budget vid card for BF2 @ high resolution

[forbin]

so i just found out that some awesome person just made a "hack" to make BF2 playable in real 16:9 resolutions, thus reviving my interest in the game. I dont think my current card (x800xl) will really satisfy me at my monitor's resolution of 1920x1080, so I'm looking for a CHEAP upgrade. Ive been out of the hardware loop for a couple years now, so I look to you for advice.

What is the cheapest card I can get that will SMOKE BF2 at 1920x1080 with highest quality settings? PCI-express, dont want DX10, a HDCP might be nice if I decide to upgrade to a blueray drive.

thank you for your input

 

[forbin]

oh, i should add that my PS is an Antec Truepower 430W.

 

[MyLeftNut]

You have a few choices, go for whichever you can find cheapest.
9600gso (rebadged 8800gs)
9600gt

I think these cards can be had for $100 during sales or rebates.

 

[ther00kie16]

Umm... I'm not sure why you can't play at your desired resolution. The "hack" you speak of works for all EA games (I think) and just stretches the game out so it's not true widescreen. I use it on my athlon xp 3200 downclocked to 1.6GHz and 9800pro to play BF2 @ 1920x1200 (all settings low though) without any video lag. So I suggest at least trying (maybe with some overclocking) to see if your current hardware will run at your preferred settings.
If you really want to upgrade, however, try the 8800gs for $90 after rebate (includes a free game as well) which has similar performance level as the $120 after rebate 9600gt.

 

[imported_Woody]

Originally posted by: forbin
so i just found out that some awesome person just made a "hack" to make BF2 playable in real 16:9 resolutions, thus reviving my interest in the game.

This isn't a big deal, you've been able to do this for some time but it won't give you an advantage in the game. What it does is effectively "crop" the top and bottom of the screen rather than actually stretch the image so you actually see less than your opponent playing on a 4:3 screen. The truth sucks but I tested this personally by standing in one spot and taking screenshots in each aspect ratio then comparing them. I even posted the results on another forum.

This game is nearly dead, there aren't many good servers left and they're all pretty much infantry only. I'm not complaining, I love this game and still play it often, maybe you're seen me on some of the servers. My 640MB 8800GTS plays it at 1600x1200 with everything maxed out without dropping below 100 frames per second.

What is the cheapest card I can get that will SMOKE BF2 at 1920x1080 with highest quality settings? PCI-express, dont want DX10, a HDCP might be nice if I decide to upgrade to a blueray drive.

thank you for your input

Your best choices IMO are the NVidia 9600GT or the 8800GT. AMD (ATi) HD3870 cards will also serve you well but they don't seem to perform quite as well. You could spend less but you'll make performance sacrifices even in BF2. I'm not sure what your CPU is but BF2 isn't multi threaded for dual cores so it probably doesn't matter.

The 8800GT will perform slightly better but the 9600GT has better HD support and probably scales better should you decide to run in normal aspect on a widescreen monitor. Prices are about the same.

All these cards support DX10 these days. They are all relatively low power consumption and won't stress your system.

The nice thing about these cards is they're also powerful enough to play Call of Duty 4 at high resolutions and maxed out (assuming you have a fast enough dual core CPU) and that's the game where most of the old BF2 players have moved on to.

 

[JAG87]

no he is probably talking about widescreen fixer, which produces true widescreen with bf2.

OP, my personal suggestion is a 9600 gt. Great power in games, and purevideo 2, which I am sure concerns you with a 1080 screen.

 

[forbin]

thanks for the feedback so far guys, it looks like the 8800 or 9600 series are my best bet. really need to stay below $100, and the lower the better. maybe i should peek at the used hardware forums and see whats floating around there. my x800xl does play the bf2 demo smoothly on medium settings, but i remember the full version not getting the same fps (i dont have it installed atm). also i figured that the Forgotten Hope mod would stress my system more than vanillla.

and yes of course i am referring to the widescreen fixer that JAG mentioned, i was running the -vert cropped version from day 1 which sucked. really looking forward to playing with a full FOV.

and really not many people are playing it anymore? i would have thought it would still be going strong. i have COD4 on the 360 and, imo, theres no comparison in replayability and fun factor.

