Graphics Card Advice

[kt88seamp]

I am shopping for a new graphics card, specifically for Grand Theft Auto 4. I am looking to turn all the detail settings up as high as they will go, at a resolution of 1680 x 1050. I have tried both an ATI X2 card and an ATI crossfire configuration. They both made the game perform horribly. I have learned that you need at least 1.5GB of video ram to turn the draw distance all the way up to 100. The Newegg link contains a card I am looking at. I looks promising, but I want to run it by you guys before I dig out the MasterCard.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102826

The specs of my system are:

- 800 watt Antec PSU

- Gigabyte X48-DS5 motherboard (brand new)

- Intel Quad Core 2.66 GhZ

- 3GB DDR2 1200 RAM

- 80GB hard drive (space is not important for me, I use removable drives for storage)

- LG DVD/RW drive

- Sound Blaster X-FI PCI sound card

- Linksys wireless G PCI card

At present I am running this graphics card in my system:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102802

It plays GTA 4 well with most of the settings well above medium, but still not near the max.

 

[Brandon00000]

it all depends on how much money you want to spend you best option is the gtx 285 or the 295 or you could even go with two 8800's you power supply will power anything but tri 285 r tri 295 if money is an issue i would go with the 285 or at least the two 8800 if you mother board is sli compatible i look at the link you posted but it does not show the type of mother board and also i hear the gta does not run well on even the high end systems something about it was made for xbox r somthing i dont know if that is true r not i do not have gta 4 but i did hear that from more than one post

 

[Vokofpolisiekar]

That whole paragraph was the quickest incremental steps in making yourself broke.

Oh and it reads non stop. Punctuation can't be that hard?

As for the OP: If you want to play GTA4 - get an Xbox 360 / PS3. The port for GTA4 to PC is incredibly poor and I wouldn't upgrade that much for GTA (as awesome game as it is).

 

[mikeny]

For non-FPS's but for rpg's, strategy's, mmorpg's, simulation's, AND FSX....which would be better? GTX285 or a 4890 (with another later on)?

 

[singingigo]

GTA4 is VERY CPU intensive. Are you running the Q6700? A Q9xxx? Try overclocking it...that should help. A Q6700 should go to 3.4 with a decent heatsink.

 

[Jaysin]

GTA is a better experience on the console imho, Vokof is right. The graphics are better but much like Crysis was they are way too demanding right now

That Sapphire card is awesome however, super quiet and monster when it comes to performance. At that price however you could also go with a HD 4890, albeit with a slightly louder card.

Choice is yours.