New G Card.

[Roman Clone]

I was thinking of getting a second card, according to my specs, what new card on a 250-550$ [or less ] budget will allow me to run battles at full graphics with atleast 12,000 men?

Xfire - !<-=Ds\_~PvT~_/CC501=->! (clonecommander50)

Go to the bottom to see my specs.

[Spiff]

You have to have an x-fire account to view that page, so i cant see it.

In any case i doubt any card would be able to run the game as you describe - at least any card which isn't top of the range and accompanied by similarly top of the range CPU and RAM.

Also im not sure what you mean by 'second card'.

[westy159]

I believe he would like to upgrade from his first graphics card rather than put in a second card for a SLI/Crossfire config as could be thought from his post.

Firstly, Roman Clone, could you tell us what interface type your motherboard supports?

That would be AGP or PCI-Express.

I, on a Geforce card, do this to see. By opening the right click menu and selecting my monitor you can then see on the info "Bus: AGP 8X" which is what you are looking for.

For ATi Radeon cards it should be similar.

One of these Geforce 8800GTS cards would be great. It is the third best card out there (and the first is an overpriced version of the second, the 8800GTX priced at upwards of $500).

The last thing to consider is your power supply. The 8800GTS will need a lot of juice. I'll leave this issue for now though.

[spartan_phalanx]

As westy says we need to know about what you have now in terms of components in order to recommend something. The best bang for your buck is probably the 8800GTS and depending on resolution either the 320 or 640 version. EVGA has a lifetime warranty and great support. As for the 8800 Ultra, it's a waste unless your looking for bragging rights. The 8800 GTX is just as good overclocked.

Here is a nice table to give you an idea of where they all match up.

[Roman Clone]

Manufacturer:
Gateway
Processor:
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory:
1534MB RAM
Hard Drive:
300 GB
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 6600
Monitor:
Plug and Play Monitor
Sound Card:
SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [1040]
Speakers/Headphones:
Keyboard:
USB Root Hub
Mouse:
USB Root Hub
Mouse Surface:
Operating System:
Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)

Specs


Oh, And I wanted to add on and I believe I have PCI.

[Aristocrat]

8800GTS is my recommendation.

[Roman Clone]

Hmm, 279$, thats a great deal. You guys are real tech fanatics. Do you know how much men I can have on the battle field with this puppy?

[westy159]

It is still not clear what interface your motherboard supports.

The 'PCI' interface has been around for a long time. It is a standard slot type that I believe all motherboard have at least two of. Sound cards, wireless internet cards and very outdated video cards go in here.
So you should have that anyway.

The PCI-Express is the newest and fastest interface used for video cards of today. The Geforce 6600 was made in a PCI-Express version but I think you have the AGP interface type which fits inbetween PCI and PCi-Express.

If you buy the PCI-E 8800GTS without a PCI-E slot your stuffed. So to be sure go into the Nvidia control panel as shown in the picture in my above post or selecting your monitor through the Nvidia icon in the tasbar

In the Nvidia control panel you may have to switch to the 'classic control panel' through the 'view' tab and reopen it. The new Nvidia control panel is quite useless, especially to older generation Gefore cards.

Once determined what interface your video card is on we can continue.

[Mathias]

With intel pentium 4 2.8 ghz you can just forget about playing M2TW at all. I have the same processor.

[westy159]

With intel pentium 4 2.8 ghz you can just forget about playing M2TW at all. I have the same processor.

You expect too much. I am using a Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz CPU and play the game quite comfortably on settings ranging from high to low. Overal it looks good and plays smoothly. I cant remember the unit size, 2nd largest I believe. Perhaps the most middle one.

[Mathias]

You expect too much. I am using a Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz CPU and play the game quite comfortably on settings ranging from high to low. Overal it looks good and plays smoothly. I cant remember the unit size, 2nd largest I believe. Perhaps the most middle one.

