VGA - Bottleneck

[DMilardovich]

Hi everybody,

First of all, sorry for my English ....
I`ve a simple dude, My PC is a Pentium IV s.775 3.06Ghz, 1Mb Cache, RAM 2Gb DDR2 533Mhz, Intel Mobo (chipset ATI x300), I want to know which VGA to buy for running Medieval 2: Total War, Empire: Total War, Crysis and CODs.

Thanks all, thanks!

 

[DMilardovich]

Recomend to drop PC to rubish and buy a new one ? xD

 

[steckman]

My brother has a P4 3.4GHz, 2GB of RAM, and an 8600GT and runs Medieval 2: Total War just fine. He hasn't tried any of those other games. I wouldn't invest a lot of money in a video card for that computer, because all of the other pieces are getting old. I would suggest something cheap like a Radeon 4670. You won't be able to play those games on the highest settings, but I bet they will be playable.

 

[coozie7]

@DMilardovich: Tell us exactly what MB and PSU you have, it might be possible to just upgrade the CPU and the PSU might power a decent card, there is always hope, do not throw it away just yet!

 

[DMilardovich]

my PSU is a Codegen 400W (comes with case), on the other hand, my Mobo is an Intel D102GGC2

Buying a new PC is also a possibility... but I`m not quite sure about that....

 

[DMilardovich]

Thanks strangestranger, but I`m sure that it`s impossible to play with the official system requirements

1.5GHz Pentium IV, AMD Processor or equivalent
512MB RAM .... LOL

 

[DMilardovich]

By the way, I tried to play Empire Demo.... And screen gets all black at moment of loading, after that, it closes!... It`s means that I`m even not able to run it

 

[DMilardovich]

Guys, what do you think about this one ? http://www.sapphiretech.com/ss/products/products_overview.php?gpid=280&grp=3

Costs 130 dolars here

 

[steckman]

As long as you have room for the large heatsink, I think that is a great card. I actually have a Sapphire 4670 that I'm very happy with. Mine is the one with the fan on it though.

 

[DMilardovich]

Thanks steckman, can you tell me the other components of your pc and how well it performs ? (a few games 1280x1024.... And, if it`s possible, Medieval 2 )

 

[steckman]

When I played Medieval 2 I had an 8600GT, 2GB of RAM and an Athlon 64 X2 4200+. If I remember correctly, everything in Medieval 2 ran fine at 1680x1050.
I've since upgraded my computer to an X2 5200+ and the 4670. I played Fallout 3 and Far Cry 2 at 1680x1050 with that setup. The 4670 made a very noticeable performance improvement.

 

[DMilardovich]

I`m very confused...

Should I sell my actual PC and buy a new one (Eg. I7, 2Gb DDR3, 500Gb, ATI 4750) or should I stay with my actual PC and only buy a new VGA ? :S

 

[steckman]

It really depends on how much money you want to put into your PC. For $50-$75 I think you will see a very nice improvement with a 4670. For any amount of money over that I would look into getting a new PC.

 

[DMilardovich]

To be honest, I have money enought to buy a new one (something like Core I7 920, ATI 4870 1Gb, 2Gb RAM, 500Gb HDD... I can get something like that for 1200 dolars aprox.)...

The problem is that I`m not sure about expending so much money on it.

Should I wait, sell this one and buy a new one ?

Thanks!

 

[steckman]

I guess it mostly depends on personal preferences. If you only play games a few hours a week and most of that is Medieval 2, then an upgrade to your old system is fine. If you want to spend 40 hours a week playing games and want to run Crysis on high settings, then spending the money on a new system makes sense.
As far as waiting goes, there is always something on the horizon, and parts that are expensive today are almost always cheaper a few months down the road. The big problem is that reasoning means you are always waiting for something and you never get a new computer!

 

[DMilardovich]

Honestly, I re-installed Windows 1 week ago and since that day I didn`t installed any game.... So, definitely, I`m not "gamer"...

BUT, can I play Medieval 2 at full setings on 1280x1024 with my PC and that VGA?


On the other hand, I`ve had a nice idea... I could buy a NVida VGA now and if in the future I want to buy a new PC, I can use my NVidia VGA for Phisics, what do you think guys?

 

[steckman]

I think you will be able to play Medieval 2 at full settings at 1280x1024 with your PC and a 4670.
I don't know anything about using an Nvidia card for physics, but if you want to go that route you should probably look at a 9600GSO or 9600GT.

 

[DMilardovich]

What about ATI 4670 ? could I use it in CrossFire with 4870 / 4750 ?

 

[steckman]

My understanding is that you can only Crossfire other 46X0 cards with a 4670. So you could use another 4670 or a 4650. And of course you need the proper motherboard.