A good graphics card for Napoleon

I'm thinking about getting Napoleon soon, but my graphics card is not up to the daunting task. So I, a guy who is not very familiar with the components of computers, thought what graphics card will work that is good and cheap that can play Napoleon: Total War on medium or at least low settings. Every other component on my computer can handle Napoleon, just not the graphics card.

Hi there.
My own advice would be a 460GTX (http://www.nvidia.com/object/product...tx-460-us.html), as it is cheap and very very good,
but take a look here:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=335572
or here:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=335573
M. Jessen

Best for the price:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo

See Benchmarks here:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

Moved to Technical Help.

Thanks for the suggestions, but would this work http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...089-_-Product?

Originally Posted by Created

Thanks for the suggestions, but would this work http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...089-_-Product?

What card do you have right now?

I forgot currently (I'm away from home right now posting this from my iPhone) but it was something with Intel Sn, and it can hardly play Medieval 2 without lagging on low settings.

Originally Posted by Created

I forgot currently (I'm away from home right now posting this from my iPhone) but it was something with Intel Sn, and it can hardly play Medieval 2 without lagging on low settings.

So I suppose it is an integrated GPU. It would be great if you could post all your other specs, because there comes a point where even a GPU upgrade won't make much of a difference due to other components bottlenecking you GPU.

Here are some better alternatives if you do decide to buy one (at least make it worth it), although I would not recommend rushing into this before posting your other specs.

59.99:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-535-_-Product

For more performance (79.99; recommended):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-535-_-Product

Thanks for the recommendations, and I'll post my computers specs once I get home soon.


I just got home now and my specs are:
Processor:Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
DirectX 9.0c

Video Card: Intel(R) 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chip
128MB memory
1440 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz)

What about your RAM? Your Motherboard? How many and what kind of PCI slots do you have? What kind of case do you have? You need to think whether or not there will be enough space in your case. Also, what kind of PSU do you have (How many Watt)? You can't get a new GPU if you don't have enough juice to power it or you are gonna ruin your PC.

There are many things to consider.

Probably the more relevant question is: "How much have you got to spend?"

I've been a nVidia devotee for as long as I can remember. I recently built myself a new PC. I threw a 6870 into it and couldn't be happier. Whole rig from ground up including Win7 Pro 64 bit cost be just over $900 AUD. i5 760 overclocked on an Asus board. Got another 15% out of the 6870 with the included software lol. I've got just about everything that goes "bling" turned on with NTW (and ETW) on a 1080p 24 inch monitor and after about 100 hours of play it hasn't chugged once.

Originally Posted by Ecka65

Probably the more relevant question is: "How much have you got to spend?"

I've been a nVidia devotee for as long as I can remember. I recently built myself a new PC. I threw a 6870 into it and couldn't be happier. Whole rig from ground up including Win7 Pro 64 bit cost be just over $900 AUD. i5 760 overclocked on an Asus board. Got another 15% out of the 6870 with the included software lol. I've got just about everything that goes "bling" turned on with NTW (and ETW) on a 1080p 24 inch monitor and after about 100 hours of play it hasn't chugged once.

Indeed, it might be better to build a whole new PC to begin with. So you'd be better off saving that money and investing it in something larger.

For the OP, it isn't just a question of whacking in a new GPU. Your performace will be the slowest bottleneck in the system. You also have the issue of the OS and which version of DirectX it'll support.

As Admiral_TvS above suggests, in the long run if your current PC is lagging behind you'll be much better off saving for longer and building from scratch. Then at least you'll know you're getting everything you can out of your new GPU.

find one with a modified cooling system. cause ntw has a bug where it won't stop rendering scenes until the videocard overheats itself. i already lost a gtx460 to this game. i bought a new card and have yet to play this game again. i'm still waiting for ntw to reimburse me the 200 dollars they cost me in damages. but looks like it's my lawyers vs sega's lawyers. so that's not very likely. oh well. just keep that in mind.

Another reason why I took the leap and didn't go nVidia this time around. Just my personal opinion mind you, but I didn't see the value in a more overclockable gtx card that was already prone to running hot. This HIS 6870 runs quiet. Temp is more stable than any other GPU I've ever had, it uses less power - and I'm running it overclocked! Out of the box it was quicker than a 460 gtx and pushing a 470, and it cost me $6 more than the 460 and a LOT less than the 470 at the time of purchase.

Originally Posted by Ecka65

Another reason why I took the leap and didn't go nVidia this time around. Just my personal opinion mind you, but I didn't see the value in a more overclockable gtx card that was already prone to running hot. This HIS 6870 runs quiet. Temp is more stable than any other GPU I've ever had, it uses less power - and I'm running it overclocked! Out of the box it was quicker than a 460 gtx and pushing a 470, and it cost me $6 more than the 460 and a LOT less than the 470 at the time of purchase.

the ati cards are cooler, but not by much. i used a temperature tracker to pinpoint the exact time my videocard fried. it's about 75 degrees celcius. my spare ati shot up to 70 degrees celcius playing ntw. both unhealthy temperatures under load. and playing games often takes hours. my ati card was showing signs of damage. screen artifacts, etc, so i used my nvidia card which at that point was a forlorn hope, and it finally took the bullet and died.

note that both these cards are running at only 40-50 degrees playing other games, some as intensive as crysis and arma 2. so it's not the card's fault. that's the argument i'm going to stick with and i'm confident i have enough evidence to back it up.

I just bought GTX 560. I had GeForce GTX 275. The old one worked OK but for Shogun I wanted better. Gonna install it today. I am selling the old one if someone is interested pm me please.

Hi there.
Just for the record; I just installed my new NVIDIA Geforce GTX 580, and the performance on ETW and NTW over the 460 on this monster, is not even worth it. There is nothing you can improve from the 460 to the 580 on any of these games. On RTW and M2TW there is no change at all. So, unless you are a serious performance minded gamer, the 460 will serve you well for many, many nights where you play TW-games.
M. Jessen

Im new to this forum and before asking what i want to ask, let me just say Helllo to everyone in the Napoleon comunity! Do you think that with this system i could run Shogun 2 on ultra or at least Napoleon? Ive already posted a reply somwhere in Shogun2 forums but nobody replied and i want to buy
a new pc as soon as posible! If you could help me i would be very pleased! Good day to you all!

here is my system:
Intel dual core 3.0ghz
4gb ram
HD6870 1GB GDDR5 256-bit

Originally Posted by Adrian-Virgil

Im new to this forum and before asking what i want to ask, let me just say Helllo to everyone in the Napoleon comunity! Do you think that with this system i could run Shogun 2 on ultra or at least Napoleon? Ive already posted a reply somwhere in Shogun2 forums but nobody replied and i want to buy
a new pc as soon as posible! If you could help me i would be very pleased! Good day to you all!

here is my system:
Intel dual core 3.0ghz
4gb ram
HD6870 1GB GDDR5 256-bit

Yup. No problem. You can run NTW with it.