Ghraphics Card Question

[SilentOtto]

In a few select places in the world, like the USA, northern Europe, and such, $350 or 300€ may be a small sum of money (for some) to spend in a graphics card. In southern Europe (Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy) 300€ is more than half the legally minimum monthly salary. And let's not get started about eastern Europe, or the really really poor countries in our earth.

BTW back in topic I am thinking on a 7950gt for my upgrade, I've found one at 170€, passive cooler (my 3 last graphic cards all had cooler troubles, one died from that so I hate ventilators!) and I still think its crazy spending that much on a card. The cheapest 8800 here is around 270€, up to >500€. I find those numbers, for a component of a toy almost obscene.

I wish OPEN GL was more widely used for games, like IL2 Sturmovik, so we wouldnt have to worry about a single company decisions so as when to upgrade. Open standards and freedom, vs. pure business interests. I have a windows computer just to play games, and I hate needing XP just for that purpose. I hope to have some years before vista-only games show up, that's a train I dont want to take.

I too have my right to a nightly forum rant don't I?

[d@rk51d3]

Originally Posted by seafarer

I was given SH4 by my nephew as a gift (had not bought it myself as I figured my machine was too long in the tooth - althoug SH3 runs fine on it). It runs surprisingly well - certainly playable, although time compression can be a bit bizarre to use, and sure, the video is not as visually stunning as it could be.

My machine:

2.8GHz PIV
2.5GB RAM (2x1GB plus 2x256MB - PC2700 DDR, CAS=3)
Saphire ATI 9600XT 256MB AGP video

About the only upgrade I can really do is the video. So I should have my HIS ATI X1650 Pro IceQII 512MB card tomorrow (from newegg.com), and a new 460watt power supply (from different place) to replace my current 300watt. That should make the eye candy in Sh4 better.

But, it has been quite enjoyable with the machine as is, with a couple of exceptions. Cruising around Pearl does cause some sluggishness in mouse response, as does high time compression modes (above 2048x). I have no idea about frame rates, as I never pay any attention to them - I just go by how things look on screen to my eyes (fps, to my mind = who cares? as long as the viewing experience is acceptable/workable).

Certainly a newer, faster machine would be nicer, but running SH4 on older hardware is quite acceptable.

PS. running XP SP2, as I have no interest in buying Vista for this machine.

I have the same setup and the same dilemma. I am seriously considering that ATI card too. The 9600 works, but does struggle a bit, and there seems to be no point in DX10 compatiblity at the moment.

If you do get it, let me know how it goes.

[Gh3ngis]

I have just bought an ATi X1950 pro. I have 2 gb RAM and an old P4 3.2 and runs SHIV no problems on decent settings (not the highest). IMHO you dont need to run SH on everything maxxed out as pointed out by somebody else as long as it looks half decent with some eye candy, gameplay is what its all about.

Decent card on a budget, I paid £115 for mine which is about $233 or 168 Euro.


Good luck

Gh3ngis

[Bezoomney]

Originally Posted by Gh3ngis

I have just bought an ATi X1950 pro. I have 2 gb RAM and an old P4 3.2 and runs SHIV no problems on decent settings (not the highest). IMHO you dont need to run SH on everything maxxed out as pointed out by somebody else as long as it looks half decent with some eye candy, gameplay is what its all about.

Decent card on a budget, I paid £115 for mine which is about $233 or 168 Euro.


Good luck

Gh3ngis

Same here, P4 (s478) 3.0Ghz, 2gb ram, ATI 1950 pro (AGP x8). Just upgraded from ATI 9550 pro, it's a major improvement.
SH4 runs perfectly with all settings maxed out.
I recommend it!

[sniperdoc]

Originally Posted by GnarPow

8800 For The Win! Hands down. Get the 640mb and dont waste money on any other 8 series unless its a GTX or Ultra

And for a little input: Me and my friend did a test the other day to see how the 8 series stacked up to the 7 series. We used Half Life: Lost Coast video test as our base and maxed out the settings. He had a E6600 and SLI OCd 7900GS's. I have a E6400 and a 640 OCd 8800GTS.

We turned the settings up and let the test run. Even with my crappier processor I destroyed him in the test. I got 108fps as a average and he got around 50 something. So for everyone who recommends 7 series. Just stop it, they arent worth it. They are already outdated because they cant play any of the newer games in DX10 and they dont post #s even close to the 8 series.

You might think your saving money now, but your wasting it in the long run.

Also no one even look at anything less than a 8800. THe other 8 series are crap.

My 2 cents

I must agree with this response. Wait a bit longer, save up the cash, and get an 8800 series card. It doesn't have to be the huge 8800GTX, but I highly recommend spending the money to at least get the 640MB version of the GTS...

By purchasing a 7000 series PCI-X card, you're wasting money in the long run. If you have an AGP based motherboard, I can only say that you really should invest in either a 650i or 680i SLI type board...

AGP still works very well for most of the games that everyone here seems to play (the old school crowd). But if there's any desire to play the next-gen games like Farcry 2, Crysis, etc... at DX10 levels, I highly recommend, can't stress the highly part, a card =>8800GTS 640MB.

By purchasing older hardware you'll have to upgrade sooner and thereby spend more money. I make it a habit of purchasing top of the line hardware, that way it'll last at LEAST 3 -4 years before becoming semi-obscolete. I was stuck in AGP until about a year ago, when I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to the system specs you see below.

Given that I have an SLI based motherboard, will mean that in the future, I'll at least be able to put another 8800GTX in my system and go SLI with a bit of a performance increase without having to purchase a major card... but I'm sure there'll be better technology out by then anyways. I won't go SLI until Vista sorts out their SLI driver issues or unless Crysis and Farcry 2 really need it.

[longam]

Pfft, I stopped the upgrade game years ago when I calculated the amount of money I was sinking into hardware every year. I try to space it out over 4 years now sometime more depending on the trend. DX10 and 64bit is still struggling to make a place in the market.

Still running the P4 w/7800gs on AGP with NP at all, spill some cash into it now and then for little extras, but I can wait 1 or 2 years until the $500 cards are $150.00 and the dual core mobo’s are in the bargain bin.

[sniperdoc]

Originally Posted by longam

Pfft, I stopped the upgrade game years ago when I calculated the amount of money I was sinking into hardware every year. I try to space it out over 4 years now sometime more depending on the trend. DX10 and 64bit is still struggling to make a place in the market.

Still running the P4 w/7800gs on AGP with NP at all, spill some cash into it now and then for little extras, but I can wait 1 or 2 years until the $500 cards are $150.00 and the dual core mobo’s are in the bargain bin.

:hmm: All depends on what type of games you enjoy and at was gfx options you can handle said games...

I have the 7800GS in my personal server (was my old system) and it definitely "extended" the AGP bus' life. But, it was definitely time to do the upgrade if I expected to see any of the newer games' eyecandy.

Is DX10 struggling to get a foothold... sure. Will it become a standard... no doubt about it.

Although, it's great to see people coding DX10 for XP...

It took most countries more than 3 years to adopt XP from Windows 2000 or 98. I imagine that's how long it'll take to make the switch with Vista before it becomes a mainstream O.S. Same with Office 2007... it's so new and the new .docx, .xlsx, etc formats are so non-mainstream it'll take forever for that to take effect... Some of my staff are still using Office 2000 SR-1 on their Dell L150's

[IrischKapitan]

Office 97, I still use it in work....


Since I have vista I'm planning to sink $180 in an extra gig of RAM and a XFX GeForce 8600GT XXX GDDR3 version, I've beign hearing good reviews about one

I hope that and my Core Duo Viiv processor, then SH4 will run smoothly...