Graphics Card Question

[kingkuttar]

I'm looking to buy a new graphics card and am wondering which one to get that will make episode 2 run as smoothly and appealing to the eye as possible. I don't want one that's too expensive, between £100-£200. If anyone can help i'll be very grateful. My card atm is Radeon X300 series.

 

[The Brick]

Is that an AGP or a PCIe video card? Gotta know that first.

Then it'd be nice to know what the other specs of your pc are.

 

[McCoy]

GET NVIDIA ULTRA 8800 NVIDIA FTW. seriously, if you want good graphics cards, go to www.newegg.com and search for graphics drives.

HL2 should run smoothly on DX9 and a low overclocked DX9 too.

HL2 PWns :cheers: HL2 PWns

 

[dogboy73]

I'm still concerned about how EP2 will run on my system (see signature). The GFX card is AGP so it's not worth just upgrading that. I'd need to updte the mobo, CPU, RAM & GFX card.

 

[jpventoso]

I think it will play just fine at 1024x768 with full capabilities but no antialiasing.

 

[kingkuttar]

Thanks for the input people. I'm also thinking of increasing my ram, it's 1G atm. Does anyone know what the ideal amount of ram is for running big, detailed games such as half life?

 

[dcxs]

hello, what are your current specs kingkuttar? I really need to know that before I can point out a good gphx card and tell u if u need more ram. Anyway lets asume you have PCIexpress then I would recommend the 1950pro its a very solid card and ep2 should run fine on it.

 

[tibetanpunk]

You can get a 7600GT Nvidia 512mb card that will run the Orange box games maxed out with resolutions higher than 1024 by 768 with 4x antialiasing and the fancy filtering techniques etc...They are only £60 on aria.co.uk...

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...idia+GeForce+7600GT+512MB+AGP?productId=28435

 

[dogboy73]

You can get a 7600GT Nvidia 512mb card that will run the Orange box games maxed out with resolutions higher than 1024 by 768 with 4x antialiasing and the fancy filtering techniques etc...They are only £60 on aria.co.uk...

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...idia+GeForce+7600GT+512MB+AGP?productId=28435

I'm tempted by that myself. I was going to upgrade my mobo, cpu, ram & gfxcard (to PCI-E). Was going to set me back about £300. Might just upgrade the AGP gfx now though. This will give my system some more legs for the time being.

 

[Eagle142]

Im thinking of getting an Asus 512Mb ATi Radeon X2900 XT PCI-Express VGA Card, however I only have a 2.01ghz AMD Sempron 3300+ and 1GB of RAM.

How would ep2 etc run?

 

[Parrot of doom]

I have just upgraded my system with these bits:

?54.99 x 1 - OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit
?106.99 x 1 - Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.66GHz (1333FSB) - Retail
?69.99 x 1 - Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard
?154.99 x 1 - EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (320-P2-E811-AR)
?69.99 x 1 - Zalman ZM600-HP Heatpipe Cooled 600W Modular PSU

Save to say I can play any game in 1680x1050 (including the Bioshock Demo) with everything turned on, with no choppy frame rates whatsoever.

 

[Laivasse]

I had an old Athlon64 3400+ with an ATI Radeon 9800 and 1Gb of PC2600 RAM.

I upgraded some bits and bobs a while back. I got myself a lovely Hiper 500W-ish PSU, went to 2 Gb of PC3200, and most importantly got myself a HIS Radeon x1950 Pro 512Mb AGP.

While I'm sure my processor chokes the card a little, I can play Bioshock far smoother than my friend with his Core2 Duo 6600 system, loaded with a 7600GS PCI-e card. I'm very happy with this old rig now (apart from some randomised crashing atm ;(). It's gone from being nearly obsolete to being juuuust about capable of reproducing Xbox360-level graphics, which should mean it's safe for about another year yet at least.

Im thinking of getting an Asus 512Mb ATi Radeon X2900 XT PCI-Express VGA Card, however I only have a 2.01ghz AMD Sempron 3300+ and 1GB of RAM.

How would ep2 etc run?

I'm sure Ep2 would run as smooth as silk, but I think your processor would be choking that card big time.

 

[dcxs]

Im thinking of getting an Asus 512Mb ATi Radeon X2900 XT PCI-Express VGA Card, however I only have a 2.01ghz AMD Sempron 3300+ and 1GB of RAM.

How would ep2 etc run?

sorry to say this but there is no point of upgrading anything on that computer. Its a tottaly new one that you will want.

 

[kingkuttar]

Got myself a Sapphire Radeon X1650 Pro 512MB a few days ago.