PC Specs for best enjoyment

[Fenris_Wolf]

You need a AGP card just for running SH3? Keep in mind that SH3 does not take advantage of the newer sets of pixel shading techniques that GeForce 6 and 7 series GPUs provide. Therefore a Radeon 9800 Pro will be more than adequate for the game, it even provides support for the next generation pixel shaders that it's competitors, the GeForce 5 series GPUs do not (and it used to be the best card of it's time).

However, this choice also depends on the video resolution you want the game to run in. If you want to go up a notch over that, get a 6800 AGP card with 256mb RAM preferably to handle higher video resolutions and AA more effectively. I own one of these and it's really a beast because it used to run the heaviest games like GRAW and Blood Money very decently even though it's a 6 series card. Anything more than that for just SH3+GWX would be a waste of resources to be honest. The x1950 pro is a 7900 GT or even 7950 ultra caliber graphics card and if you do want to buy something that powerful, don't waste your money on a DirectX 9.0 GPU, get a DirectX 10 capable GPU and save another upgrade in the near future.

[Stierlitz]

Originally Posted by Fenris_Wolf

You need a AGP card just for running SH3? Keep in mind that SH3 does not take advantage of the newer sets of pixel shading techniques that GeForce 6 and 7 series GPUs provide. Therefore a Radeon 9800 Pro will be more than adequate for the game, it even provides support for the next generation pixel shaders that it's competitors, the GeForce 5 series GPUs do not (and it used to be the best card of it's time).

If I had to choose, I would go with the 6600GT all the way. Even though SH3 doesn't use PS 3.0, you still have the possibility to run other new games (although not the latest ones).

However, this choice also depends on the video resolution you want the game to run in. If you want to go up a notch over that, get a 6800 AGP card with 256mb RAM preferably to handle higher video resolutions and AA more effectively. I own one of these and it's really a beast because it used to run the heaviest games like GRAW and Blood Money very decently even though it's a 6 series card. Anything more than that for just SH3+GWX would be a waste of resources to be honest. The x1950 pro is a 7900 GT or even 7950 ultra caliber graphics card and if you do want to buy something that powerful, don't waste your money on a DirectX 9.0 GPU, get a DirectX 10 capable GPU and save another upgrade in the near future.

The 6800 is in fact a beast performance-wise, but it also is a beast when it comes to power consumption. Getting one of those means also swapping your PSU for a more powerful one.

As for getting a decent video card in order to only play SH3, yeah, that's not a wise choice. The 1950 Pro would surely be running at 30% of it's potential.

I think that the 6600GT is the best choice when it comes to playing older games. Oh, you may also want to check out the 7300GT (with DDR3 mems), which also offers a good bang for the buck.