People make too much of a fuss of "good" video cards.

[AncientPC]

I see the reason why I should spend $200+ anymore for a video card.

I can get a nice Geforece 2 MX for about $100.

People have really nice video cards, but crappy monitors. Isn't it true where 80hz = 80fps? So if you're running a game at 100fps, it gets limited to 80fps because of the monitor. Just run a timedemo with Quake 3 Arena and you'll notice that your fps doesn't get above your monitor refresh rate.

Also, doesn't the human eye only register about 40 - 50fps? People who say they can tell a difference between 80fps and 100fps are the same to me as those who claim to hear the difference between 256kbps and 320kbps mp3 encoding.

 

[thirdlegstump]

When you're playing a networked game with 10 people on the screen at once, you're gonna wish you had those unperceivable extra 20fps. Oh yea, what about the games that will be coming out with richer graphics that require even more horsepower? Hmm, I guess you'll be stuck at 15fps while everyone else has 35fps. About the monitor refresh thing, if you turn off V-Sync, you'll get more fps than you're monitor's limit. Question is, what's the point? Well, if your pc drops a frame right after the frame your monitor refreshes, you've lost 2 frames. That results in a slight stutter.

 

[nsxdemon]

It's not only the raw fps rates...fps drops quite a bit whenever a new terrain is encountered (I've always noticed this and it gets at me eventually). When you're running at 80 maybe 90 fps and all of a sudden a totally new terrain hits in and your fps drops to around 30 or so, you'll be missing some frames and could screw up your game (especially if you play or used to play nfs4 or nfs5...can't run into the wall at the last turn and expect to still win)

 

[Verygreedy]

Well I agree somewhat..

I think 150$ is about the most I will spend for a card. If you spend over 200$ on a video card and you have a 500mhz computer or less and a crappy monitor.. I agree.. that is just stupid. People just get power hungry. Getting those 5 more FPS on a new card is worth spending the cash? I think not.

But I do think that since I own a Voodoo 3 .. I should upgrade soon. My other componets in my box are much better.. I like the specs on the new KyroII.. 149$ .. pretty cost effective!

 

[PliotronX]

The objective for achieving really high framerates is so that the framerate remains consistent. Consistency is very, very important in FPS games. Another reason is that down the line when newer games are released and take advantage of the extra performance, the eye candy will be worth it.

However there are exceptions. I'm talking of the GF3 Unless people still have a pre TnT2, there's no reason to spend $500 on a GF3 at this point (except of course bragging rights, and it's documented that having at least a moderate ego is important in maintaining healthy sanity).

 

[esung]

I agree.. Quite a few people I know where frame rate obsessive.. and I tend to agree that it's obsurd to spend 300+ or even 200+ for a video card just for eye candy (sometimes it's not even that). IMHO Most of the problem is still on the software design. the game developers are just lazy to optimize or even coding their stuff, all they do is rely on the hardware speed to save the day. That FR08 demo demostrated good coding skills.


Here is article discuss about frame rates.