Video card upgrade questions.
By
Hawkeyed,
Posted on: 2009-04-29 12:05 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
I run with a Nvid 8600gt.
I run with everything running including it being set at 1920x??? it's wide screen.
Hawkeyed
@Hawkeyed
P.E.R.C. Senior Pinnacle Rep
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"Nothing grabs your attention like a pink fluffy bunny with imps dancing around it" -Kranny
I'm having a grand ole time with my NVIDIA GTX 260.
I originally had an ATI Radeon 4850, but apparently ATI issues and CoH still go hand-in-hand. I'm totally uncompromising, so I didn't want to turn off certain things because either ATI doesn't support CoH very well or vice versa. It was the same thing back in my ATI 9800 and x800 days. I tended to swap every generation or so with video cards between NVIDIA and ATI, but in the long run, NVIDIA games just look nicer.
ATI might have raw power and price point, but either NVIDIA writes better drivers (depending on the version, of course...some versions can fail spectacularly) or game programmers just work with NVIDIA hardware more often. I just got tired of surfing several game tech support forums just to get my ATI card to look as nice/better than the NVIDIA that I just RMAed the sucker.
NVIDIA just...works. For me, anyway. Depending on what you can spend, I think the GTX 260 is around 190 now, and the 9 series is a lot lower. Check newegg.com and see what people say.
P.S. The games I tested NVIDIA vs ATI on were CoH, Fallout 3, LOTRO, Guild Wars, Left 4 Dead, Counter-strike: Source, Sins of a Solar Empire and Tabula Rasa. Your mileage may vary with other games I have no idea about.
"You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one."
� James A. Froude (1818-1894)
Current specs:
Windows 7 beta
Core2Duo 6300
4g RAM
Dell 375w PSU
GeForce 7900 GS w/256m --- This is what I want to upgrade, and nothing else!
1. Is getting a Radeon still asking for pain in COH? Or are things relatively okay-ish these days? Note - I'm running Windows 7 at the moment. Assume I'm reasonably computer literate and know to update drivers and such.
2. Anyone playing at 1920x1200? What kind of card? Detail settings?
3. Where do you think the "sweet spot" is for an inexpensive card is, price /performance-wise? Sometimes I've seen (on sale) GF 9600 GSO's for as little as $50, sometimes 9600 GT's for $75. ATI's new 4770 is $109 with a $10 mail-in rebate. Right now I'm considering $100 my absolute max.
4. Any card makers to avoid? Or that you swear by?
5. How long does it take for competition to make prices drop down? I'd get a GSO or GT for $50.
I've got a GF 7900 GS w/256m right now, and would like an inexpensive upgrade! My most demanding games are City of Heroes (natch), The Witcher EE, Devil May Cry 4 and Demigod (performance on all is acceptable, but I'd like better). Everything else, like Guild Wars, Exteel, etc., are pretty easily pleased. I'm currently playing at 1600x? at Performance settings, and while generally pleased, I'd like to turn up the pretties up. I seem to average around 25-30 FPS depending on what's going on.
SLI/Crossfire is not an option on my motherboard or with my current power supply. The machine is still under warranty, so I'm not going to upgrade either anytime soon. I do NOT need to run the biggest, baddest games out there at 1920x1200 at the highest detail, nor do I care about FPS games like Crysis. I will NOT be overclocking.
Whatever I get, though, it must be fine with City of Heroes.