Cheap video card that will run CoX well?
By
alienuterus,
Posted on: 2010-09-30 16:15 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Well, you can always put your new card in the next computer you buy. Aside from that, it depends on what you mean by "cheap" and "runs CoX well." There's a 9800GT at newegg for $69.99 ($49.99 after mail-in rebate), which is about as cheap as you can go and still enable ultra mode (but not at max settings).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500154
EDIT: Of course, you need to determine what kind of slot you have for the graphics card: PCI-E, AGP, or just plain PCI. The card I suggested is PCI-E, but if you have an AGP slot it's no good to you.
What kind of available slot are we talking about? AGP, PCI or PCI-e?
Sorry. I have a PCI Express x16 port with 300 watts. Thanks for the responses.
Also, I usually play CoX at the minimum graphics settings, and I like it that way. It looks more comic book like. So Ultra mode isn't a big deal for me.
@Joshua.
300 watts is going to be the kicker there - you'll be able to use higher-end cards with that PCIe x16 slot, but 300 watts is not going to be enough to power most of today's cards. Ideally you'd want 500 or more, depending on which card you choose.
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Yeah. The tech support guy said 250 or 300 watts. So, I'm going to have to increase the power supply as well?
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Originally Posted by macskull
300 watts is going to be the kicker there - you'll be able to use higher-end cards with that PCIe x16 slot, but 300 watts is not going to be enough to power most of today's cards. Ideally you'd want 500 or more, depending on which card you choose.
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@Joshua.
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Depends, first of all, we need to define what runs CoH well means.|
Originally Posted by Forefinger_
Yeah. The tech support guy said 250 or 300 watts. So, I'm going to have to increase the power supply as well?
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- If you mean, runs CoH in Ultra Mode Graphics, you are going to need a new power supply, and will be spending over $100 for a GPU
- If you mean, runs CoH well, but doesn't have to do Ultra Mode, then you probably won't need a new power supply and can spend under $100
Thing is, even medium range graphics cards from several years back will happily run City of Heroes in high resolutions and high quality levels with the Classic rendering mode (blob shadows, no reflections, no ambient occlusion). Even a Radeon 9600 XT from 2003 would push CoH in 1024*768 with decent particle counts and draw distances.
So you don't need to go spending mega-bucks to get good non-ultra performance. Basically any mid-range part from that 2003 9600 XT up to today is going to run circles around your integrated Geforce.
Now, if I was my money on the line, I'd go with the RadeonHD 5670, as it will happily boot and run at full clocks on 250 watt peak power supplies, and you can pick one up for under $75 if you shop the mail-in-rebates.
Thanks, everyone. I'm going to do some shopping.
Edit: I chose the linked one, based on price and my 300 watt power limit.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Galaxy+-...&skuId=9957955
Will it do the job? What should I look for specifically when looking at what will run CoX?
@Joshua.
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I wouldn't buy a Galaxy card; they're really low end in quality. My personal "run far away from" list for any peripheral are anything from Galaxy or Diamond Multimedia.|
Originally Posted by Forefinger_
Thanks, everyone. I'm going to do some shopping.
Edit: I chose the linked one, based on price and my 300 watt power limit. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Galaxy+-...&skuId=9957955 Will it do the job? What should I look for specifically when looking at what will run CoX? |
Check out Newegg for cards; I've had good luck with Asus and Evga... you'll also be able to get more card for the money from Newegg than Best Buy.
I do know the 8400 was a budget card in it's day; the gaming cards were the 8800 series. Nvidia had an interesting model designation, a x200 or x400 series (7400, 8400, 9400) were low end while the x800 were the high end. From that point GS was lower than GT which was lower than GTX.
I had an Nvidia 8800GTX card that I replaced shortly before Ultra Mode hit that was perfectly capable of driving the game at 1920x1080 and around 40-60fps so an 8800 of any stripe should be adequate for your needs. Hmm, I just remembered your 300 watt PSU; that might not push a card like that.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
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it won't.|
Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome
I wouldn't buy a Galaxy card; they're really low end in quality. My personal "run far away from" list for any peripheral are anything from Galaxy or Diamond Multimedia.
