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S1lent

Best Graphics Card

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This is a question that I haven't been able to answer yet so I thought I would ask you guys. What would be the BEST graphics card for the new upcoming hits like HL2 and Doom 3. I need a good card that isn't overpriced. I know some of the newer cards are really over-rated so I need your guy's input. Oh, and suggesting a sound card wouldn't hurt either.

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Uh oh.. I sense a nVidia vs ATI argument.

Either the new GeForce 6800 (or whatever) or the ATI Radeon 800X (or whatever) cards are the best ones.

Of course the GeForce 4 Ti cards and the Radeon 9000 (and up) should be more than enough.

As for sound cards, I'd probably get a Sound Blaster Audigy 2.

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AgentSpork said:
Of course the GeForce 4 Ti cards and the Radeon 9000 (and up) should be more than enough.

Hmm, I am not so sure about that...
What about the different pixel shader versions ?
Is it be possible that there are some shader-effects in doom3 that the older pixelshader versions can't calculate and thus won't appear in the game using older cards ?
Or would that be emulated somehow ? (well, if so i guess it will be VERY slow)

Well, lets say I don't care about frames/s and only want to see doom in all its beauty with ALL the 3d stuff that the engine offers.
Will that be possible with my Ti4200 or are there simply some hardware limitations ?

btw, i haven't postet for literally years but i read this forum quiet frequently since the first announcement of doom 3 a few years ago. So to make it short "hi again".

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I don't know much about graphics hardware but I do remember John Carmack saying the game will look pretty much exactly the same on all cards. It'll just run slower on the older cards, and faster on the new ones. Makes sense, doesn't it ?

Anyway the alpha ran pretty reasonable on a GF3 so I wouldn't worry about the game chugging along because of a particular missing feature on your graphics card.

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Apparently there are rendering features that are supported only on the ARB2 path, so you may want to get a card that supports that.

ARB2 is apparently anything from the Radeon 9500 on up on the ATI side, and anything from the FX5200 on up on the Nvidia side.

How big of an impact these new features will have is questionable although IIRC Carmack did say that the artists went back over the game and added some cool new stuff to the levels based on these newer features.

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doesnt matter man. as long as you get a constant 30fps.

when do posts go to post hell again?

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Skeletor, if you don't like the post, than don't post on it. Don't waiste my time and I won't waiste yours.

Also, it's kinda hard to find out what gives you a good frame rate when you aren't familiar with the different models, brands, and companies.

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Skeletor said:

when do posts go to post hell again?

It's very simple really:

if(thread->quality <= 0)
{
    P_KillThread(mod, thread);
}

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Arioch said:

...the FX5200 on up on the Nvidia side.

Is there any real reason to wait and get the next line of Nvidia cards, or would you recommend just go with the 5200, 5700, or 5900 series?

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Scabbed Angel said:

Is there any real reason to wait and get the next line of Nvidia cards, or would you recommend just go with the 5200, 5700, or 5900 series?

I'd wait for the first Doom 3 final benchmarks to come out before picking a card, at this late stage, unless you already have a card picked out for Far Cry or any of the other newer gpu/memory intensive games.

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Ichor said:

It's very simple really:

if(thread->quality <= 0)
{
    P_KillThread(mod, thread);
}


i didnt say how, i said when. btw, what kind of code is this forum written with? i can see with the: -> it uses *pointers and objects/classes.

s1lent, i wasn't saying i never liked the post. i was just wondering when.
anyways,
I like nvidia, but for the Nvidia 5XXX series of cards, I wouldn't recommend them. They weren't vast improvements from the previous series of cards and have had really bad benchmark/fps tests. But the new geforce 6800 cards I hear have made new advances like Shader model 3.0, and all this other crap I don't understand.

I've been thinking about switching to ATI. They've been kicking nvidias ass with every new series of cards they release. but i'll probably stay with nvidia.

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Wait, you thought I was serious? Pffftththehehehahahahaaaa!

No really, heh, that was just a joke (it's a slightly modified Doom source code). Threads are sent to Hell by a moderator when it becomes nothing but a flame war, a spamfest, stupid or absolutely worthless. Since this thread isn't any of those, I see no reason to send it there right now.

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Budget cards: Radeon 9200 and Geforce FX5200. Will likely run Doom3 on the low/lowest settings.

Midrange cards: Radeon 9600 and Geforce FX5700. Will likely run Doom3 on medium-low or medium settings.

High end cards: Radeon 9800 Pro/XT and Geforce FX5950. Will likely run Doom3 on highest settings on 800x600 or 1024x768.

Nextgen high range cards: Radeon X800 and Geforce 6800. Will likely run Doom3 at highest settings flawlessly at 1280x1024 and 1600x1200.

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AndrewB said:

And now Mr. Chris has no idea what he's talking about...

