I just bought a PC to play this game! Video card question

[HorribleHarry]

Hello I saw a friends SHIII a couple of days ago & thought ...That's it I need this game! I (a die hard Mac user) actually bought a PC yesterday just to play SHIII so I'm new to this PC thing. I have been looking for a good video card for this game under $150.00 do you have any recommendations?
Thank you for any help you can give!
Harry

[Gizzmoe]

Welcome aboard!

There are basically only two choices. Either the nVidia 6600 GT or the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. Check some reviews to see which one you prefer.

[MonkeyHero]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102407
That's an Radeon 9600 Pro for $80.

If you're really not looking to spend more than $150 that's what I'd recommend. You can get a 9800 Pro for $165, and if you're willing to spend that much I'd say go for it. It's a generation old tech, but still a very solid card.

If you do go with a Radeon, get one manufactured either by ATI or Sapphire.

[Gizzmoe]

You can get a 9800 Pro for $165

You can get it for less:
http://stores.tomshardware.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=704418

[HorribleHarry]

I hear alot of this versus that between the Nvidia & the Radeon cards... I know this is a personal prefrence thing but can you see a difference between the two? does one play this game better than the other? The salesman gave me a kaser GeForce 6200 128... any good?I remember I put a voodoo5 64 on my Old G3 and nothing happened :-) BTW my computer is a HP807 Athalon 64 3200+ 1 gig ram, etc.
I truly appreciate your help!
Harry

[jasonb885]

I hear alot of this versus that between the Nvidia & the Radeon cards... I know this is a personal prefrence thing but can you see a difference between the two? does one play this game better than the other? The salesman gave me a kaser GeForce 6200 128... any good?I remember I put a voodoo5 64 on my Old G3 and nothing happened :-) BTW my computer is a HP807 Athalon 64 3200+ 1 gig ram, etc.
I truly appreciate your help!
Harry

One person here remarked once that the game looks much better with an ATI card, having compared them side by side.

I cannot confirm.

I bought an eVGA 6600GT AGP I'm waiting for to replace my Ti4200. Mostly it's for playing BF2, though. SH3 is mostly fine on a Ti4200 with only minor slow downs doing oil spills.

[Gizzmoe]

I hear alot of this versus that between the Nvidia & the Radeon cards... I know this is a personal prefrence thing but can you see a difference between the two?

If you mean framerate wise, that depends on the game. See here for a full comparison:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050705/

The salesman gave me a kaser GeForce 6200 128... any good?

No! :)

I´m still very happy with my 9800 Pro.

[TDK1044]

The ATI Catalyst Drivers give ATI the edge right now in my opinion. I run this game on an ATI 9600 card and it handles it extremely well. I don't think there's much in it, but ATI has the edge for me.

[cmdrk]

I have a Pentium 4 HT 2.4 ghz, 1g ram, and GeForce 6600GT AGP card with 128m DDR3.

I'm using Nvidia's most recent drivers which handles particles spray in the UZO view. (edit: using 77.76 - just found 77.77 available)

I have antialiasing and anisotropic set to 4 and image quality set to high. I get 25 fps in port which has lots of 3d objects. Out at sea, I get 60 to 80 fps depending on how many ships are in a convoy.

The card cost me $200 a few months ago, but I'm pleased with it.

[Der Schatten]

HorribleHarry, buying a puter to play this game is a great reason to spend money (thats why I bought one!)....The old one sits downstairs and gets abused by anyone....but MINE is upstairs!!!!!!!!!! By the way, I'm running the x700pro, ati (thats on an AMD 64) when I got it, it was around $189 I think......you know of course once you get "into" sh3, you are never quite the same......I have a wind chime that makes the exact "PING" sound, drives me crazy! :huh:

[benetofski]

I am running an ATI Radeon 9250 AGP (128M Ram) and the OMEGA 2.6.12 drivers.

SH3 runs very well - minor stutters during massive exposions and in max speed (1024) map view - the OMEGA drivers make all the difference!

- My specs:

P3 350, 705 MB ram

[Nopileo]

I have a wind chime that makes the exact "PING" sound, drives me crazy! :huh:

I'm picturing you running around screaming ALAAAARM! everytime the windchime goes off! :rotfl:

[wetgoat]

Very satisfied with 9800 pro. Almost every bit of '' eye candy'' mods added to game and it's still solid as a rock. I don't believe you can get a better card for the same money.

[McBeck]

I went through the same Q as you and researched it here and at the off. forums.

The result was that allthough the 6600GT gives you a little higher framrate pr $, SH3 should look soooo much better on an ATI card.

So do you want better quality graphics or highest possible framerate?

If you just bought this PC to play SH3, then theres no question about it...get the ATI

[HorribleHarry]

Thank you all for your help! I am going with a ATI Radeon X800 Pro.
Harry