New graphics card

[jericu]

I've been raised practically from birth to believe that if a game is available for PC, It'd be better for me to get the PC version instead of the console version. As much as I'd like to get brand-spanking-new games for my computer, it is unfortunately a piece of sh*t and will chug like mad if I try to play anything more graphically intensive than a Source engine game.

Actually, the thing chugs even when I play some of those, now that I think about it.

Anyway, I need to pop a new graphics card into my computer so Fallout 3 doesn't get jerky if I'm facing anything other than a single mole rat. I turn to the escapist community because (A) There's probably at least one person on here who knows something about graphics cards and which ones can run Crysis successfully, and (B) Every site about graphics cards either never tells me if the card is any good or tells me how good it is in an incredibly confusing manner.

If anyone needs to know, my current graphics card is an NVidia GeForce 9100.

Also, if anyone reads this and feels the urge to say anything, I do not exclusively play PC games. I own several gaming consoles and some of my favorite games are on the consoles. However, I do prefer a mouse and keyboard setup for certain games and genre's, like First Person Shooters.

EDIT: Whoops, forgot to mention a budget. I guess $300 or less, so I can get the money for it within a couple weeks.

 

[Valiance]

Err...I have a 9400GT and it runs fallout 3 fine (FOR ME), but since 1024x768 is apparently "nub," and most "pc gamers" need something like 2560x1600...

I highly recommend the 9800GTX, that's what my girlfriend has, and it can run FO3 beyond smoothly at 1440x900.

Oh, and it runs Crysis Warhead fine, and I didn't try the original Crysis on her machine.

But yeah, 9800GTX or Radeon 4650ish.

There are people here who will give you better reasoning behind all this, but I really just don't feel like saying much else rather than "Get one with at least GDDR3 memory"

 

[AthlonX2]

If you are willing to spend $130 I would get this card EVGA 9800gtx+ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130339 I don't know your budget so I don't know how much you're willing to spend. It will be able to play every game so far on max crysis, fall out 3, far cry 2 you name it and you get a great warranty, 24/7 customer service so yeah i'd get this if were you.

 

[crooked_ferret]

fallout 3 isn't that hard on graphics my 8800 gtx machine will run it maxed at 1600x1200 no sweat. The 9100 was a off model card, as is the 9400 GT. Tomshardware has some good benchmark results to browse through if you just want some ideas on performance.
Any direct question about graphics in my experience on forums will just degrade into a nvidia vs ATI fanboy fight.
Honestly bang for buck probably belongs to the ATI cards 200 bucks will get you a damn good one. I still personally believe Nvidia renders a better image though the price for their high end cards is noticeably higher.

 

[Emphraim]

Nvidia 9100? That card would be good for word documents. I'm surprised you can play any games with that. How much money are you willing to spend? For under $200 I recommend this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143140&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Video+Cards-_-BFG+Technologies-_-14143140

If you have more money to spend check out tomeshardware as they just did a review of extreme graphic cards.

If your on a budget I recommend: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130339

 

[grimsprice]

i run fallout 3 on a geforce 8400 256mb with no problems oh high settings. its enough for me but i'd like to upgrade. the only problem for me is i dont really feel comfortable ripping my laptop apart... i dont know why you'd have problems with a geforce 9100.

 

[koichan]

Just a quick question. Is your graphics card using a PCI-E 1.0 or PCI-E 2.0? If the former then you are going to need a new motherboard since most if not all current graphics cards are using PCI-E 2.0. I couldn't find your model on Nvidia's website so I couldn't tell ya.

PCIe 2.0 is backwards compatible

I'm running a 2.0 card on an older spec motherboard with no problems, the card just switches to the older standard with no noticeable slowdown.

Personally, i tend to go with ATI cards recently due to the horrible problems i've had with nvidia drivers in the past, but it's personal preference really.

I'd recommend going for a 4850 or above card myself.

