Would a new video card help?

**Phil of Loreauville** · June 25, 2009, 01:11 PM

I'm looking for a reason to upgrade my video card (an anemic Geforce 7300 le in a Dell Dimension 9150).
How much better would MTW2 (with the REAL RECRUITMENT 1.3 / REAL COMBAT 1.8 for STAINLESS STEEL 6.1 mod) play?

Overall, no big problems, but it does slow down noticeably during big battles and just scrolling around...... even at low video settings.

**sumaznguy** · June 25, 2009, 02:08 PM

Definitely would help. The latest graphics cards are like 10x as powerful as the one you have. (made up statistic but you get the point).

Graphics cards followed by ram are the best performance boosters.

EDIT: But before you buy a new graphics card. You should make sure you figure out what kind of card slots your motherboard has, and how powerful your power supply is. Wouldn't want to buy a graphics card that doesn't fit, or fries because your psu isn't powerful enough.

**Caesar Clivus** · June 25, 2009, 07:11 PM

Seeing as you have a 7300, a new graphics card would definitely help. You can pick up very good cards (e.g. ATI 4870 or the nVidia equivilent) for next to nothing these days. And as sumaznguy said, upgrading your RAM will help a lot as well. Just note that if you are running XP, it wont recognise any RAM over 4gb.

Oh and no-one turn this into an nVidia vs. ATI debate please

**kasrkin** · June 26, 2009, 01:42 AM

*grumble grumble grumble* ATI KICKS NVIDIA ASS K NOOBZ!? lol I didn't realise I had that in me, I'm running a pretty crap graphics card 6200

but I can play on high everything with huge units on most likely because I have the 4gb of ram and a very nice processor but.. shouldn't my old graphics card have an effect, I'm not questioning but how does the graphics card have an effect?

**Ahura-sama** · June 26, 2009, 04:11 AM

Other than the graphic the cpu also affects the performance.

Apparently my freaking game only uses ONE FREAKING of the TWO CORES. I cant play for more than a day w/out my damn Window getting epilepsy. 98% utilization of one core wtf!!

Anyone also have this freaking problem???

And dont ask, my system has enough power to kill you.

**Caesar Clivus** · June 26, 2009, 06:59 AM

M2TW doesn't support multi-core processors.

**Phil of Loreauville** · June 26, 2009, 09:20 AM

Ok, thanks. That does it. I'll start looking into it.
I have 3 gigs of RAM and a 3.0 Ghz Pentium D CPU, so other than a new rig, the GPU seem to be about the only upgrade I can do.
Kind of a bummer about the lack of dual core support.
Oh, just one more question. Would a card with 1 GB RAM be that much better performance than a 512 MB RAM card?

**Souka** · June 26, 2009, 12:05 PM

Originally Posted by Phil of Loreauville

Oh, just one more question. Would a card with 1 GB RAM be that much better performance than a 512 MB RAM card?

1GB is better, you won't notice a big difference if you run on low resolution but when you go higher 1600 * the 1gb ram is always better.

I used to play on medium settings on a 8600gts, 4gb 6400 ram, 3ghz dual core. But since i upgraded to a HD4890 i can now play on everything on highest and it only lags when im playing huge battles.

And in crysis warhead dx10 i can play on very high settings with around 30fps, it used to lag on low settings

So you should definitely buy a new video card.

**Leutrim** · June 27, 2009, 09:27 AM

Originally Posted by Phil of Loreauville

Ok, thanks. That does it. I'll start looking into it.
I have 3 gigs of RAM and a 3.0 Ghz Pentium D CPU, so other than a new rig, the GPU seem to be about the only upgrade I can do.
Kind of a bummer about the lack of dual core support.
Oh, just one more question. Would a card with 1 GB RAM be that much better performance than a 512 MB RAM card?

Anything 19+ inch screen, 1gb would be preferable. Though I use a 4850 ATi on 19inch screen and I get amazing fps at max settings, max resolution (1440x900).

