Need two new video cards to play Generals?

[jhouston]

I want to upgrade the video cards on two lan machines so we can run Command & Conquer Generals.

Will either one of the cards I have listed cause a cpu bottleneck?



Geforce Ti4200 128MB

or

ATI 9500 Pro?



My current lan machine specs:

ASUS TUSL2-C
Intel PIII 1.2 GHZ
256 PC133 (CL=2) (upgrade to 512mb)
20GB 60GXP ATA100
Matrox G450 32MB

 

[razor2025]

both cards will be bottlenecked by your CPU. If you're planning to play C&C Generals only (in other words upgrading for this game only), then you should get a Radeon 8500LE or 9100 series video card (or GF3 Ti500 as equvilant for nVidia). I would recommend a major overhaul of your CPU/MOBO/RAM. Generals is rather demanding game where it requires a rather high standard for CPU and Video card.

 

[optimistic]

I'd get an Radeon 9100 128mb for $83 (Allstarshop) and spend the $50 you saved on more ram. But I can't imagine the 1.2 being too much a bottleneck, it's still a good chip.

 

[JBT]

A 1.2 would easily slow down the card from its potential. I have a XP1700 @ XP2000 and it is slowed down a bit I would say these type of cards need atleast 2Ghz to run at FULL potential IMHO

 

[Schadenfroh]

i dont think you will need that much. our Rage Pro at school runs it. It has a good CPU tho (like most computers today, AWESOME cpu and SUCKY GPU) But my geforce4 TI here at homes kicks butt with it. I would reccommend a card that has hardware TnL geforce 1 maybe or above. and to answer your last question a TI4200 and a 9500 will cause your CPU to be a bottleneck. the card for your system IMO would be a Geforce3 TI200 or even a geforce2 TI.

 

[T9D]

..

 

[Shade4ever]

Yes, that CPU will cause issues...I was running a 1.33 Athlon T-bird w/ a standard GF3, and getting much lag in single player. Upgraded to an Athlon 2600+ and lag went away...although the cards might help, what those machines really need are new processors, at least for Generals.

 

[jhouston]

I thought I could get buy with a ram upgrade and the Geforce4 Ti4200 instead I decided to build that XP Pro Machine I have been putting off.

I decided I would be selfish and build another machine. Leaving my other machines alone!



Asus P4PE/R/L/F/SATA 845PE P4 (533FSB) Skt478 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, LAN, RAID/Serial ATA Retail

Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 Processor (Northwood) 2.4BGHz, 533MHz FSB, Socket 478 Retail

Crucial Technology CT6464Z335 512MB DDR333 PC2700 Memory

Asus Geforce4 Ti4200 128MB


Thanks for the advice!

 

[xSauronx]

doh
wrong thread...man do i feel stupid when i do that