 

[Horticulture]

I've been raised practically from birth to believe that if a game is available for PC, It'd be better for me to get the PC version instead of the console version. As much as I'd like to get brand-spanking-new games for my computer, it is unfortunately a piece of sh*t and will chug like mad if I try to play anything more graphically intensive than a Source engine game.

Actually, the thing chugs even when I play some of those, now that I think about it.

Anyway, I need to pop a new graphics card into my computer so Fallout 3 doesn't get jerky if I'm facing anything other than a single mole rat. I turn to the escapist community because (A) There's probably at least one person on here who knows something about graphics cards and which ones can run Crysis successfully, and (B) Every site about graphics cards either never tells me if the card is any good or tells me how good it is in an incredibly confusing manner.

If anyone needs to know, my current graphics card is an NVidia GeForce 9100.

Also, if anyone reads this and feels the urge to say anything, I do not exclusively play PC games. I own several gaming consoles and some of my favorite games are on the consoles. However, I do prefer a mouse and keyboard setup for certain games and genre's, like First Person Shooters.

EDIT: Whoops, forgot to mention a budget. I guess $300 or less, so I can get the money for it within a couple weeks.

What's the resolution of your monitor, and what are your other system specs? Run DxDiag if you aren't sure (start>run>type "dxdiag" and hit enter on XP, command prompt>type "dxdiag" and enter on Vista/7). Also, let us know what power supply or model of computer you have.

 

[jericu]

What's the resolution of your monitor, and what are your other system specs? Run DxDiag if you aren't sure (start>run>type "dxdiag" and hit enter on XP, command prompt>type "dxdiag" and enter on Vista/7). Also, let us know what power supply or model of computer you have.

Alright, lets see...
Model NP200AA-ABA a6720y from HP
6GB Ram
640 GB Hard Drive
AMD Phenom X4 9550 Quad-Core Processor(2.2 GHz)
1280x1024 Display (32-Bit)(60Hz)

 

[koichan]

What's the resolution of your monitor, and what are your other system specs? Run DxDiag if you aren't sure (start>run>type "dxdiag" and hit enter on XP, command prompt>type "dxdiag" and enter on Vista/7). Also, let us know what power supply or model of computer you have.

Alright, lets see...
Model NP200AA-ABA a6720y from HP
6GB Ram
640 GB Hard Drive
AMD Phenom X4 9550 Quad-Core Processor(2.2 GHz)
1280x1024 Display (32-Bit)(60Hz)

Okay, thats fairly decent.

In that case i'd recommend perhaps going to one of the more high-end cards: 4870/4890 1GB (or nvidia equivalent if you prefer) as you've got the rest of the PC to back it up.

Only potential problem is the PSU, but theres not really any way of checking what you do have without opening up your PC to check whats written on the PSU label.

Personally i'd say go for it, but be prepared to buy a new PSU if your PC becomes unstable/switches off under heavy loads, if it does that you'd probably need a bigger PSU (550-600Watt range probably)

 

[Horticulture]

Alright, lets see...
Model NP200AA-ABA a6720y from HP
6GB Ram
640 GB Hard Drive
AMD Phenom X4 9550 Quad-Core Processor(2.2 GHz)
1280x1024 Display (32-Bit)(60Hz)

According to ZDNet, your PC has a 300 watt PSU, which is too weak to run high-end graphics cards. If you have an extra 6-pin connector

you can probably run a Radeon 4770 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102835]-it doesn't need much additional power. The 4770 is plenty fast for Fallout and Source games at that resolution, even on their highest settings.

Otherwise, an upgrade to a quality Radeon 4870 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341017] is probably the best deal. If you can find an nVidia GTS 250 or 9800gtx+ for less than $100, consider it as a cheaper alternative. It's slower in general, but is nearly as fast with Fallout.

