Need video card advice

I'm going to be moving into my own penthouse apartment soon (will likely be a detailed blog entry in the near future) and as part of that move I'm going to be turning my otherwise MIDI-dedicated desktop PC into an all-purpose living room PC.

It's an AMD Athlon 3200+ with 1GB of DDR2 667. It doesn't have an AGP slot; right now I'm just using a 12-year-old 2MB PCI video card and using it exclusively through remote desktop.

I'll need to get suggestions on a good PCI-E video card. I wish to do nothing more than use Project 64 and possibly buy Oblivion for PC. With this in mind, I'm looking for the most cost effective solution to run these games well on a 1680x1050 display.

The Geforce 8800 GTS is the one I personally use. goes for about $400 AUS.

It sometimes has problems running older stuff (mostly any looking glass studio dark engine games) but it runs Project 64 fine.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/03/the_best_gaming_graphics/

Captain Red said:

The Geforce 8800 GTS is the one I personally use. goes for about $400 AUS.

I'm looking for something low-end by today's standards.

Because you're worried it won't work on your PC? Because it won't run older stuff, or because you want to save money?

Because I want to save money. At the moment, I can't think of anything that appeals to me less than modern PC gaming. Still, my PCI video card isn't quite going to cut it.

The video card that gets optimal performance out of Goldeneye at a full resolution would be ideal.

You could try the lower end of the GeForce 8 series. Those cards are pretty low-end and should work well for you.

If you want backwards compatibility then Radeon is for you. I've had more trouble playing older games and running older software on any Geforce series card vs a Radeon.

The faster GeForce 7 series cards are quite cheap now. Just make sure your power supply can handle it. It'd be preferable to a lower-end 8 series card, since I doubt you have Vista and the clock speeds are lower (meaning you won't be running games in that resolution).
Link

Also, a video card that requires no cooling fan is an extreme preference. Vista is definitely out of the question.

udderdude said:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/03/the_best_gaming_graphics/

READ THIS ARTICLE ANDREWB

The 8800GT 512mb that I have is great great great. Nuff said.

I suggest you buy the BFG brand version of it though, as it's factory overclocked.

AndrewB said:

Also, a video card that requires no cooling fan is an extreme preference. Vista is definitely out of the question.

and so are half-decent video cards

AndrewB said:

Also, a video card that requires no cooling fan is an extreme preference. Vista is definitely out of the question.

If you look, you usually find that it's possible to get a fanless NVidia/ATI card that is a couple of generations behind the latest "cutting edge" cards but significantly cheaper. I have a mini-PC in my lounge that has a fanless GeForce 6200 in it; things have advanced a bit since I got it a couple of years ago, though.

Bloodshedder said:

READ THIS ARTICLE ANDREWB

I already did. Do you expect me to take one person's opinion as gospel? I want to hear from a few people.

Twat.

kristus said:

The 8800GT 512mb that I have is great great great. Nuff said.

I suggest you buy the BFG brand version of it though, as it's factory overclocked.

I thought that's like high-end or something. If so, that would conflict with my plans to not flush money down the toilet.

I guess I'll take a peek at the Radeon 2600 PRO.

fraggle said:

I have a mini-PC in my lounge that has a fanless GeForce 6200 in it; things have advanced a bit since I got it a couple of years ago, though.

No, I don't imagine a card running that low a clock speed would need cooling. I'm also certain you don't run any DX8 games at 1680x1050.

I don't know squat about ATI cards. Expecting to run Oblivion @1650X1080 without choppyness using El Cheapo card is wishful thinking. Maybe if you drop every GFX setting down to nil.

Budget in mind, consider this a possible maybe:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=27645&vpn=256-P2-N733-LR&manufacture=eVGA

AndrewB said:

I already did. Do you expect me to take one person's opinion as gospel? I want to hear from a few people.

It's much more than one person's opinion. It's an entire testing lab that has actually tested all of these cards' performance in many different games and is actually qualified to compare them to each other. They also have up-to-date pricing data. Plus, the February edition should be coming out soon.

It's probably worth more than all the posts you've gotten in this thread, as well as any future ones you may get.

