what videocard for counter-strike:source?

[bde]

My rig is athlon xp 2500 o/c'ed to 2800
videocard GF4 ti 4600
ram 512 duannl channel.

I was wondering what videocard would give me decent fps, I don't want it to be too expensive. I just need high fps for that game because I will be playing it competitively.

thanks

 

[MegaWorks]

What's your price range?

 

[Astu222]

9800 pro i guess. 6600GT if oyu can find it for ~$200.

 

[MegaWorks]

That's a good deal at microbytes for $265 CAN.

 

[MegaWorks]

Here's a CS:Source test, the performance of the 9800XT is not far from the 9800 pro.

 

[Appledrop]

also id upgrade to 1gb ram , and also to make game smoother, type CL_SMOOTH 0 in console ( u have to activate console in options/keyBOARD/advanced

 

[InseName]

well cs doesn't really require a great vcard so a 9600xt will do. And if ur planning to get the 9800pro wait for the agp version of x700 pro instead.

 

[Pete]

Benchmarks.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

people with ti4600's are cool ppl in my book, i remember i was in awe at the power of one of those things! nvidia at its best brute strength over elegance.
i know theyre old now but i still think they are good, i dunno what it is, jus either the apparent rare-ness i see or the jus the name ti4600, one of my favourite NV cards up to now

 

[bde]

maybe x800pro or 6800gt
I just need to have decent fps for counter-strike: source

with a 2100Mhz, 512 ram

would it be possible? or I need more cpu?

 

[forpe]

Definitely get a 6600GT. Although the 9800pro is similar price, the 6600gt edges it in performance.

There's no point getting the next level of cards (6800's or x800's) as your CPU will be a bottleneck. If you've got any cash left over you might wanna think about an extra 512mb... but its not essential for CS:S. I recently upgraded and saw little difference.

If your cooling is decent, maybe think about getting your 2500 overclocked a little higher to a 3000+ / 3200+. But only if your comfortable doing it.

 

[daveybrat]

If you don't care about seeing some of the reflections and water effects then don't even waste your money on a new card.

My brother is playing CS on his TI4400 silky smooth in directx 8.1 mode. And i'll be honest, it doesn't look that much different than on my 6800. Granted you can't turn on AA or AF but it still runs smooth as silk. I suggest you try playing the game first before you shell out unneeded money for now.

 

[bde]

forpe I have my barton 2500 o/c'ed to 2800 and it's stable now, I couldn't get it to 3200 because the cpu is just not good, I got a good cooling ( SLK 800 + volcano fan)

The thing is: I won a motherboard intel 925x and a cpu 3.4Ghz in a contest (they are intel sealed, selling them for $570 CND)
I need a new rig, absolutely because I play counter-strike competitively and the league that I play for, they will be replacing normal cs, with source, therefore I really need decent fps on that game.

I've been trying to sell those two items that I've won because It will cost me about $700 to get it up and running. ($350 decent pci express card and $350 decent 1 GB of ddr2)
But I cannot sell it.

So I don't know should I wait and upgrade this? Or try to sell it (which I can't) and go with amd stuff that would cost me less than 700$ overall.

 

[tranceport]

I have a p4 2.4 1gb pc3200 kingston hyperx and a gainward g4 ti4600 128mb..

I get 60+ fps. I think you may want to upgrade memory. I don't keep up with amd cpus....So I cannot say if you should upgrade that.




Oh yea settings.. Any loser can get 60fps with 640x480 right..

I'm running 1024x768. Everything on high. Not very or ultra high just high.

2x AA & trileaner I believe.

I can check when I get home to make sure.

 

[bde]

heh I need more than that it suppose to be Very smooth

 

[bde]

what do you guys think about x600xt
we are on a budget situation here

 

[clicknext]

Why don't you switch your current PC's parts to the mobo and cpu you won? They are significantly better than Athlon XP. And then buy a PCI-E Geforce 6600GT.

Or if you want to just stick to your current system, Radeon 9800Pro or 6600GT AGP are both fine, though a Ti4600 should play it pretty smoothly if you turn down the graphical settings a lot.

EDIT: Don't get the x600XT, it's just a high clocked 9600Pro, and won't be significantly better than the Ti4600.

 

[bde]

yea I plan on switching to the new parts that I've won
so what do you think is x700xt better?

 

[bde]

or maybe a pro

 

[Malak]

x700 pro would be better than an x600, for sure. Personally I turn things off like shadows and reflections anyway, since I don't notice those things while I'm playing. You don't need a super card for CS:S. My friend got an x800 pro and he turns all the settings max, so anything more than that isn't necessary yet. I'm still running on a 9700 pro till my new rig gets here and it runs medium settings just fine. Find something with somewhat better performance than my aging card and you are good enough. If you are on a budget, then good enough has to do.

 

[Pete]

Give us a price range and desired resolution, and we can recommend something. I can say that a X600 of any sort won't do. In US prices, the best deals in PCIe cards are a 6600GT 128MB for <$200 right now, and a X800XL 256MB for <=$300 when it arrives in January.

The X800XL looks particularly fantastic for the price, a full 16-pipe card with 256MB of fast RAM. It even manages to make the otherwise nice 8-pipe, 128MB 6600GT seems slightly overpriced in comparison.

The X700XT won't be sold (at all), and the 6600GT is as good a deal or better, anyway. The X700P isn't as fast as a 6600GT, and you seem to be after speed first.

You'll also want to upgrade to 1GB RAM, especially for online gaming. Heck, 512MB PC3200 sticks go for as little as $45AR, so you can probably upgrade to a 6600GT and two 512MB PC3200 sticks for not much more than you can get for selling your current rig (CPU, MB, RAM, &amp; 4600).

If you read the benchmarks in my previous post, you probably wouldn't still be asking, "What card," but rather, "What's the best deal on card X?"

Either way, make sure you have a decent PSU to power that P4. A 6600GT, 6800, or X800XL probably won't use that much power by itself, but P4Es aren't exactly stingy with electricity.

 

[bde]

Thanks a lot, Like you mentioned I haven't read that yet.
would 400watts (antec) do the job for 6600GT or a X800XLif I can afford it with the intel 3.4Ghz that I already have.

 

[CraigRT]

I would honestly assume that a Ti4600 could play that game easily....

my friend used to play the old CS with the onboard video on his Dell P4 system, and it looked silky smooth... the old CS was a joke to run, the new one can't be THAT much worse!!!

 

[Spamdini]

what exactly does cl_smooth 0 do?

 

[Pete]

A 400W Antec should be fine.