Questions on upgrading my video card....

[rudeguy]

Right now I use an 8500GT in my bedroom PC. Its mainly used for watching TV via my tuner card.

I'd like to upgrade to an HD tuner. My concern is that my computer already locks up occasionally for a couple seconds when watching TV. Its bearable now but I'm concerned that if I upgrade to HD, it will get worse.

I would also like to be able to play Battlefield Bad Company 2. The only other game I play is the original Battlefield, so obviously this setup is fine for that.

So is the 8500GT enough to handle this?

System specs (top of my head, so could be wrong)

Asus M2A HDMI mobo
AMD X2 cpu @ 2.something
4 gigs RAM
320 gig main HD
1TB storage
450 PSU
23" Acer 1080p

 

[ModestGamer]

Whats the budget. there are a ton of great cards in the market.

 

[InfoTiger]

You need a new CPU too.

 

[happy medium]

You need a new CPU too.

this^^^^^^

 

[rudeguy]

You need a new CPU too.

why?

I'm in sales, so I prefer features and benefits.

 

[happy medium]

BF2 needs a fast core 2 . Thats the minimum requirements for the game.
It recommends a quad core.
Unfortunatly you have a much slower Athlon x2.

It might run ok for you.
Don't spend anything more then $80 fo a new gpu unless you gonna upgrade your entire system real soon.
A used 8800gt/8800gts 512/ or a hd4830/ hd4770 is what I suggest if you wanna give BF2 a try.

 

[bryanW1995]

feature: fast bc2 playing
benefit: you won't waste as much time watching the bad guys SLLLLLLLLOOOOWWWWWLLLLLLYYYYYYY frag you if you have quad core cpu and a better video card.

sorry, couldn't resist.

according to this, you can dump in anything up to and including a phenom II x4 945. might need to update your bios, but there are a LOT of choices for you. spend anything from $50-$200 and you'll be very happy you did. then go for a good video card on top of it and you'll be playing bfbc2 to your heart's content.

wow, asus really doesn't want you to know which cpus you can dump into their mobos. I've been through this many times over the years, sheesh.

ok, after going through 10-15 google links finally found it.

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=M2A-MX&product=1&os=17

definitely ok, need bios 5001 for phenom II support, you can get up to 945. the mobo will work with the 965 as well, but they are very cautious of that 125 w cpu. if nothing else your oc'ing might be limited on any of the phenon II quads.

 

[Ken g6]

As far as TV tuners go, I wouldn't worry too much about your specs for that. I have a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 950 that I've had for a couple of years or so. I can watch and record 720P video on my old Pentium-M 1.5GHz single-core laptop, with an equally old Intel graphics chipset. It doesn't do so well recording 1080i, but that's mainly due to the Hauppauge software. Recording on my Linux desktop with Kaffeine takes an unnoticeable amount of CPU; it's playing back that takes some work. And I've been able to play back 1080i video on my laptop recently, with the latest VLC. So if you could find some software that will just write the raw stream to disk, and play it back with VLC, I'm pretty sure your current setup could handle it. I think VLC could even play the recorded part of the video as it's recording!

 

[happy medium]

definitely ok, need bios 5001 for phenom II support, you can get up to 945. the mobo will work with the 965 as well, but they are very cautious of that 125 w cpu. if nothing else your oc'ing might be limited on any of the phenon II quads.

Good call Bryan...

I'd go for this 95 watt phenom II 945 @3.0 ghz. $140
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103809

and if you can still afford it, a gtx 460 1gb. $220

That should get you high settings at your resolution.

or save a few bucks and go for a 5770 for about $140, that still should get you med settings and a good framerate.

 

[Cerb]

I'd like to upgrade to an HD tuner. My concern is that my computer already locks up occasionally for a couple seconds when watching TV. Its bearable now but I'm concerned that if I upgrade to HD, it will get worse.

On that subject: get a Hauppauge. When everybody else is bitching about theirs not working in the new Windows, MythTV, or Linux kernel versions, yours will still be trucking along. Aver is OK, too, but Hauppauge cards have such a low price premium these days.

You shouldn't have freezes, though. Maybe it's time for an OS re-install?

 

[rudeguy]

On that subject: get a Hauppauge. When everybody else is bitching about theirs not working in the new Windows, MythTV, or Linux kernel versions, yours will still be trucking along. Aver is OK, too, but Hauppauge cards have such a low price premium these days.

You shouldn't have freezes, though. Maybe it's time for an OS re-install?

I'm currently pimping a Haupage non-hd card. Zero complaints other than the MS drivers suck for it. Haupage's drivers are great though.

I'm on a very fresh install of Vista. I've been formatting a ton lately since I like to play around with different stuff.

I did figure out that the freezing is related to my computer more than my card. For instance if I fire up AllShare while Media Center is going, MC freezes for a second. Or if something starts up in the background, it freezes up for a second as well.

I'm really trying to keep this from being a complete rebuild. 90% of the time this rig is just a TV. Maybe once a week I'll watch a DVD on it. I do use it frequently for modding my cell phone. So 90% of the time its a TV, 9% I'm running a command line and 1% I'm playing a game.

My question was simply would BFBC2 work on this setup?

 

[cusideabelincoln]

No, I would not count on BC2 working. The processor meets the minimum requirements, but the video card is far below it. If you turn down the res and all settings maybe you'll get playable framerates, but the game wouldn't be enjoyable really. You would need to upgrade the video card.