Video Card question...

[bwtur88]

Hey everyone,

Looking for the right video card for my pc. I mainly play Medieval II, so I thought I would ask here. My main problem is the battles themselves - too much lag, etc. Everything else is fine. Anyone got any suggestions??? Any help would be appreciated.

Subsystem Status Description
System Intel Pentium 4, 3000 MHz
Memory 1.5 GB RAM
Disk Drives C, J
Video Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family
Internet MSIE 6.0; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322
Windows Windows XP Pro SP2

Dell 5150 E510

Dell Dimension DM051

305W power supply

Thanks.

[Zhou]

Hey everyone,

Looking for the right video card for my pc. I mainly play Medieval II, so I thought I would ask here. My main problem is the battles themselves - too much lag, etc. Everything else is fine. Anyone got any suggestions??? Any help would be appreciated.

Subsystem Status Description
System Intel Pentium 4, 3000 MHz
Memory 1.5 GB RAM
Disk Drives C, J
Video Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family
Internet MSIE 6.0; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322
Windows Windows XP Pro SP2

Dell 5150 E510

Dell Dimension DM051

305W power supply

Thanks.

How much do you want to spend? In all likelihood, you're going to need a new powersupply. 305W is nothing (maybe you should double check on this).

In any case if you want to spend ~$550, get a GeForce 8800 GTX. Also, you will need a ~500-600W powersupply for this card.

If you want to spend less ~$400, get a GeForce 8800 GTS or a GeForce 7950 GT

If you're looking in the ~$300 range, look into a ATI Radeon X1900 XT.

[5h@\/\/|\| [TNT]]

I looked up your specs and it shows that you have a PCI-E x16 slot with a 128MB PCI E x16 ATI Radeon X300 SE in it. Medieval II requires 128 however its is recommended to have a 256, which would help relieve your current problems. Also note that you have the required (1.5) RAM as well...when the recommended is 2gig.
I have read of peoples problems like your self and what they have done to upgrade, and it seems that RAM is a key player in problems with graphics lag in M2. So you might think about getting .5 of additional RAM to get you up to the 2gig recommended. As for the vid card, how mush are you wanting to spend on your new card?

$250 = XFX PVT71JYHE9 GeForce 7950GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP ExTreme Edition Video Card - Retail

$200 = XFX PVT71GUQL3 GeForce 7900GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

$150 ($112 on newegg.com right now) = BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

If you want to spend more than 250 then post back and ill give some more. (also plz note that im i have a bias against ATI, thats why i did not include any in the recs. just personal preference.)

On a side note i think that you might have a problem with your power supply if you were to up grade to a nice vid card and RAM. Most manufactures bring there rigs to almost max psu load to cut costs. This is common in non custom built computers, PSU's are relatively cheap if you do need to get one though.
Hope this helps and GL, feel free to post back any questions that you have.
Peace

[Zhou]

Wow, prices sure have come down a lot on the 7950s.

[5h@\/\/|\| [TNT]]

Wow, prices sure have come down a lot on the 7950s.

You can thank DX10 for that...lol. Yeah but not bad ah?

[Condottiere SOG]

Pick any 512mb card with a core clock of 325Mhz+
best to have on with a memory clock of 500Mhz+
You gotta know whether you have PCI-express or AGP
I assume PCI-express, 1-2gb of RAM is fine.
Get Guru3d prog. Overclocking lets you get
25-30% more of the core clock
up to 25% more of the memory clock
careful to test your parameters before allowing them
If you get stalling, take it down a notch or two(5-10Mhz).
This advice will save you money and give you excellent performance!

[gunnigolfer]

His problem is definetly not the RAM. I have 1GB DDR400 RAM and an AMD 3800+ and a 7950GT. Battles run very smooth most of the time. I used to have a X1600 Pro Graphics card but when i got the 7950GT it was like playing a whole new game. He needs a new PSU and a new graphics card.

I definetly wouldn't reccomend anything better than a 7950GT unless he is going to upgrade other parts of his system, preferably a 7900GS but if he's going to upgrade his proccessor too, buying a 8800GTS 320mb is a good choice. Personally i think a 8800GTX is a waste of money unless you have a screen larger than 19''.

[MadWolf]

The nVidia 7600gt is the one I have and I can jack up the setting to max without any problems, its also pretty cheap only about $150 now, though if you want to upgrade for the future you may want to try another card.

[Trajan]

Moved to The Basement.

[bwtur88]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I appreciate the help. With all the video cards out there - I wasn't sure. Thanks again. The selections between $200 and $100 are the ones I will most likely go with.

[Incinerate_IV]

Your ram is fine, 1 gig is more than enough for all the PC games out now.

For your price range, I would go with a 7600GT. You can find it on Newegg for as low as $125.

But first make sure you have PCI-Express. Sometimes companies like Dell take out slots on their motherboard, to save money I assume.


The black slot all the way on top is the PCI-Express slot, make sure that is in your system before you buy.

[Citizen]

I agree with Incinerate_IV, a 7600GT is a really decent mid-range card out there for the price and it'll be able to run M2TW without any issues.

[RZZZA]

You need a core2duo nowadays, a pentium 4 wont cut it and Itll most likely bottleneck any new card you get.

I have a pentium 4 and I bought a 7600gt and I noticed very little if any improvement over my old 6200. The problem, I take it, lies in my processor and motherboard. And probably even the power supply.

[Rhinosaur]

I have an Athlon64 3500 and it works great with my Nvidia7950 GT. The thing is, if you don't have a dual core processor, don't run multiple apps while you play games.