POTGIESSER said:

I don't know squat about ATI cards. Expecting to run Oblivion @1650X1080 without choppyness using El Cheapo card is wishful thinking. Maybe if you drop every GFX setting down to nil.

If that's a problem then I have no issue with forgetting about Oblivion and just focusing on Project 64.

kristus said:
The 8800GT 512mb that I have is great great great. Nuff said.

I have to second this card, as I got one for my new comp. Oblivion runs great on max@1280. Definitely a damn good deal (I got it for $200) if you can find it.

POTGIESSER said:

Expecting to run Oblivion @1650X1080 without choppyness

Holy crap, that sounds like The Ultimate Stress Test. Are you implying you do that casually?

DeumReaper said:

I have to second this card, as I got one for my new comp. Oblivion runs great on max@1280. Definitely a damn good deal (I got it for $200) if you can find it.

I can't figure out what's so hard to understand about not wanting to spend hundreds of dollars on a single video game.

Yes. $200 is a lot for a single video game. Good thing it's a video card then.

Honestly $200 is what you're going to pay for a card that isn't something from Ebay. And hey, it'd be nice to have something that could run spore when it comes out right?

heh, I'm stuck on a GeForce2 MX. my set up is an inherited crappy dell dimension 4100. it's a nice lil' dinosaur. I played zelda: OoT on project64 no prob, but that was the only game I got for that.

I'm in a somewhat similar situation than you, AndrewB, and I will probably get a fanless GeForce 8600GT. I'm under the impression that the power consumption of the 8600GT is a lot lower than in the high range cards like the 8800GT. That's why it doesn't run as hot and doesn't necessarily need a fan.

It's good enough for me because my LCD's resolution is only 1280x1024 and I don't need to max out the details on every game. They're also getting cheaper nowadays, so they're a better deal than they used to be.

Im still on a 512mb x1650 pro on a mid range system and im happy with it. it plays crysis demo at the default install res they give you fantasticly (though i allready uninstalled it) and runs test drive unlimited beutifully on high witch is my main big game and of course Doom and all these alpine skiing games i have. you have a lot of kids out there with a lot 'o' money constantly wanting the next big thing, and dish out for it just to know they have it. wether it performs up to the expected level its supposed to (not allways) or not. ill end up probably with a mid-range ati card again myself, or higher maybe (e-bay) on something else probably sometime this year. but im not exactly holding my breath for this upgrade becuase im still satisfied with what i have.

..

Bucket said:

No, I don't imagine a card running that low a clock speed would need cooling. I'm also certain you don't run any DX8 games at 1680x1050.

I mostly just use it for watching downloaded media. At the moment it just has a 1280x1024 monitor attached to it, but I just got a widescreen TV that I haven't hooked up to it yet. I'll let you know if it can cope with Doom 3 at 1920x1080 :-)

OK, look, with GeForce cards the first number of the model denotes a revision. Usually meaning it supports a higher version of DirectX. The SECOND number denotes speed. Of course, the higher the number the faster the speed. So in those terms, a 7950 would be a MUCH better buy than an 8600-- unless DirectX 10 and running Vista were really, really, really important to you.

Captain Red said:

Yes. $200 is a lot for a single video game. Good thing it's a video card then.

Honestly $200 is what you're going to pay for a card that isn't something from Ebay. And hey, it'd be nice to have something that could run spore when it comes out right?

Are you kidding me? I'll just get it for the Wii. And there are plenty of PCI-E cards available for under $100. I just don't know what they're capable of.

Danarchy said:

Holy crap, that sounds like The Ultimate Stress Test. Are you implying you do that casually?

I was hooked on Oblivion for a while. Some call it the loner's WoW, but I enjoyed it because of how the combat reminded me of HeXen albeit more rpg oriented. User made mods really put more life into the game as well. I downloaded an undead mod so I could give my char a skull face.

1680x1050 was doable, but alot of the GFX settings were turned off and others set really low. It was still choppy and big monsters fights or lots of fancy spell gfx and it would just plummet. So I settled on 1024X768.