Getting to play games on top settings

[SeanDeMarco]

At this time I know in my machine I have a card that is starting to show its age and well it is a Gforce 4 MX440 64 MB card ....... it is by Asus and well I wish that I could play newer games like Battlefield and in the future Doom 3 and various others at highest settings ... I can't afford a $600 card .... can someone please give me some direction ?

 

[Rage187]

6800 GT.

Please drive through.

 

[mynewrigissick]

go with a 5900XT http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1604 thats the one i have

 

[Matthias99]

Or a 9800Pro (IMO, a better investment than the 5900, since its SM2.0 performance is a lot better). Depends how much you want to spend, though...

here's some benchmarks with all three cards

 

[DrMindbender]

As high as you can go on the prev gen cards. I prefer the 5900's myself. But seriously, I hate to be cynical but I haven't seen any tests where games like battlefield or far cry will play more than 50~ fps at max resolution with anything other than a seriously overclocked or all the latest everything. It seems like game makers are letting their supremacy over movies get ahead of them by starting a total system upgrade trend for their products. But I hope it's shortlived and this is just a rough transition period.

 

[RussianSensation]

9800 for $199 (MSI RX9800 with 9800XT core)
6800GT for $389 (or $340 on Provantage's website)
X800XT for $500+ (the fastest card period)

Of course before you invest into a fast videocard, consider your other computer components like CPU, MOBO, RAM

the minimum you should have is Axp2500+, 512mb

Before investing into the latter 2 cards I've mentioned, it'd be best to have A64 3000+ or P4 3.0ghz+ and 1 gig of RAM.

Of course the videocard is the boss when it comes to gaming above all other components, considering your system meets the minimum requirement I stated above. Otherwise, you are just dropping extra $$$ on a videocard for nothing as your system will not take advantage of it.

No system out there now will play doom 3 at 1600x1200 4AA/16AF anyways so you cannot get to top setting because videocards do not have 512mb ram yet, cpus are not at 4000+ rating and 1.5+ gigs of RAM is not easy on the wallet.

If you tell us more about your system specs, we can help you find the videocard which will suit your computer the best.

Welcome to Anandtech!

 

[Delorian]

Originally posted by: Rage187
6800 GT.

Please drive through.

uh yeah huhuhuhuh would you like fries with that?

Um thank you drive through.:laugh:

Seriously though, thats one of the best values to be had right now, cept maybe the 9800 pro for more-budget minded folks. Like RS said be sure not to put a supercharger in a golf cart, you might as well buy a new system rather than a x800 xt pe if your current rig is not up to par.

 

[Marsumane]

What are your system specs? (processor + memory) You may not want the GT due to your other system not being able to utalize it fully.

 

[OnEMoReTrY]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

No system out there now will play doom 3 at 1600x1200 4AA/16AF anyways so you cannot get to top setting because videocards do not have 512mb ram yet, cpus are not at 4000+ rating and 1.5+ gigs of RAM is not easy on the wallet.

I find it hard to believe you can say that seeing how the game isn't even out yet and there has only been one review which may or may not be credible. Also 512MB of ram would not be required if compression techniques such as 3Dc were used.

 

[jim1976]

Resolutions you play at, is an important factor too. IMO with a 9800pro you could do 1024x768 or even 1280x960/1024 with max settings even in the future games.
But if you want to go all the way up with full AA/AF then a new gen gpu will definately be needed for future games.
Anyway with anything equilevant or higher to a 9800pro you will see major differences from your current card.