best video cards for SH 4

[Harry708]

I'm in the market for a new computer with either windows 7 ot windows 8, does anyone know what the best video cards for running SH 4 wolves of the pacific 1.5 are?

Thanks for any advise.

[Snarf]

Well, my Nvidia GE8600 died from a combination of dust, old age, and taking a battleship into the middle of an enemy battleship group. This was in my laptop. It seemed to do alright, the FPS would drop when there was an excess of rendered smoke, but kept up well otherwise. Most newer desktop PC videocards should do just fine as long as you exceed the minimum requirements for the game

[Captain Dave]

I was running apair of 7600 gt's for years on an old Socket 939 system with no problems. Todays motherboards and video cards are light years ahead of what I had. This sim is 8 years old.

[merc4ulfate]

Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT

Been in the same computer for over five years now.

Never has a problem.

[Bubble Head]

If you are on a budget the newish GT 630 (Nvidia) is what I use - runs all of the SH games at very good frames, and is a low end gaming card.

Excellent for multimedia as well - very good if you watch a lot of digital video or do conversion.

I play a number of older and less demanding games at great frames - its cheap and has a very low power usage so you won't need to have a massive PSU.

[Harry708]

GT 630 (Nvidia) is what I use - runs all of the SH games at very good frames, and is a low end gaming card.

Yes I was looking at the NVIDIA GT 650 and also the AMD radeon HD 8570D. One of the computers I was looking at had the GT 650 and the second had a AMD Radeon HD 8570 D.

[TG626]

550gtx here, which I'd suppose from the lower number, is an inferior card to the 630 or 650. Runs SH4 fine.

[Bubble Head]

Originally Posted by Harry708

GT 630 (Nvidia) is what I use - runs all of the SH games at very good frames, and is a low end gaming card.

Yes I was looking at the NVIDIA GT 650 and also the AMD radeon HD 8570D. One of the computers I was looking at had the GT 650 and the second had a AMD Radeon HD 8570 D.

Best advice I can give is to do a good load of research on the net - I got stung a bit on my GT 630 which is a renbranded something or other that is lower... but didn't know it at the time..

There's a good site - www.gpuboss.com where you can do comparison's of prospective cards and look at their vitals.

The GT 650 is good but from what I have read for around the same price range there are better cards - can't tell you exactly what... but have a good shop and read around....

And good luck - buying a new gfx card is both daunting and fun!

[Bubble Head]

Originally Posted by merc4ulfate

Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT

Been in the same computer for over five years now.

Never has a problem.

One of the beauty's of the SH series really isn't it? - runs on fairly low specs and also isn't really that graphically intensive given the nature of the games..

Interesting that one of the least graphically intensive games is one of the ones that takes up the most of my time and also provides the best challenge.

[Snarf]

Originally Posted by Bubble Head

One of the beauty's of the SH series really isn't it? - runs on fairly low specs and also isn't really that graphically intensive given the nature of the games..

Interesting that one of the least graphically intensive games is one of the ones that takes up the most of my time and also provides the best challenge.

A good example, another Ubisoft game I bought around the same time as SH4, Assassins Creed would run at horrible FPS on the same setup and at the time for me a better graphics setup was cost prohibitive. Ever since, Assassins Creed has been shelved and SH4 gets tons of play.

[Bubble Head]

Originally Posted by Snarf

A good example, another Ubisoft game I bought around the same time as SH4, Assassins Creed would run at horrible FPS on the same setup and at the time for me a better graphics setup was cost prohibitive. Ever since, Assassins Creed has been shelved and SH4 gets tons of play.

I have owned top of the line graphics cards in the past, but as I have gotten older I have moved away from more twitch based games.. which definitely have their place among the young - but are fairly limited once you get past a certain vintage. This includes things such as FPS, RTS and racing games etc

I play simulators and strategy games primarily now - they are much more challenging, require careful brain work and also as a great side effect of this generally don't require either huge computing horse power, or graphics card power.

I even got out of flight simming just recently, mainly because I just can't be bothered playing the upgrade game anymore and when I got my GT 630 it was more in protest than anything else!

Haven't regretted it though and the games I have been playing simply don't require it.

Game play is king. Not graphics - graphics + game play are nice - but not if I have to run a zillion dollar dual titan setup to get smooth FPS (I'm looking at you Arma series... yes you ).

In the end with strategy games - (and I consider the SH series to be a strategy game - you can play it without ever going to 3D view really.. maybe the Bridge - but it can be played primarily on the charts....) graphics are just a distraction from honed and sharp gameplay...

[merc4ulfate]

I have yet to find a modern game that the Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT can not handle. Tomb Raider 2013, Inversion, Dishonored ... I test out different games all the time and I have yet to find a game that this card will not work with.

[Snarf]

Sounds like you would really enjoy Harpoon then Bubble Head. Great strategy game, no graphics except the map and little kill screens of skinking ships, and a picture of your officer relaying contact information. I've played it since the early 90's and I still go back to it every once in a while.

[bybyx]

Originally Posted by Harry708

I'm in the market for a new computer with either windows 7 ot windows 8, does anyone know what the best video cards for running SH 4 wolves of the pacific 1.5 are?

Thanks for any advise.

If you did not already aquired a videocard by now, my advice would be to decide on a budget for the pc and then choose the components based on the budget you have.

[Harry708]

Well after a lot of searching and reading about cards and all the good advice from the SubSim community I have decided to get a ATI Radeon HD 5570 2GB Video Card for the computer I am going to have built. I located one at a good price. I know it will work with SH 4 and is DirectX 11 and windows 7 compadable.