Best video card for 845PE system?

[Afro000Dude]

My system is about three years old, and is beginning to show its age in games like D3 and HL2. I can't even play BF2... so I was wondering if a video card upgrade would be worth it for this system, or if an entirely new system is in order. The fan is dying on my video card, too, so that's my excuse for upgrading.

I was considering one of the $160 6800's, but not if it will be bottlenecked by the cpu and ram. Would another card be a better match for my setup?

Specs:

P4 2.4B@2.88
512MB Buffalo pc3200 @426 (would be upgraded as well to a gig)
GeForce4 Ti4400 @ 300/600

 

[UsandThem]

I would get a 6600Gt card. Many are around $150.00 after MIR.

 

[thegimp03]

Well...the card will be bottlenecked, but that's still a decent proc. For 160 the 6800nu will blow anything else away. The performance of a 6800 is quite a bit better than a 6600gt, and only marginally more expensive, especially considering that you can unlock the pipelines and stuff.

 

[mettleh3d]

your processor will hold you back if anything. I can't believe you played D3 and HL2. how were those?! Hiccups?

 

[Kogan]

You don't need a high end processor to play new games - they're all video limited, not cpu limited.

Anyhow, I've got a 2.2ghz AMD XP system and previously had a geforce4 ti4200 and upgraded it to a 6800nu. Runs everything at 1280x1024 with aa/af on excellently.

The memory on these cards is usually severely under-clocked with my stock settings at 325(core)700mem, and it maxing out overclocking at 385/930 (actually, I started to get scared that my memory went so high and didn't try past 930 🙂 )

With overclocking and successful unlocking and just slightly better cooling than stock, you can get as much as a 33% performance increase which is entering 6800GT territory.

Excellent deal for $160 - I'd recommend it over the 6600gt any day.

Downside is that these cards run hot. So if you've got a cramped case with bad airflow, consider some of the x800 series cards, although you won't find a radeon this fast for $160..

Edit: and I'd like to say that I normally keep my card at stock clock/mem settings since I'm not really a hard-core gamer 🙂

 

[happy medium]

Look at my system. After weeks of research i'm grabbing a 6800 also. Upgrading from a ti4400. It's slightly bottlenecked with the 6800 but thats ok

 

[Afro000Dude]

Originally posted by: mettleh3d
your processor will hold you back if anything. I can't believe you played D3 and HL2. how were those?! Hiccups?

D3 ran decently at 10x7 or 8x6 on low or medium settings iirc; HL2 ran at 12x10 i think, medium settings. Playable until I got to areas where there were more than 3-4 enemies, at which point I got frustrated and stopped playing.

Originally posted by: Ultramags
Look at my system. After weeks of research i'm grabbing a 6800 also. Upgrading from a ti4400. It's slightly bottlenecked with the 6800 but thats ok

I want to hear how that works out for you 😀 Sounds like we're in the same boat.