Need help on a good video card!

zunarn · January 2007

I could use some input from tech savvy players out there. I want to get a high end video card for this game and for future MMO's. My system is a 2.8ghz and I just popped on another gig so I have 2gb max. It's AcerPower PC that I purchased not even 6 months ago. Can anyone suggest a few models for me, I have an AGP slot I believe? My budget is around $200 to $300. Thanks

combustion8 · January 2007

first make sure its agp before you buy an agp card, if it is I'd say go with the geforce 7800.

squeaky1 · January 2007

Originally posted by zunarn

I could use some input from tech savvy players out there. I want to get a high end video card for this game and for future MMO's. My system is a 2.8ghz and I just popped on another gig so I have 2gb max. It's AcerPower PC that I purchased not even 6 months ago. Can anyone suggest a few models for me, I have an AGP slot I believe? My budget is around $200 to $300. Thanks

The best AGP board for that price range is an ATI x1950xt at around $300.00. There are different models so you should hunt for the best deal. The best overall is a Nvidia 8800, but the lowest price I've seen recently is around $400.00.

zunarn · January 2007

Thanks for the input, just double checked and it is an AGP 8x slot. So should I get only 512mb or higher?

Blink4m3 · January 2007

for 200-300$ you will probably go high enough to get bottlenecked by your processor, give me more specs on your memory and motherboard.

I havnt really upgraded since my x800 XT PE but i've somewhat kept with the market.

If you have a preference of ATI or Nvidia i'll give you a selection of both.

ATI: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814161065R Has a decent clockspeeds on core and memory, but it only has a 128 memory interface. The saving grace is that it has almost double the standard pipelines for current gen games and wont even be utilized for another generation. It also is cheap, this deal specifically. Also it wont be bottlenecked by your processor for a few years.

NVIDIA: Actually, after looking at new egg there really isnt any terribly efficient NVIDIA Cards for under 300$, if you look around i'm sure you can find something but 24 pipes almost OC clockspeeds definately wins me over on the ATI. People might argue but having as many pipes as my PowerColor GTO (12 pipes instead of 8) even before i unlocked it to XT PE gave me massive performance over different memory speeds/clock speeds of other cards.

jimmyman99 · January 2007

Originally posted by zunarn

Thanks for the input, just double checked and it is an AGP 8x slot. So should I get only 512mb or higher?

The MB on the vidcard isnt that important compared to vidcard memory beandwidth. Of course if u have 2 identical vidcards but one is 256mbs and the other is 512 then pick the 512. The memory on vidcard matters only at high quality resolutions where texture is being loaded into the video card memory (at least thats how I understand it). So if you play games on high res and high detail, then its a good idea to spend a bit extra to get the bigger memory card, but NOT at the cost of lower level card.

EX: its ok to pick a card with more memory if you choose between GeForce 7900 GS and GeForce 7800 GTX (they are more or less the same), but its not a good idea to pick GeForce 6800 over GeForce 7900 GS just becuase 6800 card has twice the memory. 7900gs is about 2 times faster then 6800.

A few days ago Ive been told by someone that memory bandwith is not the 100% definition of which card is faster, but from a noob standpoint , its a safe bet to identify which cards are faster by checking their memory bandwith number (the higher the better)

I personaly always used Nvidia, I tried to switch twice to ATI but those cards failed (first one couldnt play counterstrike the other was defected and kept locking up my computer)/ However, as it was pointed out to me just recently, Nvidia cards up to 8800 cannot have both AA and HDR settings ON at the same time.So if you like playing on best-max settings, might wanna buy ATi, 8800 just doesnt seem to be in your price range.

wrkeech · January 2007

here is the top of the line ATI card for AGP

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp

zunarn · January 2007

This is what I have right now, how bad is it? lol

GeForce FX 5200 AGP 8x 256mb

wrkeech · January 2007

Originally posted by zunarn

This is what I have right now, how bad is it? lol
GeForce FX 5200 AGP 8x 256mb

It's pretty bad.

oakthornn · January 2007

Originally posted by zunarn

This is what I have right now, how bad is it? lol
GeForce FX 5200 AGP 8x 256mb

U cant even run the game with that

I see ppl listing nice graphics cards but what kind of mb o u have and how much ram do u have? Personally if u dont have a pci Express slot,then you need to get a new pc,not just a vid card..

oakthornn · January 2007

cause AGP hasnt been good in 3-4 years which is probably how old your pc is..

