Need help deciding on a vid card for the GF

[nick1985]

Hello AT, its been over a year since I last posted. Many of you may not remember me, but for those who do whats up?!?!?

Anywho, heres the scoop, Im graduating college here in a few days(been to busy to post on AT till now ), and me and my GF decided we want to move away from wow ($900 for my account cha-ching), and we want to play some good ol BF2. Now my rig is still pretty smoking even though i bought it so long ago, but hers is in need of a video card upgrade.

she has:

AMD 3000
2*512 Mushkin 3200
ATI 9600 non-pro (plays WoW ok, but lacking for BF2)
Antec true-power 330 watt
Couple standard hard drives/Cd roms


Im looking for something in the $100-$200 range, something that will offer a great bang-for the buck. Also I forgot to mention that noise is also an issue, part of the reason why she has the non-pro is because its fanless. Now Im not saying she needs fanless video card, but one without a jet-engine cooler would be good


Thanks guys and I hope to get back into the posting here on AT!

 

[coolpurplefan]

I've looked into the fanless HIS X1650 XT iSilence II and the Power Color X1950 Pro (forgot the exact name). In any case, I found the X1950 Pro with passive cooling was way more expensive. So, even though I'm in Canada, I ordered a HIS X1650 XT from case-mod.com

I'm sure I'll probably want to upgrade once Unreal Tournament 3 comes out so that's one of the reasons I got the X1650 XT. It's good enough to play UT2004 and BF2.

And as far as power consumption goes, I might lean more towards the HIS X1650 XT simply because that 330 watt power supply is about as much as the system might take under full load. You'd have some power to spare but not much. The X1950 Pro might put too much of a burden on that PSU.

The expected time of arrival for my video card is June 8, 2007 so I can't comment on its performance yet although I've seen enough benchmarks. It's like getting three quarters of a X1950 Pro for two thirds the price. (Something like that anyway, I mean for the passively-cooled video cards.)

 

[secretanchitman]

x1600/x1650 or a 7600GT/8600GT.

you could even get her a 256MB 7950GT if you really wanted some nice performance.

 

[nick1985]

Should also mention its an AGP 4x/8x slot

 

[Flammable]

hell, with that 900$ upgrade everything

 

[swtethan]

1950pro

and a gig of ram

 

[magomago]

holy moly i remember you xD

I don't know much of ATI since their *nix support is next to nothing so I have only nvidia based experience

but for nvidia go either 7600GT/7900GS. I wouldn't get the 7800GS as its pretty big and sucks power like crazy, and apparently there are a few issues with the cards and some computers.
I have a 7600GT AGP and its a very small fan on it that doesn't make a lot of noise, and it runs games well. As for BF2 I have no idea, but I would think 1024*768 would be fine, probably even higher as well...
I just know that as far as nvidia is concerned, the 7600GT or a 7900GS (they actually did bring them over) is the best you will find...as I ended up getting a 7600GT so my rig late last year so I can last as long as possible

an after thought might be more ram, and potentially try to overclock. BF2 is a ram hog, and if you could try to jump up to 1.5 Gigs that would help quite a bit


or realistically buy the 7600GT for yourself, and give her the 6800GT ~ it'll be a huge performance boost for her as compared with a std 9600, and the 7600GT walks over the 6800GT

edit:

graduating eh? I still got one more year to go, although it'll be my 5th year What is/are your degree/s in, and what are you plans afterwards ?

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: swtethan
1950pro

and a gig of ram

:thumbsup:

Wazzup Nick!!

Ladies and Gents. This is the lad who coined the phrase, "Get hit by a bus.".

Ahh, memories.. LOL

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: swtethan
1950pro

and a gig of ram

:thumbsup:

Wazzup Nick!!

Ladies and Gents. This is the lad who coined the phrase, "Get hit by a bus.".

Ahh, memories.. LOL

who can forget?
--anyway ... x1950p ... and more RAM

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: swtethan
1950pro

and a gig of ram

:thumbsup:

Wazzup Nick!!

Ladies and Gents. This is the lad who coined the phrase, "Get hit by a bus.".

Ahh, memories.. LOL

PEOPLE REMEMBER ME!!! ZOMG

:beer:

 

[nick1985]

As far as more RAM goes, I dont know how cost efficient that would be. Her mobo has 3 RAM slots, and 2 are taken up by 512 sticks. Would a 1gb stick work well with the other 2 sticks? Just seems kind of odd like that.


damn im such a newb now...what happened????

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: nick1985
As far as more RAM goes, I dont know how cost efficient that would be. Her mobo has 3 RAM slots, and 2 are taken up by 512 sticks. Would a 1gb stick work well with the other 2 sticks? Just seems kind of odd like that.


damn im such a newb now...what happened????

Just means it's not dual channel. 1GB should be fine. Whats the mobo model?

Just check to see if it supports 1GB modules.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Don't focus on the noise the stock cooler makes as you can easily add a VF 700-Cu to the mix for little more $

X1950GT $161 shipped

VF 700-Cu $34 shipped

Grand total $195 shipped and it's fast and silent

If you need more ram there are tons of people on the FS/FT forum with 2gb kits of decent PC3200 for arround $100 shipped.