Last time i took what seemed good and ended up with something rather crappy for the price, which i only realised later..So this time i'm being thorough and I narrowed it down to two cards. I'm going to start studying lightwave soon so I need a fast card and these two are in the range I can afford... which is max 140 pounds
if it helps....
Mboard = Asus P4V800-X
memory = 1gb ram
Leadtek WinFast A6600 TD nVidia GeForce 6600 8xAGP 128-bit 128MB DDR w/TV + DVI
GeForce 6800 features at midrange prices!
Features to the mainstream
Shader Model 3.0
UltraShadow II
Consumer Electronics Video
NVIDIA® PureVideo™ technology
Amazing Gameplay Performance and Image Quality
Drivers that pass WHQL
Leadtek Ultra Cooling System
Full-version Game Bundle(Prince of Persia & Splinter Cell)
Video-editing software bundle (WinDVD 5.0,WinFox II, Muvee)
Features
Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 support
Ensures top-notch compatibility and performance for all DirectX® 9 applications, including Shader Model 3.0 titles.
AGP 8X support
Provides double the bandwidth of AGP 4X—2.1GB/sec. vs. 1.1GB/sec. AGP 8X enables more complex models and detailed textures, creating richer and more lifelike environments. Uninterrupted data flow allows for smoother video streaming and faster more seamless gameplay.
NVIDIA® CineFX™ 3.0 engine
Powers the next generation of cinematic realism. Full support for Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 enables stunning and complex special effects. Next-generation shader architecture delivers faster and smoother game play.
NVIDIA® UltraShadow™ II technology
Enhances the performance of bleeding-edge games, like id Software’s Doom III, that feature complex scenes with multiple light sources and objects. Second-generation technology delivers more than 4x the shadow processing power over the previous generation.
NVIDIA® Intellisample™ 3.0 technology
The industry’s fastest antialiasing delivers ultra-realistic visuals, with no jagged edges, at lightning-fast speeds. Visual quality is taken to new heights through a new rotated grid sampling pattern.
NVIDIA® PureVideo™ technology
The combination of the new GeForce 6 Series GPUs' high-definition video processor and NVIDIA video decode software that delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and precise image scaling for all video content on any display
Integrated HDTV encoder
Provides world-class HDTV-out functionality up to and including 1920x1080i resolutions.
NVIDIA® ForceWare™ Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
Delivers rock-solid forward and backward compatibility with software drivers. Simplifies upgrading to a new NVIDIA product or driver because all NVIDIA products work with the same driver software.
NVIDIA® nView™ multi-display technology
Advanced technology provides the ultimate in viewing flexibility and control for multiple monitors.
NVIDIA® Digital Vibrance Control™ 3.0 technology
Allows the user to adjust color controls digitally to compensate for the lighting conditions of their workspace, in order to achieve accurate, bright colors in all conditions.
OpenGL® 1.5 optimizations and support
Ensures top-notch compatibility and performance for all OpenGL applications.
MSI FX5500-TD256 GeForce FX 5500 8xAGP 256MB DDR w/TV + DVI
GeforceFX 5500 Chipset Features
CineFX Shading Architecture
Support for DX 9.0 Pixel/Vertex Shader 2.0+.
Very long pixel programs up to 1024 instructions.
Very long vertex programs with up to 256 static instructions and up to 65536 instructions executed before termination.
Looping and subroutines with up to 256 loops per vertex program.
Subroutines in shader programs.
Dynamic flow control.
Conditional write masking.
Conditional execution.
Procedural shading.
Full instruction set for vertex and pixel programs.
Z-correct bump-mapping.
Hardware-accelerated shadow effects with shadow buffers.
Two-sided stencil.
Programmable matrix palette skinning.
Keyframe animation.
Custom lens effects: fish eye, wide angle, fresnel effects, water refraction.
High-Performance, High-Precision, 3D Rendering Engine
4 pixels per clock rendering engine.
128-bit, studio-quality floating point precision through the entire graphics pipeline
Native support for 128-bit floating point, 64-bit floating point and 32-bit integer rendering modes.
Up to 16 textures per pass.
Support for sRGB texture format for gamma textures.
DirectX and S3TC texture compression.
High-Performance 2D Rendering Engine
Optimized for 32-, 24-, 16-, 15- and 8-bpp modes.
True-color, 64x64 hardware cursor with alpha.
Multi-buffering (double, triple or quad) for smooth animation and video playback.
Intellisample Technology
Blistering-fast antialiasing performance.
Adaptive texture filtering.
Advanced loss-less compression algorithms for both color and Z data.
Fast Z-clear
Advanced Display Pipeline with Full nView Capabilities
Dual, 400MHz RAMDACs
Integrated NTSC/PAL TV encoder support resolutions up to 1024x768 without the need for panning with built-in Macrovision copy protection.
NVIDIA NVRotate™ application for advanced viewing flexibility
NVIDIA NVKeystone™ application for advanced display correction
Digital Vibrance control (DVC) 3.0
DVC color controls.
DVC image sharpening controls.
Operation Systems and API support
Windows® XP / 2000
Complete DirectX support, including DirectX 9.0 and lower.
Full OpenGL 1.4 and lower.
Compatibility
NVIDIA Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
Fully compliant professional OpenGL 1.4 API with NVIDIA extensions, on all Windows operating systems.
WHQL-certified for Windows® XP, Windows® 2000.
Bundle MSI developed software
MSI Live Update Series (Live VGA BIOS & Live VGA Driver)
Automatically online download & update VGA BIOS & Drivers, reduce the risk of getting the wrong files, and never have the trouble on web site searching.
GoodMem
Automatically release the system memory space, reduce the risk of system hang-up.
LockBox
Instantly enter the data lock mode when you must leave your system for a while.
WMIinfo
Automatically list the detail system configuration, it helpful for engineering service people.
ThinSoft BeTwin
MSI Secure DOC
E-Color
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Trend Micro PC-Cillin
Microsoft® DirectX 9.0
any help would be much appreciated cause i know this must be like a silly post....