which card for Age of Empires 3

If AOE3 is your target game, go with an Nvidia card unless you can afford an X1800 or better Ati card.

The 6800 will let you use the OpenEXR HDR option in that game, it's very pretty in AOE2.

newegg has a 6800 on sale for $175 that has the same core clocks as the AGP 6800 GS. Nice card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681...

As Cleeve said, the 6800 will let you use OpenEXR; although performance is not great with this card on Age of Empires3. A 7800 GT or X1800 XL would be a better card for this game, but if you're on AGP try the 6800 Cleeve recommended.

I was thinking more of pixel shader 3. on THG review saw that it makes the water transparent. cool effect. I wonder why gamespot gave AOE3 only 8/10 on graphics.

For Shader Model 3, you have to get either and ATI X1X00 based or Nvidia series 6 or 7 card.

I recently got an x1800xl which I have used to play a number of RTS (but not AOE), and I have been able to set EVERY setting to the highest quality.

I have played RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, SpellForce, Empire Earth, HomeWorld and the LOTR demo on this card, most of them at either 1600 or 1200+ resolutions.

At max settings and 1600 resolution RCT3 reports frame rates of 24 to 45fps.

Sorry I can't report on any of the cards you requested or even the game you requested, but I will echo another poster's recommendation to get a card supporting the latest shaders and hdr.

And the DVD playback (including HD playback) is outstanding. I got my card for about $320 oem.

You should go for the sapphire radeon 850xt. Its only 154 bucks.
Thats a steal. I have it and it could run fear and all the new games to.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=EN...

A good old x1300 or x1300 pro should do the trick. They have pixelshader 3.0 and the quality is great. Since you are not going to play really demanding fps shooters, and if you have a good enough processor and ram, i bet you can play age of empires 3 with max settings in 1024 768 and somewhat max settings in 1280x1024 over 30 fps. Plus ati cards avivo, which is good for dvd playing and stuff (you wanted to watch dvds right)

And it is cheaper then all of those cards you have listed. if you have an agp mobo, they are as low as 98, pci e is 82 dollars. You can save the extra money on aoe3 expansion pack (they always have extensions) or some other strategy game. I bought Battle for middle earth 2, collectors edition for 60 dollars, and i think it worths every penny?

I am waiting for Rise of Legends now.  

ATI is the graphics card company who came up with the radeon technolgy (and its name) Sapphire is atis "partner," they use the same radeon technology, but they use their own silicon. There is no difference gpu wise, so the graphics quality is about the same. Only difference is the brand, thus the customer service, and the programs and games, if any, bundled with the card.

Unless your getting an X1800GTO or XL, I wouldnt touch the 1300 or 1600's. Compared to their Nvidia counterparts they are overpriced and underpreforming. Most of ATI's midranged (this being the X600, 700, 1300 and 1600

If its AGP you want. 6800GS all the way.
If its PCI-E, and you have some $$$....prices for the X18 series are
dropping sharply and the 7900GT is looking very sweet.

Good luck.

I would recommend a card that has SM3.0 support. None of those cards have it.

AOEIII uses SM3.0 very heavily. Although, there's not a huge visual difference between SM 2.0 and 3.0.

-mpjesse

dude you are so wrong this is even more demanding than my fps games(FEAR,hl2,farcry). i can only play this game with 1024x768 max thats with my 6800(12p,6v) 366/810 clocks. plus the game has horrible mouse lag that pisses me off to much to play it.

Go For 6800GT , SM.03 , Better Performance If You Can Pay More X1800XT 512Mb Is Better :twisted:

Agreed. AOE3 is almost as demanding as FEAR or any of the other big titles.

So is "Empire at War"

You might be right. I never played AOE3 in my computer, but i had no problems with Battle for Middle Earth 2 with my Pentium 4 2.4, 6600GT, on 1024x768.

I had problem with Black and White 2 with 1280x1024, however it ran smoothly on 1024x768.

I thought these were the most demanding strategies out there, so i thought 1300 would be enough, and would be a better choice then 6600 since it had more vram. Strategy games like vram a lot.

Plus, i think 6600GTs are better then regular 6800s. Maybe they are not on the paper, but they must be since they have higher clocks. My 6600GT Agp is lot better then my friends regular 6800.

Im not so sure about Empire at war, since I can play it with no problem on a 9800 pro (granted I miss a lot of eye candy, but I also read that the textures aren't that great anyway).

I found that STar Wars: Empire at War plays really well on slower machines.

My 9700 PRO on my secondary machine plays it really well at medium detail, 1024x768. I was pretty impressed.