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Best video card for EQ 2, Oblivion and WoW on a budget

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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HI all,


First time poster so please go easy on me.

I presently have a P4 2.8 GHZ processor on a ASUS P4P800 MB running a gig of PC 3200 ram. I'm presently running a 256 MB AGP Geforce FX 5500 graphics card. I'd like to upgrade my system to run EQ, EQ2, WoW and Oblivion (I can play the first three, can't even run the last one). My question is, I'm on a budget of about $200. I'm thinking of going with either:

A. VisionTek ATI Radeon X1300 XGE 512 MB (I like this one as it has dual DVI outs)

B. ATI Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB.

C. X850 Pro 256 MB card.

I'm in the process of slowly piecing together a new system to build wiht Dual SLI for early next year so this is just a go between to get me between now and then. Of the three cards I listed what would give me the most options in the afore mentioned games? Would you recomend something else? Please let me know. I purchased the X1300 but it's still sealed so I do have the option of returning it. Please let me know what you think. Thanks in advance!

More about : video card oblivion wow budget

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Graphics card Expert

The X850 pro would be the best, by far a more powerful gaming card. It would offer much better Oblivion performance despite no supporting Oblivions method of HDR. But if you are in the USA, you can step up to a couple even better AGP cards for under $200.

Forget the 12-pipe pro, for $175 you can have the king X850 (XT Platinum Edition)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1681...

Or out of stock now, but also a great choice, the 7600GT AGP:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681...

Difference between the two, the X850XTpe would generally be a tad bit more powerful although the 7600GT would take some games. But the X850XTpe is SM2.0 not Sm3.0, so it can't run HDR in Oblivion. However, performance wise it would do very well(better) in Oblivion with fsaa/bloom.

here is a review of the PCI-e versions, which are clocked and would perform the same. But the X850XT in that review is not the platinum edition. It has lower clock speeds and would be a bit behind the platinum.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/08/25/sub_200_pci_expr...
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Graphics card Expert

Quote:
One last stupid question (for tonight) whats the difference between the 7600GT and the 7600GS? Thanks again for all the help!


GS is a scaled down version of the GT.
Go with the 7900GS.
Hello, two clues here why the 7900GS aint gonna work. He has a p4p800 (i865pe) and an FX5500. BOTH AGP.

Edit:, if the OP actually did buy a new PCI-e mobo already without mentioning the new mobo/specs. Then I apologize ahead of time.
Graphics card Expert

Quote:
One last stupid question (for tonight) whats the difference between the 7600GT and the 7600GS? Thanks again for all the help!

Same features, just the 7600GS has alot lower clock speeds and therefore less performance.
Graphics card Expert

Can you clear this up. Are you replacing the FX5500 with one of these, or did you already buy a new mobo and the new budget card you need is a PCI-e? Your mobo/cpu is so good I assumed you wanted to extend that systems life until you can build an SLi rig. The FX5500 is just killing your performance.

If you already bought a PCI-e mobo, then listing those new system specs and not the old rigs specs would be most helpful.
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