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

[Aladin]

After looking at the above thread, It does make sence to get the radeon 9800 Pro, but it is 128 MB. The geforce 6600 was 256 MB. Do I compromise the memory difference?

A game like X3 certainly can use 256 MB VRAM, but the GPU matters more than the amount of VRAM, and the 9800 GPU tends to be faster than a 6600 GPU. I play X3 on a Radeon 9800 right now in 1280*1024 with high detail and high shaders with AA and AF turned on, and it plays quite smooth and fine (as long as the HUD is off).

I can't come close to £80 for the Radeon 9800 Pro. Please can you direct me to a nice site.

Im in the UK.

There's Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 85-1765255

I'm Danish, so I don't really know all the good places to shop in the UK. Some of the UK forum members might be able to help you out there.

[Cycrow]

After looking at the above thread, It does make sence to get the radeon 9800 Pro, but it is 128 MB. The geforce 6600 was 256 MB. Do I compromise the memory difference?

I can't come close to £80 for the Radeon 9800 Pro. Please can you direct me to a nice site.

Im in the UK.

the 6800 or 6600GT will be better to go for than the 9800pro
just coz the 6600GT only has 128mb doesn't mean its not as good, infact its quite alot quicker than the 256mb 6600

the 6800LE's go for about £80 and the 6600GT a slightly more
the 6600GT is slightly the quicker card as standard but the LE's have the chance of being unlocked and greatly improved if ur feeling lucky

[crazygoldfish]

as mentioned in my earlier posts i bought a new x800 pro and got no improvement.

Unfortunately whilst screwing about with pc I had to do a full reinstall of windows.

I installed the 7.1 windows media codecs mentioned in the forums ( theres a couple of topics covering out of sync voices ) and also installed the xp codec pack 1.2.5 ( its list on the same discussion ).

fired up x3

and the gods finally answered my prayers..

Flew throw mission 2 without any hitches, even the city bit ran smooth!!!

[The_Abyss]

That would then suggest that there was something wrong with your previous Windows installation (3rd party programs) as well as the new card improvements.

[vindicator]

nooby question: the radeon xpress 200 is a graphics chipset, no? if so, what purpose does it server in the computer? i know it houses the IGP, but i know it does more. also, where can i find what drivers i have for it, and if i need to get new ones (still trying to figure out whats bottle necking my system, as its not what should be coming from it.)

[pjknibbs]

Actually, the Xpress 200 is a fully integrated chipset--in other words, it's a full motherboard chipset with integrated graphics. If you're actually USING the integrated graphics, then it might partially explain your poor performance--integrated graphics suck, to put it bluntly; even the best of them will be walked all over by a £50 plug-in graphics card.

[vindicator]

no no...look at my specs, im using an ati x800xl 512mb. the integrated graphics are disabled i believe. what i want to know is with this card in, does the chipset do anything? does it sit there? is it in integral part of the video network that might require a new driver or something?

thanks,

[Aladin]

no no...look at my specs, im using an ati x800xl 512mb. the integrated graphics are disabled i believe. what i want to know is with this card in, does the chipset do anything? does it sit there? is it in integral part of the video network that might require a new driver or something?

thanks,

The Xpress 200 is a motherboard chipset, just like nForce4, VIA K8T800, Intel 865PE etc., meaning it performs various motherboard specific tasks. Make sure that that the IGP is disabled in the BIOS, as it could slow you down. Also, check the website of your motherboard manufacturer for new chipset drivers. Some motherboards come with utilities that can be used to auto-upgrade your chipset drivers via internet. Check your motherboard CD for those. It's always a good idea to have the most recent motherboard chipset drivers.

[Antilogic]

WILL THIS RUN X3???????????????

Intel Celeron 2.53
512Mbs RAM
Nevida GEForce 6600

i dont care if its on the lowest settings, WILL IT RUN?

[pjknibbs]

I have a 2.4GHz P4 (slightly faster than your Celeron, despite the lower clockspeed) and a 6600GT. In busy sectors the frame rate drops as low as 6fps (or in ANY sector it's that low if I use SETA)--it goes up to 15-20 in less busy places. It's playable, so long as you don't pick a fight in Argon Prime or Home of Light!

[swaaye]

If you are going up to a 6600GT you might as well just go for a Radeon X800GTO AGP or PCIe. They are a lot faster, especially if you overclock them (OMG!). They also have 256MB RAM, unlike 6600GT.

Don't buy Geforce FX or MX cards!!!!!! And don't buy Radeon cards with LE or SE in the name!!!

[Antilogic]

If you are going up to a 6600GT you might as well just go for a Radeon X800GTO AGP or PCIe. They are a lot faster, especially if you overclock them (OMG!). They also have 256MB RAM, unlike 6600GT.

i should restate- thats a 256Mb Nevida GEForce 6600. and i just spent £130 on it, im not gign to go and buy a fing new one.