I mean,u could get the best agp card for your system and be able to run the game on low settings,but i wouldnt lol

wrkeech · January 2007

Originally posted by oakthornn

cause AGP hasnt been good in 3-4 years which is probably how old your pc is..
I mean,u could get the best agp card for your system and be able to run the game on low settings,but i wouldnt lol

I currently run Vanguard on the highest settings using the following rig:

P4 2.8Ghz (Northwood)

2 Gig RAM (PC3200)

ATI X1950Pro 512MB AGP 8X (Sapphire)

I beta tested with the same same setup only I used an ATI 9800Pro 128MB AGP 8X card and ran well in balanced mode in the wild but had to reduce it to the lowest settings in town.

So if you can't afford to upgrade to an entirely new PC... then spending under $250 to get another 12-18 months out of your current rig is not a bad choice.

Agent_X7 · January 2007

Originally posted by oakthornn

cause AGP hasnt been good in 3-4 years which is probably how old your pc is..
I mean,u could get the best agp card for your system and be able to run the game on low settings,but i wouldnt lol

It's funny how people come up with weird time frames for things. AGP was pretty much the standard until later in 2005. PCI-E has only been available since 2004, and it was pretty hard to find PCI-E cards or motherboards then.

And why would he have to run on low settings with an AGP card? The PCI-E interface doesn't automatically make a video card faster than an AGP card. A 7800 GS AGP card still kicks the snot out of a 6600 PCI-E.

And OP, man, almost ANYTHING is better than the card you have now.

I'm not trying to insult you or your system, but the FX line was pretty much garbage, which is why Nvidea dropped the FX term to distance its new products from that line's horrible rep.

zunarn · January 2007

Originally posted by Agent_X7

Originally posted by oakthornn

cause AGP hasnt been good in 3-4 years which is probably how old your pc is..
I mean,u could get the best agp card for your system and be able to run the game on low settings,but i wouldnt lol

It's funny how people come up with weird time frames for things. AGP was pretty much the standard until later in 2005. PCI-E has only been available since 2004, and it was pretty hard to find PCI-E cards or motherboards then.

And why would he have to run on low settings with an AGP card? The PCI-E interface doesn't automatically make a video card faster than an AGP card. A 7800 GS AGP card still kicks the snot out of a 6600 PCI-E.

And OP, man, almost ANYTHING is better than the card you have now.

I'm not trying to insult you or your system, but the FX line was pretty much garbage, which is why Nvidea dropped the FX term to distance its new products from that line's horrible rep.

No worries, you didn't insult me. I'd rather know the truth and get the right upgrade for my PC.

squeaky1 · February 2007

Originally posted by oakthornn

cause AGP hasnt been good in 3-4 years which is probably how old your pc is..
I mean,u could get the best agp card for your system and be able to run the game on low settings,but i wouldnt lol

That is not really true. After most of the hype has died down, the real world gains of PCI-e over AGP do not justify running out and buying new computers just for that sake. People should switch if it's in the normal course of upgrading their computers, otherwise it's a waste of money.

It's no coincidence that many of the graphics card companies have been releasing AGP versions of their processors.

Valorus · February 2007

Originally posted by zunarn

Thanks for the input, just double checked and it is an AGP 8x slot. So should I get only 512mb or higher?

Also check out www.pricewatch.com for the best prices on computer parts such as video cards.

Personally I'd never in a million years suggest an ATI video card as I've had too many problems in the past. With your machine specs I'd suggest going for an Nvidia 7900 as anything more will not be taken advantage of due to your CPU speed and the cost for this card has come down quite a bit since the 8000 series released.

I'll not post what my experience was with ATI here do to this topic causing us all to get off your topic, but if you are interested PM me and I'll fill ya in with my own personal experiences.

Hu1ven · February 2007

Originally posted by oakthornn

Originally posted by zunarn

This is what I have right now, how bad is it? lol
GeForce FX 5200 AGP 8x 256mb

U cant even run the game with that

I see ppl listing nice graphics cards but what kind of mb o u have and how much ram do u have? Personally if u dont have a pci Express slot,then you need to get a new pc,not just a vid card..

Nah, just a new MotherBoard.

ValiumSummer · February 2007

Originally posted by combustion8

first make sure its agp before you buy an agp card, if it is I'd say go with the geforce 7800.

I have a Geforce 7800GS 256 mb, 3 gigahertz Pentium 4, and a gig of ram. The game runs so poorly at the lowest settings that I have decided not to play it.

Any motivation I had to continue this game was squashed this morning... my second day.

I'll continue to read the forums and maybe try it again when I get a better computer.

zunarn · February 2007

Ok I think of going with an ATI Radeon 1650 Pro, AGP 8x - 512mb DDR II - DVI - HDTV out. Is that a good enough card to run Vanguard decently? Thanks

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