Graphics Card Question

Technology and Gaming
#1

Let me get this out of the way: I know almost nothing about customizing computers. I’ve never swapped any parts inside of my rig.

A couple of days ago, Mass Effect was listed for $5 on Steam. I had heard the game was cool, I looked it up, and I bought it. But when I ran it the next day (10 gb download…three…hours…), I got the same error that many with outdated graphics cards got: “Failed to compile…” at the splash screen.
So I looked it up, aparantly I don’t have Pixel Shader 3.0 compatibility. I looked up what graphics card I had… I have a Radeon X300, an 8 year old Shader Model 2.0 graphics card.
Hooray. :frowning:

So now I’m gonna raise up a lot of money to nab myself a modern card. But I’m not sure what to get that would be good. I was looking at a Zotac GeForce GTX 480, but that seems to be like, top-tier of the graphics hierarchy. And it’s 500 bucks. Yikes.
I don’t do many modern PC games… Mass Effect would be my most modern PC game I have. [Portal was 2007 right? I think ME was '08]. I’m looking for a cheap yet powerful graphics card that can do at least Shader Model 3.0. Is the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX pretty good for that? I know that Crysis was it’s poster child practically, so I’m certain that would be enough to play ME.

Any economical yet modern suggestions, and advice on what to look out for, would be much appreciated! Custom computer parts seem to be a pretty difficult thing to dive into…

#2

The Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 is supposed to be a powerful card for fairly cheap. I feel your pain though, until just recently I was running a 6 year old iMac (which was already a few years behind the curve when it was brand new)

#3

please post your specs so we can see which video cards are compatible/will not be bottlenecked

#4

My 8800 gt is looking pretty dated for a lot of newer games (at least in terms of how many settings i can max out). I think I’ll probably have to update soon.
I’ve heard the geforce 250 is a decent upgrade as well

#5

Windows XP Media Center Edition, Version 2002, Service Pack 3
Sony VAIO, 512 MB of RAM

Here’s what device manager says…I omitted things I knew for certain weren’t necessary for you to know (disk drives, mice, etc)

ACPI Multiprocessor PC
ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series
OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 3.2GHz (this is listed twice…do I have two processors?)
A3MVK57F IDE Controller (don’t know what this is)

is there anything else I need to list? I don’t really see anything else worth mentioning on the Device Manager, although there’s about 8 “Intel” things under system devices…things like PCI bridge and interface controller.

#6

Go ATi. You can get a single 5770 for $150 or less and it’ll run laps around the ancient 8800GTX.

#7

You are definitely going to want to get more RAM when you buy your card as well. I don’t know how you’re managing on 512mb but it can’t be very well. Get at least 2GB, 3gb or 4gb is preferable. Your CPU is decent enough, since it’s a P4 and listed twice, that means it’s hyperthreaded (simulates having two cores while only having one).

I would recommend either a Radeon 5770 or a GeForce GTX 260. Both are good performers and can be had for about $150-$180 on newegg.com.

The most important thing though is that you make sure what your bus speeds are. That is, you need to make sure what kind of RAM your system takes, and you need to make sure your computer has a PCI-Express x16 slot. It should, but with somewhat older computers you can’t be entirely sure. Make sure you have a slot that looks like this:

600×617 63.3 KB

If you don’t, then you have an AGP slot and you’ll be greatly limited in what kind of card you can get. As for the RAM speeds, use CPU-Z to find out what kind of RAM you need.

#8

what’s up with graphics cards having so many numbers these days? I just got a Nvidia EVGA GTX 275… does that mean it’s better than the 265 version?

#9

your p4 will bottleneck any card around the 8800,you need a new computer

#10

:awesome:

#11

The CPU, RAM and GPU are the bottleneck.

Guess what that means?

#12

I would recommend upgrading your CPU to something more modern (You can get a Quad 2.5Ghz CPU for $150 over at neweegg.com!). A RAM boost would be a good idea also 4GB is good. For G-cards I prefer Readon just because of it’s better pricing over Nvidia, Nvidia does have nicer drivers though.