As I said I have the processor and I can't run the game without serious lag. When reinforcements came on the battlefield once, a message popped up saying I don't have a good enough processor so the reinforcements couldn't enter the field. My copy of M2TW does nothing more than take up space in my shelf and HD currently.

[mrmouth]

A 2.8ghz pentium is more than enough to handle MTW2.

If you live in the US, Circuit City is selling the EGVA 8800GTS for $276 after a $20 mail in rebate. Print out the coupon from the link below to save another $40, bringing it down to $236. Not a bad price for that card at all.

Ive used these coupons before and unless you run into a real jerk of a manager you'll be ok.

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~svira/CC.jpg

exp.7/31

[Aristocrat]

Hmm, I jumped the gun actually. I saw the (2 cpus) part in his post and assumed dual core, but it is more likely hyperthreading, which probaly means he has AGP.

If he has a PCI Express Motherboard - NVIDIA 8800GTS

If he has a AGP Express Motherboard - ATI x1950 Pro

[Roman Clone]

I will NOT BUY AN ATI! I AM SORRY BUT THAT IS LIKE BUYING COW ****!



The Nvidia Control panel will not let me see anything, and it's the latest driver.

[Aristocrat]

Fine, waste money on a less cost effective card then.

The x1950 is the best AGP card out there, and the last AGP card that is ever likely to be made, so if you don't want to go that route, you can get a NVIDIA 7900, if you can find one, and throw some money away because the x1950 kills it, or you can save up and get a new system, which, if you have a little more money lying around, is actually what I'd recommend, as cpus in general, and more importantly intel core 2 duos, are dirt cheap right now.
Going of the top of my head I can think of motherboard/ram/cpu/videocard setup that you could get for <$700.
Of course you'd need a new PSU so you'd be looking at <$750 (Australian) for a setup that includes a 8800GTS 320mb, a 2.2 ghz core 2 duo (which can easily be overclocked) 2gb PC6400 DDR2 ram, and a Gigabyte DS3 motherboard, with the PSU being a decent brand name of 500+ watts.

PS: Fanboys are silly, it's computer hardware, not your not local football team.

[skullman86]

12,000 men with maxed graphics requires that you buy a new PC, unless you just want a slideshow.

A good card around $250 on the other hand would be an 8800 gts.I've seen some on newegg for around $280, so maybe when the price drops you can buy...I dunno.

[Freddie]

If its number of men you want then you ought to think about getting a new CPU not a new graphics card. Where Total War games are concerned if you want the game to look good by all means buy a decent video card like the 8800 GTS as previously mentioned. However if you huge battles with many men on the screen at the same time you will need a decent CPU, because of all those extra A.I calculations your computer is going to have to handle.

[Roman Clone]

I found out that I have a PCI Express, so there is no point in buying that AGP ATI.


But I have 2 Dual Core Processors, that is like, over 4.GHz? Shouldn't that be enough to run Medieval 2?


Listen, I'm only 13 with a very angry dad, I just want a new graphic's card because getting 300$ before July 31st is a miracle, so lets not talk about new computers shall we? Oh, anyone know a fan/power source that is cheap, silent, and very affective?

[Freddie]

I found out that I have a PCI Express, so there is no point in buying that AGP ATI.


But I have 2 Dual Core Processors, that is like, over 4.GHz? Shouldn't that be enough to run Medieval 2?


Listen, I'm only 13 with a very angry dad, I just want a new graphic's card because getting 300$ before July 31st is a miracle, so lets not talk about new computers shall we? Oh, anyone know a fan/power source that is cheap, silent, and very affective?

Ok don't worry about the processor, I know what your going through my Dad is the same (until I move out....only 10 months left.....YES!).

Having PCI express is a big help, I suggest you read the PC Buyers Guide at the top of the forum I think it covers both video cards and power supplies (I suggest you get at least 600 watts from a good brand like Tagan or Enermax or Seasonic if you buy a GeForce 8800 GTS...whoops I said to much).

[Roman Clone]

I am clear about the 8800, Now I just want to buy a good fan/power supply?[is the fan the same as a power supply?