The average card.

[Sightless Wisdom]

Lately I've been looking at upgrading my PC's graphics card. See it has a crappy integrated chipset that is equivilant to something around a GeForce 6000. I need something around the GTX 200 range. But it got me thinking, are PC games getting more demanding in comparison with the price of graphics cards?

I checked the pricing on the highest possible quality of Nvidia card, and it ends up somewhere around 400-500 dollars USD(I'm Canaadian so yaay I get to pay MORE). That's out of my budget for the time being so I went down about 5 notches on the scale to a card costing about 200. This is likely what I'll buy, but that will also mean buying a new power source and case for PC. So I got to wondering...what is the average card of PC gamers?

So my question is just that, what card are you using? Also what do you think about the pricing of cards relative to what you need to play the average game being released today?

 

[Shuvy]

I dont really understand the whole deal in this. I pretty computer illertate, but what's the deal wiith computer graphic cards? surely the computer becomes obsolete by it's processor speed before it's graphic card? It's not really a n issue for me, i use An apple comp that came with a decent one ( is ATI,RadeonHD2600 a good one? the only games that ever presented a problem was cryisis, and supreme commanders a little bit.)

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

The thing is, as long as you have purchased a computer withing the past maybe 5 years, your processor should be ok. Where as graphics cards improve tons every year, causing the need for frequent upgrade.

 

[thiosk]

Always buy video cards in the last generation. Todays games need yesterday's graphics cards.

i have a core i7 with a 9800gtx+.

I STRONGLY recommend doing a 9 series card over a 200 series card at this time
when the 3 series cards are out, I will recommend getting a 200 series card. New motherboards also support SLI, often, so you can pick up a second, identical card for super cheap and run both of them.

The graphics cards seem to cycle on a 3-6 month period in price-- the 9800gtx+ i got was 170ish in Jan. and they are running for ~110 now.

 

[Shuvy]

okay. btw, how do you mean average game? like, define? because you could say theres the upper limits like crysis orr sup com, or pretty much everything else.

 

[XSA37]

I gots me a nVidia GeForce 7600 or something like that. It keeps up pretty well. Its the rest of my computer that is the problem.

 

[AbuFace]

Lately I've been looking at upgrading my PC's graphics card. See it has a crappy integrated chipset that is equivilant to something around a GeForce 6000. I need something around the GTX 200 range. But it got me thinking, are PC games getting more demanding in comparison with the price of graphics cards?

I checked the pricing on the highest possible quality of Nvidia card, and it ends up somewhere around 400-500 dollars USD(I'm Canaadian so yaay I get to pay MORE). That's out of my budget for the time being so I went down about 5 notches on the scale to a card costing about 200. This is likely what I'll buy, but that will also mean buying a new power source and case for PC. So I got to wondering...what is the average card of PC gamers?

So my question is just that, what card are you using? Also what do you think about the pricing of cards relative to what you need to play the average game being released today?

The 'average' card is probably around a geforce 8800/9800 GT or radeon 4850. Those are decent cards that will run any current game, and they don't cost much more than $100.
The pricing of cards is fine, as there are lots of low range cards for people who don't game, lots of mid to upper range cards for gamers who don't want to break the bank (this the big category), and there are a few monstrously high end cards for people who sleep on piles of money.

If you were looking for recommendations on graphics cards, tell us a little bit more about your computer. In order of importance...

1) How much money were you thinking of spending on the new case/PSU/GPU?
2) What processor do you have?
3) What monitor resolution do you use?

Get back to us with that information and we can give you some decent recommendations from there.

I heard the best time to buy is shortly after april when the new cards are released and you can grab the old(er) ones cheap.

That's half correct =P

Shopping for a graphics card right after a new generation of cards has been released does indeed give you some great deals on the "older" cards. But that doesn't necessarily happen in April, it's just whenever they finish with the new generation. ATI and Nvidia have said they intend to release their new series of cards in September/October.

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

Yeah I already essentially know what card I'm getting, I'm not looking for advice I'm making somewhat of a poll, just to see what most people are using.

 

[Horticulture]

Steam releases the results of their hardware survey [http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/videocard/] publicly. Slightly bigger data set than you'll get on the Escapist

So my question is just that, what card are you using? Also what do you think about the pricing of cards relative to what you need to play the average game being released today?

Using an old version GTX 260 alongside a Core 2 Duo @ 3.2 gHz.

Pricing of cards seems pretty good (though I'd never complain if they were cheaper), especially compared to ~2 years ago when ATi had no answer to nVidia's 8800GTX and pricing was $300+ for a high-end card. The requirements to simply run games (at medium resolution without filters or maxing every setting) are very manageable with a $50-100 card.

The biggest gripe I have is the miserable performance of integrated graphics in both desktops and laptops. The newer nVidia and ATi integrated sets will at least support light gaming, but the legendary shittiness of Intel's integrated graphics really does PC gaming a disservice. Is it so hard to make an IGP that can run a 5-year-old engine (Source or Doom 3) on low settings, Intel?

 

[AdambotLive]

8800gts 640mb.

Roughly $110, it's £70 over here in GBP.

 

[j0z]

I have an nVidia 8500GT 256mb, and it playes Oblivion, max settings, w/ low poly grass @ 1680x1050 10-15 FPS. Ep 2 on similar settings at about 12.
I am personally holding out and builing my computer after the DX10 cards come out and the prices go down.