What graphics card is best for me? How to upgrade for X3?

[vindicator]

speaking of this, how does the x800xl perform in x3? its listed in this thread as midrange, which makes me wanna cry , but i guess its just another step forward for graphics technology. but i mean, do you think im gonna need to upgrade for x3? the monitor im on right now, it only goes up to the 1024x768 resolution. combined with high texture quality, courtesy of my 512mb card, along with some intense AA and AF action, im hoping to counter this lower resolution. hopefully the x800xl can keep up to it. *crosses fingers*

[Elwood J Blues]

Does the ASUS P4P800S have PCIe?

Elwood J Blues.

[FredFox]

Does the ASUS P4P800S have PCIe?

Elwood J Blues.

Looking on the ASUS website (where else) http://www.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=P4P ... E&langs=01

It doesn't look like it, just plain normal PCI. Hard luck.

[runibl]

I'm thinking of upgrading my graphic card, my specs are:

Amd Atlon Xp 2800+
1gb Ram
Club3d FX 5900XT

And i'm thinking about a Geforce 6600GT, don't think i have the money for
6800.

Would a 6600 or 6600GT make a difference?

[Al]

Best way to check is look on

www.tomshardware.com

And check out the comparison tables for graphics cards. That should give you an idea of the difference in performance between the card you have and any replacement.

Edit: Looks like a big difference between the 5900XT and a 6600GT. check here:

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphi ... ie-02.html

HTH

Al

[runibl]

cool, thanks.

[Al]

I only checked the first comparison table but you should check all of them to see what they all say and take a kind of average.

Certainly looks like it would make a big difference though

Al

[Apollo911]

@ sq_paradox, thanks, I think I will build it myself then, can get the same spec, but include a soundcard, better psu, and better speaker set up if I build it myself.

Is it worth getting a soundcard? I have always just used integrated sound, has anyone had any experience with this: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2? Thanks.

[vindicator]

unless ya got surround-sound speakers, i would rather use the soundcard money to help get more ram or up the video card. but thats just me, abyss might disagree...hes got a purdy audigy

[Apollo911]

I thought I read that by installing a soundcard you increase the performance of the cpu as it no longer has to worry about sound? Would it be a negligible performance increase?

Also, am I going to notice much difference between value ram like geIL value and more expensive ram like corsair Ballistix ram?

[Al]

Folks definitely noticed an improvement in the FPS and the way the game played with X2 when going from onboard sound to using a dedicated card. I'm presuming the same will be true for X3. In fact I'm so sure about it I'm going to buy a sound card in the next week or two.

Al

[Apollo911]

Thanks Al, will probably go for one then.

[joebeard]

Well despite the odd slowdowns I'm pretty addicted to X3, I've just recieved some cash and some of this needs to be directed toward getting a new GFX card. My poor GF4800Ti is actually on its way out anyway, both the fans are heaving and spluttering now and I'd rather retire it before it melted into the AGP slot!

So, to those people who are running X3 just fiiine, what GFX card are you using and how much did it cost?

If anyone else knows of a decent GFX card I can get for around £150 or less then please don't hesitate to reply!

Your answers may be the only thing that saves Julian from an eternity with Saya! 'Hey JB! Lets go and play knock knock ginger with the Split!' ...

[thrangar]

Look in off topics there is a dedicated post there

[Apollo911]

I think £150 would get you a 6800. I think its a pretty good card.

[Al]

From what I've heard you would be better off with a 6600GT than a bog standard 6800. 6800GT AGP are few and far between and all above £150.

Check out places like

www.overclockers.co.uk
www.dabs.com
www.ebuyer.com

etc

HTH

Al

[pjknibbs]

I use a 6600GT and X3 runs pretty well, apart from sectors like Argon Prime where it CRAWLS. Think that's probably more down to the 2.4GHz CPU than the gfx card, though.

[grays]

pjknibbs - out of interest what settings were you running at on Argon Prime. Was the Hud on?.

Reason I ask is my PC is currently AMD XP2500 and I plan to take the ram upto 1G and the GPU upto 256Mb 6600GT for good measure. It would be nice to know if X3 will even be playable.

Your mention of a CRAWL dosent sound very encouraging

[Yskonyn]

Thanks for all the comments, but I am afraid another laptop isn't an option I already own the zv6149, but surprisingly X3 performs quite well on it, but you must set the pixel shader to low, all other settings don't affect performance very much.
Texture quality on medium, shaders on low and anisotropic filter ON and post-processing OFF will give the smoothest performance.
Space-scenes are no problem, only the on-planet scenes are bringing the system to its knees. Maybe the november performance patch will help.
All in all very much playable on the laptop!

The Radeon Xpress 200 has its own on board memory, actually 128MB and it has the 128bit structure instead of the 64bit 9600SE. It's not an integrated solution as far as I know... It doesn't perform like one anyway, you only have to keep shaders to a minimum setting in most games, but even the newest ones run fine, like Black and White 2 for example... AND X3 for that matter, as said. I am a happy man.

[simonnance]

pjknibbs - out of interest what settings were you running at on Argon Prime. Was the Hud on?.

Reason I ask is my PC is currently AMD XP2500 and I plan to take the ram upto 1G and the GPU upto 256Mb 6600GT for good measure. It would be nice to know if X3 will even be playable.

Your mention of a CRAWL dosent sound very encouraging

sounds like my rig, hopefully will be ok, i get very good benchmarks in X2, so i have high hopes for X3. we will see......