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Video card upgrade for BF2

D

deadseasquirrel

Golden Member
Early information seems to indicate that BF2 will not work with the GF4 series cards. I still plan to wait until I know that it's official but, in case it is, I wanna have a backup plan.

I have 3 rigs that will play this on a LAN:

1) A64 at 2.4ghz, 1GB, 6800GT SLI, 22" NEC
2) AXP at 2.2ghz, 1GB, 5900ultra, 19" NEC
3) 1.4ghz Tualatin Celeron, 512MB, TI4200, 17" Envision

Yeah, I know, #3 is getting a bit decrepid, but that's why it's #3. Neither #2 or #3 will ever have a faster chip or anything, as both are pretty much maxed out CPU-wise.

So, if the TI4200 won't play BF2 at all (I wouldn't even mind if it was 800x600 with everything on Low), what should I do? The first things off the top of my head are:

a) Get a 9800pro on FS/FT for around $100. Slap it in the Celery rig and go to town. Sure, it's overkill, but it's still a relatively cheap upgrade to allow it to last a little longer.

b) Get a 6600GT for around $150ish and put it in rig #2. It might be a little overkill for the AXP but it would probably be the last video card this system would ever need. I could then move the 5900u to the Celery, which, again, is waaaaay overkill, but it would at least be able to play BF2.

So, I guess my long-winded question is will that $150 be well-spent on upgrading these 2 machines, or would the 6600GT be starved in the AXP, as would the 5900u with the Tualatin?

Or is there another option that I've overlooked?

By the way, both machines also play a lot of: WC3, UT2k4, SW:BF, LOTR: BFME. i.e. BF2 probably won't be the only new game being played on these in the next 3-6 months.
 
I'd go for B

If BFV is any indication of how much CPU BF2 will use, you'll be overkill with the AXP at 2.2 GHz.

I picked a res and video settings that gave me a minimum of ~45 FPS in my benchmark loop. I saw ZERO impact by turning down the AXP from 2400 MHz in steps of 200 MHz until I got to 1200 MHz, and that impact was fairly minimal. Based on this, I'd definitely go with option B.

I think what people don't realize about the CPU "bottlenecking performance" is that a better video card will still allow higher res and video settings until you max out what your monitor can do. CPU 'bottlenecks' don't scale with resolution. Given that for me the best I could comfortably do in BFV with my 5900xt was 1024x768 no AA/4xAF on medium/high/high settings, I think it's safe to assume that you will see significant benefit out of the 6600GT.

Also based on BFV performance, I think I'd consider buying the 6800 GT, selling the 5900U and buying a 9700 Pro or something similar. BFV + FX 5900xt was quite painful for me. But my 9700 (non-pro) was quite a bit better, able to get the same framerates as the 5900xt, but at 1280x1024 4xAA / 4xAF medium/high/high. I don't know how updated the BF2 engine will be, but if it's anything like the BFV engine it will HATE the GeForce FX cards.
 
Originally posted by: Concillian
I'd go for B

If BFV is any indication of how much CPU BF2 will use, you'll be overkill with the AXP at 2.2 GHz.

I picked a res and video settings that gave me a minimum of ~45 FPS in my benchmark loop. I saw ZERO impact by turning down the AXP from 2400 MHz in steps of 200 MHz until I got to 1200 MHz, and that impact was fairly minimal. Based on this, I'd definitely go with option B.

I think what people don't realize about the CPU "bottlenecking performance" is that a better video card will still allow higher res and video settings until you max out what your monitor can do. CPU 'bottlenecks' don't scale with resolution. Given that for me the best I could comfortably do in BFV with my 5900xt was 1024x768 no AA/4xAF on medium/high/high settings, I think it's safe to assume that you will see significant benefit out of the 6600GT.

Also based on BFV performance, I think I'd consider buying the 6800 GT, selling the 5900U and buying a 9700 Pro or something similar. BFV + FX 5900xt was quite painful for me. But my 9700 (non-pro) was quite a bit better, able to get the same framerates as the 5900xt, but at 1280x1024 4xAA / 4xAF medium/high/high. I don't know how updated the BF2 engine will be, but if it's anything like the BFV engine it will HATE the GeForce FX cards.
Click to expand...


I believe BF2 is totally reworked from the ground up, not related to BF1942 or BFV at all except in gameplay.
 
The Tulatin Celly could give a 1.8-2.0GHZ Northwood P4 a run for their money any day of the week thanks to its shorter pipelines. I would say plan X is the best choice.

Plan X :

Buy 2 9800PROs for 200 bux and sell the 5900U to some UT2k4 fanatic on ebay for a resonable price. If not then go for Plan B as UT2K4 will be nice on the Tulatin and hopefully so will BF2. ( don't expect too much now )
 
plan B. 6600GT is not overkill for XP 2.2ghz. It also costs $145 or so after MIR (Leadtek version on Newegg). At least you'll also be able to play HL2 on this machine afterwards cuz 5900 is crap.
 
Originally posted by: flyboy84

I believe BF2 is totally reworked from the ground up, not related to BF1942 or BFV at all except in gameplay.
Click to expand...

They said that about BFV too, but it was VERY similar to BF1942 in terms of what it liked for performance.... both were not CPU heavy, both favored ATi over nVidia about as heavily as a game did at the time.

I'm a "I'll believe it when I see it" kind of guy, especially when past performance indicates that there may be reason to be that way.
 
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