 

[angry hampster]

8800GS wouldbe fine as well. BF2 isn't that much of a taxing game.

 

[ROEHUNTER]

Originally posted by: Woody
This game is nearly dead, there aren't many good servers left and they're all pretty much infantry only.

? I always show quite a number of servers and have never had a problem finding non-infantry ones.

I am actually quite amazed at how long the game is lasting. Still alot of fun.

 

[idiotekniQues]

Originally posted by: ROEHUNTER

Originally posted by: Woody
This game is nearly dead, there aren't many good servers left and they're all pretty much infantry only.

? I always show quite a number of servers and have never had a problem finding non-infantry ones.

I am actually quite amazed at how long the game is lasting. Still alot of fun.

the draw of good squad based games is timeless!

this is why i play 2142, nothin beats hoppin in a squad with some mates and coordinating attacks and defense.

this is where cod4 fell flat on its face. that and small maps.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: ROEHUNTER

Originally posted by: Woody
This game is nearly dead, there aren't many good servers left and they're all pretty much infantry only.

? I always show quite a number of servers and have never had a problem finding non-infantry ones.

I am actually quite amazed at how long the game is lasting. Still alot of fun.

Same here. There are hundreds of servers with vehicles. The game pretty much pwns any FPS game out there including COD4 or BF2142.

 

[forbin]

played a bunch last night, seemed to be lot of servers running, not as many as in 2005, but still a lot.

and for those of you all with widescreen monitors i highly suggest trying the widescreen fixer, much much better than the zoom/crop i played with for years before. no more tunnel vision, kinda like an old person having their glaucoma cured (woody and therookie, check it out, you wont be dissapointed) google: widescreen fixer

as for a new card, im leaning towards the 8800gs. newegg has it for 90 after rebate. was hoping to find something cheaper, but this should be more than enough for my needs at the moment. plus it should help if i grab a blueray
disk drive once they hit $100. this is off original topic, but playing blueray on a computer uses CPU and GPU accelleration, right?

any other suggestions?

 

[ther00kie16]

i was going to try it but before i got started my lcd started panning horizontally for 1920x1200 because only 1600x1200 was displayed (4:3 stretched to 16:10 mysteriously). this happened on vga but dvi worked just fine. any ideas what can be the cause of this?

 

[imported_Woody]

Hey I wasn't criticizing the game....I love BF2 and played for a couple hours just last night. Maybe I have the infantry only filter turned on....I'll check. The server browser in BF2 is the worst.

I really hope they make a PC version of "Bad Company" or at least a new BF game with updated graphics and destructible environments.

I have a 4:3 1600x1200 monitor so I won't be taking advantage of the widescreen fix but I'll check it out.

 

[uclaLabrat]

I read BF3 was scheduled to beta over the summer, hopefully it'll be out by xmas...not sure if it got pushed back though. The trailer I saw was pretty bad-ass...think COD4 graphics, destructible environments, and BF2 gameplay. I'm waiting to see if EA doesn't manage to bork this one, but I have hopes!

 

[SirJangly]

Anyone having issues with this game on vista? I am!!!!

 

[uclaLabrat]

Originally posted by: SirJangly
Anyone having issues with this game on vista? I am!!!!

such as?

 

[Budarow]

Originally posted by: uclaLabrat
I read BF3 was scheduled to beta over the summer, hopefully it'll be out by xmas...not sure if it got pushed back though. The trailer I saw was pretty bad-ass...think COD4 graphics, destructible environments, and BF2 gameplay. I'm waiting to see if EA doesn't manage to bork this one, but I have hopes!

I love BF2...the coop is great fun for a bunch of peeps over a LAN.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: SirJangly
Anyone having issues with this game on vista? I am!!!!

Vista 64 would constantly crash for me with this game few months back. I switched over vistax86 and been playing it ever since.

 

[ther00kie16]

Originally posted by: Azn

Originally posted by: SirJangly
Anyone having issues with this game on vista? I am!!!!

Vista 64 would constantly crash for me with this game few months back. I switched over vistax86 and been playing it ever since.

dunno why. i was just at a lan that had vist 32 and vist 64 machines and they all ran bf2 (latest patch) fine.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

deleting your profile from your documents folder helps.