 

[dennyaaa]

ATI 4870 or the 4890 if you want like 15% better performance than the 4870 best card out there if you want some bang for your hard earned bucks ^^

 

[jericu]

Alright, lets see...
Model NP200AA-ABA a6720y from HP
6GB Ram
640 GB Hard Drive
AMD Phenom X4 9550 Quad-Core Processor(2.2 GHz)
1280x1024 Display (32-Bit)(60Hz)

According to ZDNet, your PC has a 300 watt PSU, which is too weak to run high-end graphics cards. If you have an extra 6-pin connector

you can probably run a Radeon 4770 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102835]-it doesn't need much additional power. The 4770 is plenty fast for Fallout and Source games at that resolution, even on their highest settings.

Otherwise, an upgrade to a quality Radeon 4870 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341017] is probably the best deal. If you can find an nVidia GTS 250 or 9800gtx+ for less than $100, consider it as a cheaper alternative. It's slower in general, but is nearly as fast with Fallout.

Wait, I can't even put a new graphics card to good use unless I buy a new PSU?

I hate pre-made computers. None of them are any good for gaming.

 

[Horticulture]

Wait, I can't even put a new graphics card to good use unless I buy a new PSU?

I hate pre-made computers. None of them are any good for gaming.

You can probably get a 4770 to run. But yeah, most prebuilts are pretty difficult to upgrade.

Edit: if you have no extra power connectors at all, you can still run a 4670 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102820]. It's not as fast as the other cards in this thread, but it's still a huge upgrade over a GF9100 and will run Fallout well enough, especially if you can live without AA and AF.

 

[jericu]

Wait, I can't even put a new graphics card to good use unless I buy a new PSU?

I hate pre-made computers. None of them are any good for gaming.

You can probably get a 4770 to run. But yeah, most prebuilts are pretty difficult to upgrade.

Edit: if you have no extra power connectors at all, you can still run a 4670 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102820]. It's not as fast as the other cards in this thread, but it's still a huge upgrade over a GF9100 and will run Fallout well enough, especially if you can live without AA and AF.

With my current PSU, would I be able to install 2 4770 cards or just one? I looked up the 4770 and the article said that dual 4770 can beat out a 4830, and a 4850 on some occasions, So I was just wondering.

 

[Horticulture]

With my current PSU, would I be able to install 2 4770 cards or just one? I looked up the 4770 and the article said that dual 4770 can beat out a 4830, and a 4850 on some occasions, So I was just wondering.

Your motherboard only has one PCI-e slot, so you can't install 2 cards. Your PSU wouldn't support it, at any rate. A lone 4770 performs between a 4830 and a 4850, though; two in crossfire are slightly faster than a 4890. Above a 4870, the clockspeed of your processor is probably going to limit game performance more than your video card will.

 

[jericu]

With my current PSU, would I be able to install 2 4770 cards or just one? I looked up the 4770 and the article said that dual 4770 can beat out a 4830, and a 4850 on some occasions, So I was just wondering.

Your motherboard only has one PCI-e slot, so you can't install 2 cards. Your PSU wouldn't support it, at any rate. A lone 4770 performs between a 4830 and a 4850, though; two in crossfire are slightly faster than a 4890.

Alright, cool. I'll probably pick up one of those. Thanks!

 

[Horticulture]

bleh I dont understand the MAX THAT OUT!!! impluse a few pc gamers have...im thankful for my gtx 280

You're running a $300 card and you don't max games out?

 

[crooked_ferret]

Idealist... I would go with 4 gigs of ram if at all possible within your budget.
Especially running vista or win 7. 2 gigs is only satisfactory in an xp gaming rig.

 

[Horticulture]

A need some help on this too.


Is: AMD® Athlon? X2 5200+ 2.7GHz Dual Core 2 x 512KB L2 Cache; Single 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 250; and a 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 2 x 1024MB good for a game rig?

This thread [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.105715] might help you out, especially if you're building yourself.

Like crooked ferret said, more RAM is a good call-it's pretty cheap, too.