Help me choose a low budget video card capable of running Oblivion

[RZZZA]

After checking the price of my current video card on google I find it costs a laughable $40 or so dollars. Time to upgrade my old geforce 6200 into something a bit more respectable, so sticking with the theme of nvidia could someone recommend for me a good card at around the $120 to $140 mark? I was thinking of something lik a geforce 7200 but you more knowledgable people could maybe point me in a better direction.

[Vanquisher]

I've got a 7600gs 256mb agp for £70 and it runs Oblivion pretty darn well. Thats 1240/1024 and high settings with HDR. I'd definatly reccomend it and it overclocks to the power of a gt quite well too.

[RZZZA]

Im kinda confused when it comes to these letters next to the model number...i know oc means overclocked but what do GS and GT mean? I see that a lot without knowing what it means. Usually all it means to me is "more expensive".

I hate picking out video cards, in this feild im a fish out of water.

edit: I see the 7600gs priced on newegg for $100-$120, but my limit is $140. Are you sure I cant get something slightly better for $20 more dollars?

[Vanquisher]

Well basicaly a 'GT' is the full monty version, whereas the gs is the budget version for us cheapskates The gs has the same build as the gt but is just clocked at lower speeds and sometimes has cheaper and slower memory in. Its depends on the manufacturer. Although you can overclock them to pretty much the full power like me if you want.

[RZZZA]

i think i can afford the gt, its only $20 more and it comes in right around my cap of $140. The memory clock seems to be much increased, although the pixel pipelines remain the same...not that I have the slightest what any of that actually means, but if it costs more then it must be better.

Ok, my choice so far will be the 7600gt then, unless someone thinks I can get a betetr card for around the same price.

edit: from the 6200 to the 7600gt I'm looking at 4 pixel pipelines to 12. 400mhz to a 1400 mhz. Sounds like an impressive leap in performance.

[__PoweradePaladin__]

but if it costs more then it must be better.

Common mistake people make when they associate with computer parts. If it Costs More it doesnt mean its better. The difference between brother video cards is sometimes the clock speeds and ram. If you realize it or not, most games dont require 512+ ram, and most cards nowadays are equipped with 256 ram. If you're going to buy a card from a selection of family cards ex. 7900 gs and gt or an 8800 gts or 8800 gtx whatever you want, always remember that you can overclock the lower end cards to the factory equivalent of its better brother card at less cost.

-John

[aorz]

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2746&p=4

There are some benchmarks for GPU's for Oblivion. It is a pretty demanding game, I played the whole game through with a nvidia 5500 piece of crap. Then got a 1900xt, and it was amazing.

Anyways, hope those benchmarks help.

[Black Hawk]

Like aorz said get an ATI like the ATI 1900GT, ATI cards run better in oblivion

Benchmarks

Hope this helps

[RZZZA]

Ive never owned an ATI card before, out of familiarity ill have to go Geforce, for no real explainable reason.

(I forgot to mention that i only have a 2.4 ghz processor so that might affect the type of card i could get)

Edit: also, those benchmarks only test the game at fully cranked up settings, full resolution. I never even play on 1268xwhatever, I play every game on 1024x768, and I dont expect to play with all very high settings with a $140 video card but I do expect stability and decent graphics which I hope to get with a 7800 or whatever....

edit2: why is the ati 1900gt card better than the geforce 7800 GT? the geforce has 20 pixel pipelines the the ati card has only 12....

[Maical]

cause it just is... microarchitecture, drivers, all count... so the only real measurement u have in the end are benchmarks... http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphi...=527&chart=204

and yeh, it looks like ati cards perform better in oblivion since the older ati x1600 series outperforms the somewhat newer nvidia 7600series

u also havent mentioned if u have agp 8x or pci-e...

[RZZZA]

I think I have both...

Im leaning towards 7800 GT, it scores high on all the hardware tests, it even stays alive in the high end comparisons.