Check out Newegg for cards; I've had good luck with Asus and Evga... you'll also be able to get more card for the money from Newegg than Best Buy. I do know the 8400 was a budget card in it's day; the gaming cards were the 8800 series. Nvidia had an interesting model designation, a x200 or x400 series (7400, 8400, 9400) were low end while the x800 were the high end. From that point GS was lower than GT which was lower than GTX. I had an Nvidia 8800GTX card that I replaced shortly before Ultra Mode hit that was perfectly capable of driving the game at 1920x1080 and around 40-60fps so an 8800 of any stripe should be adequate for your needs. Hmm, I just remembered your 300 watt PSU; that might not push a card like that. |
The list of 5670's I listed earlier are going to be the best bang / buck / watt, but they are also $30 over the users price range.
The $50 market is basically full of junk. There's pretty much nothing in there that is going to be that much more powerful than an integrated chipset.
Forefinger: I'm going to be honest. What you should be looking for is to spend a bit more money than $50.
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I'd agree normally, but he's stated he plays at min settings and wants to save his cash for a new system. It sounds like he just wants to be able to play again. Given that, I'd say he could get away with spending 30 bucks even--at newegg, not Best Buy.|
Originally Posted by je_saist
The $50 market is basically full of junk. There's pretty much nothing in there that is going to be that much more powerful than an integrated chipset.
Forefinger: I'm going to be honest. What you should be looking for is to spend a bit more money than $50. |
In fact, Forefinger, you can get the same card you picked from several manufacturers for $30-35 from Newegg.
Mainly I'm trying to find a card that will run on 250 - 300 watts. Yeah, I'm trying to be a bit cheap, but I'm willing to go to $ 100 or so to get my comp running well again, but I'm limited by that power supply for the new card.
And the reason I was shopping Bestbuy.com was so I could just go to the store and pick one up and not have to wait on the new card to be shipped to me.
@Joshua.
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BestBuy normally overcharges on everything... |
Originally Posted by Forefinger_
Mainly I'm trying to find a card that will run on 250 - 300 watts. Yeah, I'm trying to be a bit cheap, but I'm willing to go to $ 100 or so to get my comp running well again, but I'm limited by that power supply for the new card.
And the reason I was shopping Bestbuy.com was so I could just go to the store and pick one up and not have to wait on the new card to be shipped to me. |
Case in point, a Geforce 8400 GS has a street price of $30. Best Buy is basically charging you $20 to drive to the store.
In some cases, yes, paying the brick and mortar price might be worth it.
I'm... not entirely convinced on that when it comes to computer components.
Now, I'm going to be doing my best to try and convince you to buy a card with and AMD/ATi chipset. This thread pretty much explains why: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...01#post3237001
BestBuy online does carry RadeonHD 5670's.
Problem I have is that the cheapest does weigh in at $100, neverminding the one that's nearly twice the street value at $150.
Okay, in all fairness, if you were able to find one of the Sapphire 5670's in Best Buy, you actually would be paying about the same price to have one shipped UPS-Next Day from newegg.com.
I guess the problem I have is that buying stuff like this from Best Buy just reeks of I've got money to burn. That doesn't really sound like the situation you are in. It sounds like you are stuck to a really tight budget. So I'll give you the question I'm asking: Is it really worth it to pay Best Buy's inflated price when I could just wait a couple days and save some money?
Now, as to the actual card? Would I get anything under the 5670?
That's a kind of hard question to answer. There's not a lot of price / performance difference difference in the sub $75 market. Generally for these markets vendors tend to be limited on the amount of power the graphics card can draw, which puts a pretty hard limit on the amount of rendering power they can manage:
ATi Theoretical performance: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=88&pgno=3
Nvidia Theoretical performance: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=88&pgno=7
With a throughput of 6,200 megapixels, the 5670 isn't that far off from the 4670 (600 megapixels), or the 9600 GSO (8,800 or 4,800 megapixels). It's still significantly more powerful than that 8400 GS you looked at (3,600 megapixels), but the 8400 GS isn't that far off from a modern 5450 (2,600 megapixels) or 5550 (4,400 megapixels).
Now, I wouldn't buy any Nvidia card that wasn't branded BFG, EVGA, or XFX, and I seriously doubt you'll find any Nvidia card at a Best Buy from one of those brands (given that one is dead and Best Buy no longer carries them) at a price that isn't ripping you off.
Hopefully that's enough information for you to make a choice about what to buy.
