I need a new video card

Joes2Silly · Post by **Joes2Silly** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:27 pm

I just bought Halo CE and Doom 3, and I booted up Doom 3 and it ran slow. So I overclocked my poor 64 MB video card to 400 MHz (I could have cooked a borrito on it, thats how hot it was) and it still ran slow! So after my computer crashing 3 times after I try to max the overclcocking settings, I decided I need a new video card. What should I do

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:43 pm

Get a new video card.

(you asked what you should do, not what video card you should get) I'm personally in the same boat, except my whole computer sucks and I need a way cheap new one.
current specs:
brand, compaq
cpu, amd athlon xp 2100+
ram, 512 mb 266mhz
hd, 80 gb
video, gforce 2, eats 32mb of my ram
windows xp(worst part but will have to stay the same)

Post by **Sparkfist** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:07 pm

If you're Nvidia go get at least a G-force 4, if you're an ATI guy you need to get at least a Radion 9000. Now read this I mean get these as the lowest, get better if you want a faster better performing card.

Xiro · Post by **Xiro** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:09 pm

what mobo do you have and do you have a price range?

a lot of good graphics cards arent AGP anymore but PCI-e, youll have to get mobo information to find out what kind if slots you have.

Post by **Sparkfist** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:12 pm

Xiro wrote:what mobo do you have and do you have a price range?

a lot of good graphics cards arent AGP anymore but PCI-e, youll have to get mobo information to find out what kind if slots you have.

You don't need a PCI-E card for Doom 3. You can get away with a Radion 9600, or if it's AGP a X200 would work.

Xiro · Post by **Xiro** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:17 pm

Sparkfist wrote:You don't need a PCI-E card for Doom 3. You can get away with a Radion 9600, or if it's AGP a X200 would work.

this is true, but a radion 9600 will only be good until november when vista comes out, its going to completely up minimum PC specs with its minimum of 1 gig of ram, 2.4 GHz processor, etc. He could spend a medium amount now and a lot later, or a lot now and none later...

Radon199 · Post by **Radon199** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:19 pm

I just ( as in 2 weeks ago) picked up a GeForce 6200 256 mb and i'm very pleased. I used to have a GeForce 5200 and Halo CE ran ok but laged bad on the Single player. Oblivion ran at about 2 fps and looked worse than morrowind. With my new 6200 that I picked up for around $100 Canadian Halo CE ran flawlessly with everything maxed out in story and in Multyplayer and Oblivion ran on medium settings and only really got bad when I was in the forrest.

To be blunt the 6200 should be able to run most new PC games rather well but some games like Oblivion and most likly the games that require 128+ mb or vram will run but don't expect to be able to max them out.

As far as Doom 3 my 5200 ran that well and my 6200 makes it run like a dream

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:21 pm

Sparkfist, which of those that you said would be the most bang for your buck? I don't think anything faster would help in my existing computer since the agp is only 4x. I think a reformat is best for now since it has a ton of uneeded stuff that bogs it down.

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:29 pm

Go for a 6800...Doom 3 and Halo CE work flawlessly at the max settings (gfx wise, like shading...blah)........Its really cheap too.

sam fisher · Post by **sam fisher** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:32 pm

Will my dual core pentium D 2.8ghz run vista.

HomicidalBarber · Post by **HomicidalBarber** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:38 pm

I think your best bet for money value is a 6600 GT, that thing is smoking for how cheap it is. Plus I think its PCI express and AGP. Just check up on your power supply first.

Post by **Triton** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:48 pm

i know for a fact that the pny geforce 2 mx 200 32mb is a fantastic GFX card for its age, i can run HL2 and doom 3 at +/- 30 FPS with medium settings, i need to upgrade but considering the age and ram of the thing its really pretty damn solid! i plan on getting a geforce 6600GT sometime when i have a job

Post by **Sparkfist** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:16 pm

vskid wrote:Sparkfist, which of those that you said would be the most bang for your buck? I don't think anything faster would help in my existing computer since the agp is only 4x. I think a reformat is best for now since it has a ton of uneeded stuff that bogs it down.

Well this is newegg's page for the 9600, I was unable to find an X200 ATI card.

Also Xiro about what you said. For Vista, I think we should worry about that when it's released, or if it's ever released.

cowsgoquack101 · Post by **cowsgoquack101** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:39 pm

First of all what type of connection do you have? PCI-E, AGP, or just PCI? I have a Radeon 9250 that runs Doom 3 well on medium settings it just bogs down on a Celeron processor

.

Joes2Silly · Post by **Joes2Silly** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:43 pm

Thanks but I need to spend the least amount of money I can (but I do need a AGP card). Either way I only want to spend a little over $100