adapters. The box came with the card, driver disc and a serial - which you register with XFX to get their support.
The card itself is quite small compared to its bigger siblings and is perfect for small-medium sized desktops. It probably will also fit in small home media centres. The heatsink and fan are very small and so produces very little noise.
Installation is is the same as any other PCIE card - simply slot it in and install drivers, so no problems there. As card is a single slot solution (it only takes up one slot on your cases rear expansion bay) it draws its power from the motherboard - its quite efficient on that front. So there is no hassle of requiring 4/6pin cable from PSU. Be aware though that you will need atleast a 300W PSU to handle this card otherwise your system may have a lot of stability issues and may crash.
As its a DirectX 9 card, don't expect to play the latest DirectX 11 games. However this will handle media playback flawlessly so no issues if you are looking to buy this for media purposes. It can however handle Valve Source engine based games easily - titles such as Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike Source will play beautifully on this.
Now, my major disappointment with the card was with the support provided by XFX. As I mentioned there is a serial that comes with the card - you register this with their site so that you can get support at a personal level.
Needless to say that the card malfunctioned within a month and I had to chase the vendor for a replacement, however I was told to take the issue with XFX. It was a silly circle of passing the buck where XFX would tell me to take the matter with the vendor and the vendor to XFX. Eventually both parties agreed to do a replacement but this whole process took 3 months.
Therefore, even for the price and the size and performance for the needs of your system, I can't recommend this card due to the shoddy support provided by XFX.
There are far better alternatives at similar prices which is also capable of DX 11 gaming.
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PNY Verto GeForce 7800 GS
by pumfster
My older PC system and in particular my trusty old (and I do mean old) NVIDIA GeForce 5 card gave up the ghost. To be honest it wasn't a total disaster, as I had been waiting for it to fail to give me an excuse to replace it. The graphics card was the last thing on my PC to update, and so I started the process of reading reviews, and ... magazines to try and find a quality replacement without breaking the bank.
My search led me to the NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS card. I believe that the NVIDIA cards are the market leaders when it comes to graphics, and so I have always been brand loyal to them. Now I wanted something which would not become obsolete within a couple of weeks of purchase, yet I wasn't prepared to spend £400+ on the top of the range cards as I do not play massive amounts of games which would require such power. That is why I found this card to be perfect costing £189.99 from PC World, and although I am sure you could probably knock a few pounds off shopping online for it at any of the numerous retailers. I've just had a quick look online and found one on a popular web retailer going for £149.99, so it is worth shopping around.
The card itself is a mighty looking thing, and comes in typical GeForce packaging, displaying the name of the product, a fantasy character, and the PNY logo. Once I got my purchase home, I opened it up and found a rather basic instruction and installation guide, which just about did the job, although I was lucky as I knew what I was doing without it. The first thing to do is start by deleting the old graphics drivers and then with the CD-ROM provided install the new drivers. Once these are installed, then you need to open up your PC and place the card in.
The card itself is an AGP 8x, so before purchase, ensure that your PC has a free AGP slot, and I would advise that you have nothing in the next PCi slot, as you may find it a bit of a tight squeeze, because as I said the card is rather scary looking. Another word of warning here is due to the power of the card, it also requires a connection from the power supply of the computer. This is in the form of a standard connection that a hard drive or cd/dvd drive would need, so ensure one of these is available too. (Although you can buy a splitter cable if you need, but this is not provided with the product and will add further expense to it). I would also say that you need a power supply of at least 400W to make sure that this card will function correctly. (I know the card recommends 350W, but I had problems with my 350W power supply that disappeared when I upgraded it.) The only issue here for most people is the availability of a free AGP slot on your motherboard. As I said this is an older system for me and so I do emphasis the need to check this before going out to buy!
Once you have placed the card into the AGP slot, and tightened the screw, simply close up your PC again, turn it on, and hey presto, your new graphics card should auto detect, and with the drivers you installed early, should work immediately. I would at this point, as with any graphics driver, suggest visiting the NVIDIA website, and download the latest drivers, just to enhance your experience further, as these will have ironed out any bugs that were present when the driver was first launched. I should also say that this card has been the most stable performance wise that I have ever had. So no blue screens, no system hang-ups and so no frustration! I've never had any problems with the drivers either, and so I am extremely happy with the performance here.