[Caius Britannicus]

if your willing to jump up to $180 american range I would suggest picking up the 7900 GS its toms hardwares top pick for the price range. They also prefer the 7600 over the 7800 if you want to save money. So really the 7800 seems to be a middle ground with the 7900 GS out performing it for a little more and the 7600 being near it in performance but costing less.

Also, he has to have PCI-E as the 6200 is PCI-E only. They never released it in AGP.

[SPARTAN VI]

if your willing to jump up to $180 american range I would suggest picking up the 7900 GS its toms hardwares top pick for the price range. They also prefer the 7600 over the 7800 if you want to save money. So really the 7800 seems to be a middle ground with the 7900 GS out performing it for a little more and the 7600 being near it in performance but costing less.

Also, he has to have PCI-E as the 6200 is PCI-E only. They never released it in AGP.

The 6200 also comes in the PCIx1 flavor. Oh lordy I hope he's not gaming on PCI.

For Oblivion, I'd go ATI. I traded my 7900GT for a X1900XT for Oblivion.

I think I have both...

Im leaning towards 7800 GT, it scores high on all the hardware tests, it even stays alive in the high end comparisons.

I recommend you find out for certain. Buying an AGP card only to find out you have a PCI-Express bus is a terrible feeling.

A single 7800GT should do pretty well in Oblivion.

[aorz]

I recommend you find out for certain. Buying an AGP card only to find out you have a PCI-Express bus is a terrible feeling.

I had that issue, except the other way around. I had to upgrade my motherboard, which meant I had to upgrade my processor. All in All it needed to happen eventually.

Oh and about those benchmarks, you may already have seen but they also have medium settings. Which I would say you need to play on, to get the game with decent visuals. And HDR lighting is amazing, so I would recommend getting a card which is able to play at least medium settings with HDR lighting.

Just a personal opinion.

[RZZZA]

ok, to use HDR I read that you need a card that support pixel shaders 3.0, which I believe all the series 7 geforce cards DO....but Im not sure how to find out for certain.

[aorz]

Well all the cards in the benchmark sections:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2746&p=4
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2746&p=6

have HDR capabilities. So yes the GeForce 7 series does in general.
You could go for the GeForce 8800 GTS, and be all ready for DX10, if you have an extra 400+ USD (everyone does right?)

But for the difference between ATI and Nvidia, technically, the ATI do better, but it only really matters when you go outdoors. As soon as you are in town or a dungeon (where you spend a majority of the game) it doesn't matter which brand, you'll be getting high FPS if you get a 7 series or 1900 and still have most of the awesomeness.

[RZZZA]

according to those benchmarks, with a geforce 7800 GT at medium settings with HDR (and hopefully distant lands turned on) I will be getting almost 30 fps at the oblivion gates....

Which is okay I guess, itll do for now.

[Shaun]

RZZZA, is your bidget still $140? If you can find a 7800GT for that price, get it!

Also, you said a 2.4GHz CPU. What kind of CPU though? Ifts an Athlon then your laughing. Download CPU-z, install it and tell us what it says about your PC. There is more to upgrading than simply finding a card within your budget, we need to know all about your other components as well.

[RZZZA]

RZZZA, is your bidget still $140? If you can find a 7800GT for that price, get it!

Also, you said a 2.4GHz CPU. What kind of CPU though? Ifts an Athlon then your laughing. Download CPU-z, install it and tell us what it says about your PC. There is more to upgrading than simply finding a card within your budget, we need to know all about your other components as well.

well, on Newegg a EVGA geforce 7800 GT is going for 149.99...

as for my cpu...its an intel pentium 4 processor, 2.4 ghz...not sure what else to tell you using this cpu-z program. What else do you want to know?


I cant buy a faster processor because theyre hella expensive.

[Shaun]

I want to know everything that CPU-z tells you, EVERYTHING!

I also think a new CPU is needed, a 2.4GHz P4 is pretty crappy.