I have a 2.4GHz P4 (slightly faster than your Celeron, despite the lower clockspeed) and a 6600GT. In busy sectors the frame rate drops as low as 6fps (or in ANY sector it's that low if I use SETA)--it goes up to 15-20 in less busy places. It's playable, so long as you don't pick a fight in Argon Prime or Home of Light!

ok, thx dude. so long as its playable, i dont mind!

[swaaye]

Low End Bare Minimum recommendations:
A nVidia Geforce 6600 or ATI Radeon X700.
Don't buy Geforce FX cards! Even the top end models (5900) have a hard time competing with meager Radeon 9600 in some modern games.
Please note that ATI's X300, X550, and X600 are simply PCI express versions of Radeon 9600-based cards. X300 has the lowest GPU and RAM clock speeds while the X600 is the fastest but they are slower than a Geforce 6600 or X700.

Mid-Range recommendation:
PCIe - ATI Radeon X800GTO (12 pipe, based on X850) ~$200
ATI Radeon X800XL ~$260
AGP - ATI Radeon X800GTO or X800XL
These cards are superior in performance/value to the 6600GT and 6800 cards unless you really want NV's superior OpenGL performance for Doom3-based games.

High-End recommendation:
PCIe - nVidia Geforce 7800 GT or GTX. Perhaps ATI Radeon X1800XL or XT but they have similar performance to the cheaper 7800 cards.
AGP - ATI Radeon X850XT PE. Or maybe NV 6800 Ultra. Neither ATI nor NV have announced next-gen AGP cards unfortunately.

------------------
Excellent Card Roundups
Tom's Hardware's VGA Charts Summer 2005 PCIe
Tom's Hardware's VGA Charts Summer 2005 AGP
------------------

All of the listed cards are available at Newegg (my fav by far). Other popular merchants are Tiger Direct and ZipZoomFly.
Most useful sites for 3D Hardware info (in order of my preference): Beyond3D, The Tech Report, Digit-Life, AnandTech, Tom's Hardware.

[simonnance]

These cards are superior in performance/value to the 6600GT and 6800 cards unless you really want NV's superior OpenGL performance for Doom3-based games.

check out http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=26946

looks like Cat 5.11 could have an interesting boost to AMDs OpenGL game quality.

Thoguh X3 runs off DX9 rith, so it wont make much difference for that i guess.

[paulatwork6]

Ive decided to buy a ATI 9800 XT, 256MB. Managed to get it for a good price.

This should be enough to play X3 (Should it?)

What are the best drivers for this card?

[Aladin]

Ive decided to buy a ATI 9800 XT, 256MB. Managed to get it for a good price.

This should be enough to play X3 (Should it?)

The 9800 XT performs even better than the 9800 Pro, and the 256MB will also improve performance in X3. If you have a properly optimised PC meeting the recommended specs in all other areas, then the 9800 XT will be able to play X3 nicely.

What are the best drivers for this card?

Depends on your frame of mind. If the PC is primarily used for gaming, I'd suggest the Omega drivers, as they are optimised for games.
If you primarily use the PC for working tasks, and secondarily for games, the official ATI drivers are ideal due to increased functionality (such as multi-monitor support) and stability.
If you want to get the absolute best out of your new ATI card, then the ATI tool is recommended. If you use the automated overclock functions in this tool, you will be able to OC your card without risking damaging your card (due to artifact scanning for each clock increase).

[paulatwork6]

Cheers, thanks for that.

I learn something new every day.

My spec:-

Athlon 2400XP
1 Gig pc2700
80 Gig HD
DVDRW + CDRW

Soon to be Ati 9800 XT 256MB AGP

[-Skylark-]

So I've been interested for a while in getting an AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor. Had decided on a single-core 3800+ instead till I discovered that Nvidia came out with new "dual-core optimized" drivers. I was wondering if anyone with an X2 processor has tried this new driver with a 6800 GT card, and if they have gotten any performance increases in X3. In your opinion, would these increases justify the added cost of an X2 3800+ over a standard 3800+?

[pjknibbs]

Bear in mind that the X2 3800+ is clocked SLOWER than the single-core 3800+, so what you're gaining in driver performance you're losing on the CPU side, at least as far as single-threaded games are concerned. (The 3800+ is clocked at 2GHz, which puts it in the same ballpark as the single-core Athlon 64 3200+).

[stew1901]

Have a new computer coming this week:

Athlon XP 3400+
1 GB DDR 400 ram
200 GB HD
PCI Express motherboard with integrated graphics and sound
Windows XP media center
+usual bits and bobs

(BTW, $500 for this from Tiger Direct! Refurbished but that's one hell of a deal!)

What's a reasonable spec card that'll let me play X3 happily? I'm not fussed about having max settings on everything and still getting 60fps, but I would like to have at least medium detail and still have playable large battles (something I couldn't get in X2). Any suggestions?