My card also came with SWAT 4, a shoot em up style game which is designed to better show the quality of your new card, however I found this game rubbish, (not my kind of thing and it's a little bit old now anyway) and you will definitely notice improved performance and graphics on almost any game that you play.
For those who like the technical side of things, here are the specifications for this graphics card.
The card has 256MB of video memory.
A clock speed of 375MHz with a maximum speed of 1.2GHz.
It supports a maximum screen resolution of 2048 x 1536 / 85 Hz.
It also comes with a 3-year service and support warranty, although I am very sceptical about these when it comes to anything computer related as I don't believe that the companies will actually honour them, and come up with any excuse not to. (Me being cynical again really!)
I should also say that you need at least a Pentium III or equivalent processor to gain any boost in performance from this card, as well as at least 256MB RAM, otherwise the benefit of graphics will be lost by the system unable to cope with the power requirements of the card. I would also point out that most home computer systems bought within the last few years should have no problems with these requirements. Windows 2000, XP, and Vista are the operating systems that support this card, and although I've not tried running this card with Windows 7, I don't envisage any problems really.
To sum up this card, I would recommend it for any average PC user, who plays games occasionally, as it will really boost the graphical performance of your system. The one group who may not like this card are the serious hardcore gamers, so for you I would recommend a top end card, but remember for around £150 you really can't go wrong with this impressive card from NVIDIA. I would also say it is a testament to the longevity and the quality of this particular card that it is still on the market almost 5 years later, and in my opinion still the best and most stable graphics card that I have ever had the pleasure of using.
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Nvidia GeForce 8400GS
by Callaghan173
I recently purchased this Graphics Card for next to nothing from eBay; it was £12.99 which seemed like incredible value for such a card. It is a modern specification card, designed for the latest generation of Windows Operating system (Vista and 7) but I use the card with the trusty Windows XP.
The card installs in the ... PCI-E x1 slot, not the x16 slot as others have mentioned. This poses a slight problem as some old motherboards do not support this interface as well as extremely new motherboards carrying only the higher bandwidth PCI-E x16. Before purchasing make sure you find out what motherboard you own and check its manual to make sure the slot is supported. Many older boards will only support PCI, the old standard, and medium age boards may max-out at AGP. Furthermore, if you have a custom built PC with an old case you may find that the slot on the back of the case does not line up with the PCI-E x1 slot. This happened in my case and a pair of pliers along with a few cable ties was required to secure the card in place.
As far as connection to monitors goes, this card is somewhat frustrating for the average user. Make sure a DMS-59 to dual DVI cable is bundled with the card as the only digital output is effectively useless on its own. The only way to utilise it is to convert it to DVI or VGA output. Secondly, make sure your monitor will support DVI, most low to middle price monitors still utilise VGA as standard so you may have to purchase the latter adapter. The other output on the back of the card is Video-Out; S-Video, an incredibly old video format which may be connected to a TV via an S-Video cable, a rarity in the UK or an adapter to other analogue outputs; Component being the output offering greatest resolution.
The card ran without a hitch without having to make any changes to my set-up, although you will need to uninstall previously installed drivers before installing the new drivers (for NVidia bundled software). If you have any experience in Graphics card this will all be standard to you. But for new comers to the scene, drivers must be installed from the CD or website in order to run your display at higher resolutions and refresh rates. The highest resolution is 2048*1536, a resolution which only the best monitors can handle successfully. I run dual monitors with a VGA output to one 14" and an HDMI output to a 42" 1080p LCD, these run using easy to obtain adapters from well-known aforementioned auction sites.
Finally, the question you have all been asking; how does it run? Well the fan is extremely quiet compared to other more powerful cards, and the built in memory designated to Graphics takes strain off the RAM. My RAM increased from 1.85GB to 2GB in system info, due to stopping my use of onboard graphics. For Video the system runs smoothly, easily running high quality 1080p movies using VLC media player, the only problem being that the fan noise, although low, can be distracting especially in quiet scenes. For gaming, which the card was not designed for, it performs well in games around 5 years old, such as Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but newer games, such as recent COD instalments, falter even on low settings.
In conclusion, the card is great at filling all of the pixels on your shiny HD monitor, but the crispness of the image may not make up for the weakness in terms of connectivity for some. The 8400 GS is somewhat outdated as far as gaming standards go, but will easily convert your middle of the range PC into an HD Video powerhouse. Just make sure you have the right adapters and a relatively modern case.
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