Upgrade Suggestions

[Aidenn]

I am currently looking for a video card upgrade on a budget. My system is a 2.6GHz p4 with 1GB of ram, I am looking to play EverQuest2 and possibly Half-Life2. My current video card is the original ATI all in wonder Radeon (32MB).

I have an older machine that I can put this in for the A/V features, so my upgrade just needs to be able to play games. The fact that I am currently on a fairly tight budget, coupled with the fact that if trends continue my next machine will hace a PCIe card means that I want the cheapest card that will give me acceptable performance. I am more familiar with ATI, but am not averse to an nVidia card. I would like to spend under $100, but am willing to spend up to $150 if neccesary.

I will be purchasing this card within the next week or so. Any advice you all might have would be very helpful.

Thanks!

 

[Fern]

Hi Aidenn and Welcome to the forums!

If your not adverse to refrubs or used, look for an 9700pro or 9800 pro (128MB of ram with a 256 bit interface). Don't think new 9800 pro can be had for $150, but you may find one for sale at that price point.

Otherwise look for a 9600 pro. You can find a new one in your budget.

Fern

 

[RussianSensation]

9700 non-pro or 9700Pro can be found for $140-160 online if you search pricewatch.com

Otherwise, just get 9600 Pro for $106 if you are really on a tight budget.

 

[Rhagz]

And none of those cards will run EQ2 worth a damn.. you have be prepared to shell out serious bucks to get a video card that will run it with halfway decent settings.

 

[Aidenn]

Se even a 9700Pro won't have the power I need?

 

[Mrvile]

I don't know about Everquest but those cards will have a hard time running Half Life 2. Your best bet is an X700PRO radeon or a Geforce 6600GT, both for around 200 bucks. They are also both PCIe (and only PCIe), so make sure you have a PCIe motherboard (although this should be easy since you have an Intel)

 

[Machine350]

Originally posted by: Mrvile
I don't know about Everquest but those cards will have a hard time running Half Life 2. Your best bet is an X700PRO radeon or a Geforce 6600GT, both for around 200 bucks. They are also both PCIe (and only PCIe), so make sure you have a PCIe motherboard (although this should be easy since you have an Intel)

But if not, AGP versions should be out very soon, hopefully sometime this month.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: Aidenn
Se even a 9700Pro won't have the power I need?

I don't play EQ2 but I've got a hard time believeing a 9700p won't play it worth a damn. And we don't really know how it might do HL2. Nobodys played it yet!

Most peeps (but not hard core gamerz) are trying to play games on IG, or have upgrade to something like a crappy FX5200.

Go for a 9700p if it's in your budget. It'll be an amazing improvement from your old 32MB card.

Not all of us feel like shelling out $400 for a vid card. Anyway, you gotta get what can for your budget.

A 9700p is prolly like only 10% slower than a 9800p. Mine (9800p) played Far Cry and Doom 3 just fine at high settings (but it was OC'd to XT speeds) . I'm having probs believing these two games are going to be more graphically demanding than FC & D3.

Just my .02

Fern

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Mrvile
I don't know about Everquest but those cards will have a hard time running Half Life 2. Your best bet is an X700PRO radeon or a Geforce 6600GT, both for around 200 bucks. They are also both PCIe (and only PCIe), so make sure you have a PCIe motherboard (although this should be easy since you have an Intel)

Well he said his budget was around $100 and at most $150. Secondly, everyone's definition of playable varies. 9700Pro card will easily play either of those games at 1024x768 noAA/noAF.

Sure 6600GT is a much better deal assuming:

1) he is willing to spend $200
2) if 6600GT or X700 cards were actually available in AGP form (as far as ATI is concerned, there wont be any X700 AGP cards, and it'll probably take a while before 6600GTs enter the market in AGP form)

 

[Rhagz]

If you haven't played EQ2 then you have no idea how taxing it is on a computer, especially the video card. It doesn't even look that good, but I guess the monkeys that coded it thought it did /shrug. Check up on the EQ2 forums and stuff before you invest in a video card for the game.

Here, I did it for you!

 

[Aidenn]

Just to clarify things, the bare minimum for EQ to even load is a DX9 card with 64MB of ram. I didn't want to buy a Radeon 9550 or 9600 Pro to meet this just to find out that it runs at <10fps with details at minimum, and that if i had popped $50-$75 more i could have gotten it to run better. I ended up finding a refurb. 9800 Pro (w/ 256 bit memory interface) for $166 (I'm going to sell my blood plasma to make up the difference :-/ ) and I already have all the ATI connectors, so it won't matter if some are missing. My roommate has a 9600, so If it would be helpful to other people I can post back with a performance compairison when my card arrives.