Graphics Cards ///////////////////

[jmayo86]

Hey :thumb:
Im a bit confused :-\ because i cant play play games on my pc without them being laggy or not running at all, so ive decided to upgrade my graphics card as its only Nvidia GeForce 2! (Dont laugh >:-o ) and i was wondering if any of you knew alot about Graphics Cards, asi dont know whether it will work in my PC and i dont know which one i should be getting so i need advice... i have about 200 to spend on a graphics card, but dont tell me the dearest one that you can find for 200 lol, if you know any that are ace and are cheapish then please let me know... hehe i want to play Doom 3 you see :)

thanks

[Maxtr0sity]

Well, first of all, find out if you have an AGP slot, and if so, what type. 2x, 4x, 8x. Also, check your power supply for it's output. Give us these and we'll find you a deal.

[Butters]

Oohhh Doom 3, thats gonna need a pretty descent card, the minmum spec for that game is 64mb card, but I heard that it will still lag, so 128 is a good idea.

I have an ATI Radeon 9800 XT Pro 256mb, its sweet.

[Krilnon]

My friend has Doom III and it runs without too much lag on a Geforce3 64mb.

[Butters]

Yea 64mb is the min spec, but i'd still buy at least a 128mb

[ya3]

My friend spent AU$500 on a 9800XT. I don't see why anyone would spend that much for 'better game performance' :sigh:

[jmayo86]

Erm...How do i find out about what card will fit into my pc though? Whats an AGP slot and how do i find this out?!

[minimalistik]

A graphics card for $200 to play Doom 3? Jmay, you will need to spend more than that. A decent card for Doom's requirements would be about $300 - $ 400. You can run a 64mb card for Doom but I would guess you would experienced a bit of lag. It would be best to purchase a 128mb card. Its not just finding the right card but be able to know if your motherboard will support it. To find out your AGP, check to see the make/mdoel of your motherboard. Please also list all the main specs of your computer eg. processor, memory.



I have an ATI Radeon 9800 XT Pro 256mb, its sweet.


You got that right. I have also tested the x800, pheww.

[Voetsjoeba]

It's not really the amount of memory on the card that matters, rather the GPU itself. I believe an nVidia 6800 Ultra is recommended for Doom III.

[kirupa]

I'm assuming that since you have a Geforce 2 card, your CPU/RAM/bus speed, etc. are kinda outdated also. If you get any of the latest cards, you may find that your other components will be slowing your graphics card down simply because they can't handle the graphics card's power :P

[Butters]

Erm...How do i find out about what card will fit into my pc though? Whats an AGP slot and how do i find this out?!
You have to open up your computer, and look at the slot that your graphics card is plugged into, AGP slots are brown, and PCI slots are white (usualy).

[Maxtr0sity]

Check in BIOS also for speed.

[brau]

It's not really the amount of memory on the card that matters, rather the GPU itself. I believe an nVidia 6800 Ultra is recommended for Doom III.It'll run great on any 6800. You can get a GeForce 6800 128MB for $300.

I just put a together, last week, a new system with an eVGA GeForce 6800 GT 256MB GDDR3 ($400) that came with Doom 3. It runs smooth at High Quality, 1024x768, 4xAA. Could probably bump it up a little more, but I do get "some" lag when in the most graphically complex areas.

I'd recommend an nVidia card at least GeForce 5700 Ultra or above. The ATI cards' performance on Doom 3 is severely lacking compared to the nVidia cards - unless you go top-of-the-line. You might wait until the 6600s are released - if your motherboard supports PCI Express. The 6600s are only slightly lower quality than the 6800s and are about 1/2 the price.

Good luck!

Oh, and don't feel bad about the Geforce 2 - that's what I was running up until last Friday! :)

[jmayo86]

I'm assuming that since you have a Geforce 2 card, your CPU/RAM/bus speed, etc. are kinda outdated also. If you get any of the latest cards, you may find that your other components will be slowing your graphics card down simply because they can't handle the graphics card's power


Kirupa, my pc is about 1 year old so its not ancient hehe i tihnk its just an average computer

My Spec for my pc is...

AMD Athlon XP 2400+
512mb ram
120gb hard disk

How do i find out the make of my mother board etc? I really need to know what i can run on my system, because i cant play any game at all. :D

[Maxtr0sity]

When it boots up, tap Del repeatly, don't change any values, just look around and write some info down.

[kirupa]

Kirupa, my pc is about 1 year old so its not ancient hehe i tihnk its just an average computer

My Spec for my pc is...

AMD Athlon XP 2400+
512mb ram
120gb hard disk

How do i find out the make of my mother board etc? I really need to know what i can run on my system, because i cant play any game at all. :DOH nm then :) I assumed that because the GF2 is almost 3 years old, so I thought the rest of the comp must be old also. Your comp should do great with all the new cards with the exception of maybe PCI-e since it came out only recently.