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Recommend me a video card!


Sole Signal
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I just picked up the Orange Box and am realizing that my stock card isn't going to cut it. Here are my specs now:

Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+

2 gig RAM

GeForce 6100

an available PCI express slot

The only way I can run Portal or HL2 fairly smoothly now is with the worst quality video settings. I want to stay around the $100 price range, so if I upgraded to say, the GeForce 8400 would I notice a marked increase in performance? (i.e. run Portal or HL2 at nearly the highest video settings?) Or am I just kidding myself?

I looked through this comparison chart and it doesn't seem like the 8400 would give me that much of a performance increase:

http://www.hwbot.org/quickSearch.do?hardwareId=GPU_471

So really, bottom line is, what is the best card I can get for about $100-140? Thanks!

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Well.. you can go with a near top card from last generation - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814241063R or you can go with an 8600GT - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130085

The X1950XT is a near top of the line card from last gen (DX9), and the 8600GT is a current gen lower end card (DX10). Both would be a huge step up from the 6100. I'm pretty sure the ATI card will outperform the nVidia card, but the nVidia card has the DX10 advantage.. which of course wouldn't matter if you don't use Vista.

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When I first got the Orange Box I was running a 7600GT and HL2/Portal looked great. The card is cheap now and fits well within your bugdet. I do however suggest you save up some cash and future proof yourself a little by picking up a 8800GT. The card will perform your pants off without costing you them (200-300 price range).

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I don't know how much you trust Tom's Hardware, but every month they come out with a very useful article called "The Best Gaming Graphics Card for the Money". For under $140, it looks like a X1950 PRO ($105 after rebate) is a good choice if you don't plan to overclock. However, if I were you, I'd go juuuust a little over budget and get the HD 3850, which offers probably the most bang for your buck among all the current cards.

Anyway, if you want to compare actual numbers and see exactly how many extra FPS you're getting for that extra $50 or whatever, the VGA Charts is a convenient tool.

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I own a 8600GT, and I'm able to run at a fairly high resolution (1600x1050, widescreen) with great quality in all my games. Unreal Tournament 3 looks fantastic! Don't own the Orange Box as all I want from it is TF2 (thinking about getting it anyways though lol), so I don't know how well the game will run on my card, but I certainly haven't found my settings limit yet.

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It would be very wise to make sure your current power supply unit can handle the new card you want to get. While being certain that your PSU has the needed Watts output is good, it's quite important to check that your PSU has the AMPs needed for the new card. You'll want to see what your PSU puts out in its 12volt rail (it should say this on a pretty visible spot on the PSU itself inside the PC case). If your PSU can't put out the AMPs the card needs to function properly, you could run into problems.

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It would be very wise to make sure your current power supply unit can handle the new card you want to get. While being certain that your PSU has the needed Watts output is good, it's quite important to check that your PSU has the AMPs needed for the new card. You'll want to see what your PSU puts out in its 12volt rail (it should say this on a pretty visible spot on the PSU itself inside the PC case). If your PSU can't put out the AMPs the card needs to function properly, you could run into problems.

Okay, I'll look into this for sure. Am I going to have to worry about overheating, or do these cards usually come with their own cooling fan?

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Okay, I'll look into this for sure. Am I going to have to worry about overheating, or do these cards usually come with their own cooling fan?

Low end cards can go both ways. A lot of them don't generate the same level of heat that the high-end cards do, so they can be found both with and without fans depending on the manufacturer. High end cards however, almost always have a fan attached to them, as they generate a lot more heat while they're doing their thing.

Keep in mind however, that if a card doesn't come with a fan, it doesn't mean you need to buy one. It simply means that particular card was built in such a way that a cooling fan wasn't needed to keep it from overheating.

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Okay, finally got a break from school and had some time to do some more looking. I came across these 8600GT's (why so many different ones?!) :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150229

as compared to this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133204

Is the 256mb vs 512mb a big difference performance-wise? (I realize that the 512mb card offers HDCP support, though I'm not really concerned about that, maybe I should be?) Thanks for all the help, guys.

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Do not buy a 8600GT, I repeat, do NOT buy a 8600GT. The ATI HD2600XT is a much better deal on all counts, and it beats the 8600GT/GTS in every aspect, especially with the new 8.1 drivers.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161097

However, I would really advise spending he extra cash and going for a HD3850, as I have a similar setup to yours (with a slightly slower clocked processor) and I can play all aspects of the Orange box with everything on highest settings except AA at 4x, and get 40-60+fps.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103049

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  • 4 weeks later...
Okay, this story ends with me buying this card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150275

Thanks everyone for the help (mostly convincing me to pay a little more for something that will last me much longer).

The HD3850 still outperforms this slightly, but its still a good buy. I don't know what nVidia's deal is with a 192 bit interface, the 384 MB of memory isn't enough to make up for it. They would get better performance with a standard 256/256 interface.

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