Actually, that's pretty much the best guess based on the benchmarks that were done with the FX9500 and the 9800XT, depending on the CPU/RAM...

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AndrewB said:

And now Mr. Chris has no idea what he's talking about...

I think his guesses are close, but I would recommend a GeForce4Ti in the budget section. The Radeon9200 and FX5200 are worthless, underpowered cards.

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Arno said:

I think his guesses are close, but I would recommend a GeForce4Ti in the budget section. The Radeon9200 and FX5200 are worthless, underpowered cards.


Well I can't speak for ATI cards, but the Geforce FX series were indeed a 'step down' so to speak from the 4k Ti range.

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To be honest I really don't think that the game will need the latest and greatest graphic cards to run at a hig setting. From what I heard the game itself is slow and is not built to be a run and and just shoot all the monsters. Because of that fact it seems to me that only the textures and static meshes will really test the graphic card so it seems to me that as long as you run the game at 800 * 600 the game should run fine. I can play unrealtournament with 32 players on highest graphics with my 5500 and no problems. SO that is just working fine with me.

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AndrewB said:

And now Mr. Chris has no idea what he's talking about...


I think his guesses are accurate. Damn, do you do nothing but argue with people? He was just trying to be constructive and contribute to the thread and are you being constructive in any concievable manner? No.

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Intel17 said:

I think his guesses are accurate. Damn, do you do nothing but argue with people? He was just trying to be constructive and contribute to the thread and are you being constructive in any concievable manner? No.

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A geforce 4 ti would be a waste of money. The FX line all the way up to the 5900 series are rubbish. Only the 5700 ultra supports dx9, which ALL new games are going to have. If your card doesn't have dx9, you will be left in the dust.

For Nvidia I suggest at a minimum a 5700 ULTRA. Other than that, the 5900xt or the 5950 ULTRA would work as well, only better.

As far as ATI goes, don't get anything less than a 9600xt. If you're going to buy a video card, you might as well get something nice. Lots of times, its worth spending an extra 50 bucks to get a lot more performance.

Personally, I would recommend an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. And make sure you get the one with the 256 bit memory interface, as sapphire has been known to ship cards with only 128 bit memory interface.

Do not buy any geforce4s, or any of the lower FX cards. Also, don't bother with anything from ATI that isn't a 9600xt, 9700pro, or a 9800 pro. Otherwise, you'll regret the purchase. Also, you might want to take a peek over at Tom's Hardware guide for performance tests on games like test versions of Doom 3 and Far Cry.

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AndrewB said:

And now Mr. Chris has no idea what he's talking about...


Not surprising you'd say that. I posted info in system specs and you said I was full of BS and had no idea what I was talking about, then others told you to shut up as I was pretty good with my guesses. All you do is argue with people and don't donate anything to the conversation useful, as your doing again in this one here.

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Mr. Chris said:

Nextgen high range cards: Radeon X800 and Geforce 6800. Will likely run Doom3 at highest settings flawlessly at 1280x1024 and 1600x1200.


Do you think there will be a noticeable performance difference in doom3 between the X800 Pro and the X800 XT? I'm asking, because I originally wanted to buy a X800 XT, but now I don't want to wait much longer and the X800 Pro ist already about to be released.

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I think Dittohead is pretty much dead on. My plan is to buy a radeon 9800 pro 128 (256 bit) for $209 from newegg. Then, in about a year, the x800 will probably be about the same price and I might get it then. The radeon 9800 pro will play the game very nicely, unless you're one of those types that like to have 1600x 768x resolution with all the settings on high.

tl;dr: Get the 9800 pro 128mb (256 bit).

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knife_puppet said:

I think Dittohead is pretty much dead on. My plan is to buy a radeon 9800 pro 128 (256 bit) for $209 from newegg. Then, in about a year, the x800 will probably be about the same price and I might get it then. The radeon 9800 pro will play the game very nicely, unless you're one of those types that like to have 1600x 768x resolution with all the settings on high.

tl;dr: Get the 9800 pro 128mb (256 bit).


Perhaps you'd be interested in this, then:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=40158&item=5100502360

I bought one earlier from this same fellow yesterday, and I'll have it tomorrow if all goes as planned. 192 for the same thing you get from newegg, only with free overnight shipping. Can't go wrong.

Better hurry though, only 4 left in stock.

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Dittohead said:
Can't go wrong.


Twice recently freinds of mine have bought new top-end graphics cards from 'reputable' (ie, good feedback etc) dealers on eBay, and twice they have recieved cards which haven't worked. At all.

So uh, yeah you can go wrong. Quite horribly...

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AirRaid said:

So uh, yeah you can go wrong. Quite horribly...


Sorry to hear that. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes when I install mine later tonight if it comes today.

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