Thanks a lot for all the info, and your responses. I'll do some more research.
@Joshua.
Reading the posted articles makes me want to avoid NVIDIA if at all possible. I guess I'll be going after a Radeon.
I found this one for not too much: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150390
Will it run CoX pretty well?
@Joshua.
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Originally Posted by Forefinger_
Reading the posted articles makes me want to avoid NVIDIA if at all possible. I guess I'll be going after a Radeon.
I found this one for not too much: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150390 Will it run CoX pretty well? |
I have one close to that for my onboard video solution, CoH refused to load, litterly, never even got to the login screen. that may be a model higher than my onboard, but, I wouldn't bank on it...
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Great. I already bought one. I'll install it and see how it goes. I'll be keeping the receipt.
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Originally Posted by AncientGuardian
I have one close to that for my onboard video solution, CoH refused to load, litterly, never even got to the login screen. that may be a model higher than my onboard, but, I wouldn't bank on it...
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@Joshua.
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You should be ok, just download the latest driver. From looking over Newegg's customer reviews of that card it sounds like the driver that ships with the card is crap. Of course every driver that ships with a card will be outdated by the time it's burned to CD, packaged with the card and shipped off to the store.|
Originally Posted by Forefinger_
Great. I already bought one. I'll install it and see how it goes. I'll be keeping the receipt.
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I imagine several of the "ATI Gurus" on the forums could give you the lowdown on the various drivers.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
I tried it out on CoH earlier. It seemed to run it smoother than my old GPU did. Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone.
@Joshua.
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One of the common comments on Newegg about your card was that it got hot... you may want to snag a slot fan to increase airflow over the card. A slot fan is simply an exhaust fan that fits in an expansion slot... they're cheap and should help if you have airflow issues.
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Originally Posted by Forefinger_
I tried it out on CoH earlier. It seemed to run it smoother than my old GPU did. Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone.
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COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
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Originally Posted by Forefinger_
I tried it out on CoH earlier. It seemed to run it smoother than my old GPU did. Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone.
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awesome. My onboard must just suck then, lol
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Your probably looking at an ATI 5670 (which can run normal gfx just fine) and does not require any aux power. The card is a bit pricey at around $80 but should be more than you need (if you don't mind non ultra).|
Originally Posted by Forefinger_
My NVIDIA Geforce 6150 LE GPU burned up and I'm having to use the computer with it disabled just to be able to use it without the resolution and color being on the lowest setting, but I can't play CoX. HP technical support says that my comp has another slot for a video card, and that installing another one will fix things where I can play CoH and other stuff. My computer is 5 years old and I don't want to spend too much money on it, when that money could go towards a new computer at some point. I just want to know if there are any good, cheap video cards that run CoX well, so I can make getting back to playing cost effective. Thanks.
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Can it run ultra mode? Yes but only at fairly minimal settings. In normal mode you can park yourself under atlas and watch power fireworks shows and the card is fine.
I'd say this card is a reasonable compromise since your probably looking for a card that pulls under 75W under full load.
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CoH in WQHD
If I recall, the Radeon HD4770 was designed for low power consumption -- something like 75W. You might be able to get by with something like that if you can find one somewhere. It should run some of the lower end ultra mode too even though that isn't important to you. When these were new they ran around $130 so they should be under $100 by now.
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I'll look into that; thanks. I kept the side panel off for better ventilation, but now there are two fans on the computer, and one on the game card, plus the side's open. I hope that helps to keep it cool.|
Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome
One of the common comments on Newegg about your card was that it got hot... you may want to snag a slot fan to increase airflow over the card. A slot fan is simply an exhaust fan that fits in an expansion slot... they're cheap and should help if you have airflow issues.
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I went with a Radeon HD 4350 card from VisionTek. It's been working well.
@Joshua.
My NVIDIA Geforce 6150 LE GPU burned up and I'm having to use the computer with it disabled just to be able to use it without the resolution and color being on the lowest setting, but I can't play CoX. HP technical support says that my comp has another slot for a video card, and that installing another one will fix things where I can play CoH and other stuff. My computer is 5 years old and I don't want to spend too much money on it, when that money could go towards a new computer at some point. I just want to know if there are any good, cheap video cards that run CoX well, so I can make getting back to playing cost effective. Thanks.
@Joshua.