What is a fast video card good for?

[eflat]

I want to build a high end system however will not be playing FPS games on it. My gaming will be limited to stuff like command and conquer and sim city.

Will a fast video card make my system feel more responsive? I would think not however my past experience with computers with built in video make me think the the video card must play a role because these computers (with good specs aside from the video card) feel painfully slow. Any thoughts?

 

[PurdueRy]

What is a fast video card good for?

Making up for something you are lacking in

most of those low end systems also have POS RAM and not much of it, along with a POS mobo and a budget proc

 

[DrZoidberg]

Command and Conquer Generals and newest Sim City I think needs a graphics card though integrated could work except not as well.

Generally most computers advertised dont have good graphics cards so u gotta tell them to put it in. Ive seen 256mb 9550 and they bold it or 128 MB x300 pci-express and they make it sound good in ad because most Tom, Dick and Harry dont know what model graphic cards are good and just think how much RAM on graphics card is what makes it good.

It sounds like u play strategy games mostly and even Age of Empires III which is coming out end of this year has really good graphics so u may want to invest in a mid-range card
like Radeon 9800 or GeForce 6600GT. U probably dont need the upper end as more for FPS games.

 

[DanDaMan315]

A 6200 TC, 9800 pro, or a 6600gt (if you feel like getting fancy) would serve you just fine. If I was you I would get a 9800 pro just because they are at a really nice price point.

No they will not make your computer feel more responsive, but they make a world of difference in gameplay. However the games you play are not vert GPU stressing, however they are probably too stressing for integrated video.

 

[l Xes l]

pr0n

 

[NokiaDude]

For high image quality.

 

[Mrvile]

In your case I'd probably just dump all of my money into the processor, get a nice X2, a nice mobo, lots of ram, and a big hard drive. As for video card, I'd just get a 6200 or 9800Pro. What will you be using this system for? If you're just going to be surfing the web, listening to music, watching vids, and occasionally playing Sim City or something, a 3000+, cheap mobo, a gig of value ram, 120GB hard drive, and a 6200 or 9800Pro would do just fine.

 

[DanDaMan315]

Originally posted by: DanDaMan315
A 6200 TC, 9800 pro, or a 6600gt (if you feel like getting fancy) would serve you just fine. If I was you I would get a 9800 pro just because they are at a really nice price point.

No they will not make your computer feel more responsive, but they make a world of difference in gameplay. However the games you play are not vert GPU stressing, however they are probably too stressing for integrated video.

Actually I guess for PCI-E I would get a 6200TC.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Some video cards offer cool video capture features and numerous other bells and whistles(ATI All in Wonder series). The Nvidia 6 and 7 series cards have a few nifty functions but I think you have to buy a separate program to make full use of them (truevideo?).