If you want Nvidia G-cards go for the Geforce 250’ish and above cards or if you want Readon G-cards go for the 57xx and above G-cards. Biggest problem is if you don’t have the right motherboard sockets PCI-E 2.0 x16 is what you need for newer G-cards and LGA 775 CPU socket for anything above a single-core CPU. If you don’t have those you’ll need a new computer, although if you follow my advice you’ll basically have a new computer.

My specs are:
Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz CPU
4GB of DDR2 RAM
(Proud of this one.) Readon 5870
And about 8 case fans all 120mm or above.

I can play Crysis with flawless performance but i don’t usually push the graphics much just the standard 4x AA and 8x AF.

#13

I would recommend upgrading your CPU to something more modern (You can get a Quad 2.5Ghz CPU for $150 over at neweegg.com!). A RAM boost would be a good idea also 4GB is good. For G-cards I prefer Readon just because of it’s better pricing over Nvidia, Nvidia does have nicer drivers though.

If you want Nvidia G-cards go for the Geforce 250’ish and above cards or if you want Readon G-cards go for the 57xx and above G-cards. Biggest problem is if you don’t have the right motherboard sockets PCI-E 2.0 x16 is what you need for newer G-cards and LGA 775 CPU socket for anything above a single-core CPU. If you don’t have those you’ll need a new computer, although if you follow my advice you’ll basically have a new computer.

My specs are:
Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz CPU
4GB of DDR2 RAM
(Proud of this one.) Readon 5870
And about 8 case fans all 120mm or above.

I can play Crysis with flawless performance but i don’t usually push the graphics much just the standard 4x AA and 8x AF. Uggh stupid internet froze when posting, sry for the double post.

#14

+1 to Orpheon for awesome reply.

I don’t have a whole lot of money right now - maybe towards the end of the year I’ll upgrade my RAM but for now I’m fine with scraping by with the bare minimum. I really don’t mind playing with lowest settings - I do it all the time :stuck_out_tongue:

This isn’t really my computer - it’s the family one. I don’t think I’ll swap CPU or get a new computer ( :rolleyes: ) lol. I looked online for my particular VAIO and apparantly it’ll take up to 4 GB of RAM. Sometime later this week I’ll look inside for the slots because I couldn’t find that info online.

But yeah, the nVidia GEforce 250 looks good. If it fits I’ll get it probably.

#15

While I HAVE an 8800 GTS (a kinda funny rare model with 640MB video ram), and I’m about to replace it with a 250 GTS, it’s not for a performance boost, since I’ve actually seen benchmarking that puts the 250 BARELY ahead of the 8800.

Really, they just kinda made the hardware more power efficient and cooler between the GeForce 8800 and 250. Still, it’ll beat having a potentially breaking video card (my friend accidentally broke mine, and then repaired it, but it’s probably succumbing to the long-term stress of the incident and causing a lot of system crashes).

OP, get a new computer. Go to Newegg.com and look for gaming computers.

#16

Almost definitely AGP… Sony Vaio - I’d dare to even say onboard GFX…

Socket 478 CPU and DDR RAM…

Try and find a cheap ebay bundle that someone is selling after an upgrade… ?

#17

Or…custom build a new pc over time :slight_smile: maybe buy now pay later thats always cool.

#18

This thread is relevant to my interests…

I have a shitty GeForce 8500 GT. I would like to get a GTS 250, or even a GTX 260.

Here are my system speccs: (I think)

perating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.100216-1514)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: Phoenix - Award BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor 3500+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2GHz
Memory: 1024MB RAM
Page File: 494MB used, 1965MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode

#19

Honestly people stop going Nvidia. ATi does not only have the most powerful card available, but they have a better price to performance ratio, so your getting what your paying for.

#20

This.

GO Ati.

Good one for money and quality performance would be reccomended by me an;

Asus Ati Radeon HD 5850.

Nvidia have the benefit that they are known MORE then Ati, even idiots that know fuck all about pc’s boast about how they got a new Nvidia card.

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