**Lemming69** · June 26, 2009, 09:25 AM

its strange, i used to be able to play the game on highest settings bar anti aliasing... but now my pc can only manage the lowest settings possible.... i wonder why

**sumaznguy** · June 26, 2009, 10:22 AM

Originally Posted by Lemming69

its strange, i used to be able to play the game on highest settings bar anti aliasing... but now my pc can only manage the lowest settings possible.... i wonder why

Same here. I have come to the conclusion its one of the two. Either massive dust buildup causing it to heat up too quickly. Or I must have played too many games on high settings causing the graphics card to be permamently damaged from excessive heat. It still works, but games can't even run on lowest settings unless they are wicked old. And even watcing videos causes the card to overheat and glitch the videos. And if I don't leave the fan on 100% all the time, the monitor will start blinking when the video card overheats. So far I just disabled some of the hardware acceleration. I can't play games anymore, but videoes play with no problem now, and no more screen flickering.

So you should try using a can of compressed air to blow dust off. And if that doesn't work, I guess you should look into upgrading your video card.

Well as far as I can tell. CPU plays more importance when there are a lot of units on the screen doing stuff. And when there are tons of physics. But it's no where NEAR the importance of a video card. IIRC A video card is essentially a CPU but dedicated to 3d applications. That's all it does. So any game with tons of 3d graphics will require video cards to run well. And the reason why RAM is also a really good performance booster. My comp science teacher taught us that the CPU is amazingly fast, so fast that even crappy CPU's are still super fast. While the harddrive is ultra slow compared to the CPU, and that bottlenecks performance. Which is where RAM comes in. I don't remember the exact details, but it creates a dedicated space as a middle ground between the harddrive and the CPU to compensate for the harddrive's terrible speed.

So RAM makes your computer run better in general. Video cards make games, and other 3d programs run better. Not sure what videos qualify as, but it seems that they too run better when you have a better video card (like HD videos lag like hell if your pc isn't strong enough).

**Gorrrrrn** · June 26, 2009, 10:02 AM

Phil of L

you'll need to check your motherboard to see what processor and GPU upgrades are possible.

(ie do you have an AGP or PCI-e slot for your graphics card ? )

different motherboards have different sockets / speeds etc for CPUs

**Phil of Loreauville** · June 26, 2009, 11:46 AM

Originally Posted by Rozanov

Phil of L

you'll need to check your motherboard to see what processor and GPU upgrades are possible.

(ie do you have an AGP or PCI-e slot for your graphics card ? )

different motherboards have different sockets / speeds etc for CPUs

Dude, it's a Dell!

Got it about 4 years ago, and one thing I've figured out is it's not easy to upgrade. I've added RAM and other than another GPU (PCI-e) there's little I can do to upgrade. The CPU socket will only take a Pentium-D and I currently have a 3 Ghz installed. The max is 3.2 Ghz.
I hoping to build me another in the near future, so I'm gathering pieces and parts right now (also looking into adding a 750 gb Western Digital Cavier Black hard drive, 80$ at Newegg).

**Caesar Clivus** · June 26, 2009, 06:55 PM

Phil: Even if you do have a PCI-E slot, the latest video cards need a PCI Express x16 slot to run...which I dont think a 4 year old PC would have. Just be aware of that before you buy a new GPU

**redbonefish** · June 26, 2009, 11:28 PM

Never fear! I am here!

9800GT(8800gt): $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130489

HD 4850: $109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102833

HD 4770: $119.99 (best if you have a very low powersupply)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131155

HD 4870 1GB: $139.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161269

HD 4890: $189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161276

**Phil of Loreauville** · June 27, 2009, 10:48 AM

Originally Posted by Caesar Clivus

Phil: Even if you do have a PCI-E slot, the latest video cards need a PCI Express x16 slot to run...which I dont think a 4 year old PC would have. Just be aware of that before you buy a new GPU

I'm sorry, it is a x16 slot.

You know I never even considered a new monitor.
I've been using this same old 17 inch for about 5+ years now because I wanted to save a few bucks on my last buy.
And with the new cards, I could use 2 monitors.
COOOOOLLLLL!!!

**Caesar Clivus** · June 27, 2009, 07:20 PM

I recently upgraded from a 19" to a 22" widescreen. M2TW never looked better!

**park2086** · August 10, 2009, 01:06 PM

I have GeForce GTX 275 with 8 GB ram. Also have 24'' widescreen. Works great with the game.
It'd definitely be plus if you have a good monitor and graphics card. Of course, you need good ram and good power source to back it up.
I also had to get a better power supply unit when i got the graphics card.
Happy gaming!