All I need is a better card, but you're talking to someone who goes to the local food bank for free groceries and considers a pizza on Sunday to be a luxury. It took me two months to save up for a new $30 sound card. And I wasn't trying to steal this thread, just commenting that I think SH4 is the better game even though I've never actually played a patrol.

Not trying to dis the guys who've already done such sterling work in that regard - just looking toward GWX4.

What card are you using now?

Plenty of mods that have nothing to do with GWX have already made SH4 a very good and fun game to play.

:yep:

My computer came with an ATI 9600 128. I believed 'them' when 'they' said that doubling it to 256 would be a definite improvement, so I bought an Nvidia 6200. No noticable difference. Both are AGP. I'm torn between spending a lot more for a much better card or just waiting awhile and trying for a whole new system.

This since evidently your stuck with AGP slots.

Maybe someone that upgrades their AGP card can help you out.

In the meantime have you looked into getting more ram? I was shocked at the difference when I upgraded from 1 gig to 2. It was like getting a new machine.

Hey SS, I'd advocate waiting and do "the system thing"... I've got an nVidia 7600GS 512M running in an 8X AGP slot and I've maxxed it out performance wise. I get 27-30 FPS with everything except lightshafts and fog configured. I've tweaked about every setting I can for video. My mobo uses a 2.14Ghz AMD CPU and has 2Gb RAM under XP SP3. It ain't gonna get any better 'til I get a newer system methinks...

AGP has gone "by the wayside" with PCI-X slots and newer video technology in the mobos these days...

I have a little better card 7300 GT, but with factory clocks i cant run SH4 ive overclocked a lot, and put a fan to cool the card, and now i can play well sh4 (Photographic filters and 4x aa, volumetric fog). Maybe before buying try overclock, you just need to be carefull not to fry the card.

I started with 512k, upgraded to 2gb months ago. First thing I did.

I have a BFG 6800GT AGP in my wife's system that I'm about to swap out for an Ati X1950 AGP I have laying around. PM me and maybe we can work something out.

Hate to say it, but a 6200 is not an improvement. Went from a radeon 9250 256mb to Geforce 6200 256mb (both AGP); frames dropped. :nope:

9250 is little faster, but 6200 supports DX9 and higher shader-models. Bought the card for that more modern support, but ofcourse games requiring that support are to much for that card to handle. :shifty:

For AGP, the only decent card still on sale (around here) is the 7600GT (or maybe ATI equivalent).

Started saving up after that "6200 mishap" and went all the way. No upgrading (or worries) for me in the near future.

* Trust "them" and "they" will royally you-know-what you. Half the time "they" are not 100% sure of what "they" are talking about anyway.

Yep, it's nice to know someone else made the same mistakes I did.:dead: I'm still thinking about putting the Radeon back in, as what you said about shaders is so true.

I've found several higher-end AGP cards online, but I'm thinking I don't want to spend close to $200 for a decent card when a little over four times that will get me what looks to be a pretty nice whole new system.

Overclocking my card brought me 30% improvement :arrgh!:
I read news of new nvidia series hot a lot, nvidia was hiding that was a hardware failure, now its on legal things, and the wall street thing drops 30%, and they loss 3000 million of theyre capital, thats i heard.

Don't know about Nvidia's latest antics, but OC'ing a card that's too slow to begin with won't gain you much. The more horsepower you have, the more gain you're gonna get.

No use doing it to a 6200, trust me. :nope:
Think a new system is your best bet, AGP is being fazed out. I remember buying 512mb PC133 SDRAM for ~E80,- for an old system; I spend the same on my current 2GB DDR2 PC1066! 4 x the size, much much faster but the same price. Older tech is overpriced IMHO. Get PCI-E and upgrading in the future will be easier as well.

I completely agree. IMHO, the minimum in order to run SH4 modded with all the eye-candy and in a nice wide resolution (if you also have the monitor for it) is a 8600GTS. Anything less, and you have to take out options.