Which vid card for Star Craft II?

[massivepepper]

Hey guys,

I'm looking for some help as I would like to upgrade my computer so that I can play Star Craft II without any worries.


I went to http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/ and see that my system passes the minimum requirements, but not the
recommended. It says that my vid card doesn't fall within the category of "512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better".

My specs:

CPU: a wolfdale 5200(?), dual core overclocked to 3.75 GHz (thank you Tom's Hardware)
RAM: 4 GB Corsair DDR2
Motherboard: Gigabyte G31M-S2L

and...Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series.

I can look up the Power Source stats if needed.

All your help will be greatly appreciated.

P.S. If I should buy a new card, what is the best cost effective route? Thanks.

 

[massivepepper]

Someone just told me, "it will run fine on low. most good players play on lower settings anyway. this game isn't about graphics. "

Still, I bet the graphics really pop on recommended if I were playing the campaign.

 

[jjb8675309]

First we are going to need a little more specific info.

-gonna need to know what make and model psu? and what is your monitors resolution? also what is the total amount you are willing to spend on psu/gpu? (if your current gpu is insufficient)

Love the avatar! a Phish Phan

 

[massivepepper]

I believe the psu is in my footer (Antec BP430). The monitor resolution is 14000x900, and I guess $100ish would be ok.

I probably don't need one, and actually don't have a lot of money at the moment. I can't justify dropping a hundo just for a graphics upgrade on a game I'll play a couple hours a day. Not this month. Perhaps after the winter. (why make this post then!! I dunno)

Tom's Hardware folk helped me build this machine a couple of years ago and it's been great and so much faster to use than my 4-year old laptop (HP pavillion dv2500 with no ugrades whatsoever). However hardware gets exponentially better every year, so perhaps there is a reasonable way to beef up my poor system for a couple of bucks.

That said, I'm not that really dissatisfied. If I come into some money, perhaps I'll build a 2K dream system--that'd be awesome--but for now it's pretty tight.

Oh yeah, Phish starts in just a couple more hours tonight!

 

[jjb8675309]

well sounds like you have a decent enough psu, I would personally get this gpu: an evga gts 450, it will run perfectly fine on your psu. although for about 20 more you could get a 6770 which would be decently faster although starcraft favors nvidia i believe.

Here is the EVGA GTS 450

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130679

here is the Sapphire 6770:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102940

if you can stretch your budget a bit I'd grab the 6770, but if not the gts 450 will do until you build that dream machine sometime next year

 

[Guest]

used 4890, gtx 460 maybe

 

[jjb8675309]

http://www.techspot.com/review/305-starcraft2-performance/page5.html

check this out you can see the comparative performance in SC2 the test I linked to was on a 16X10 resolution bc they didnt have 14X9 you can see where the 6770 (5770 on the charts) lies in comparison to a card like the gts 450 which is about in the range of performance of an hd4850 of its day, give or take a little added performance but overall the 6770 (5770) is a decent jump in performance from the gts 450 especially in other games. At your res either will suffice but personally I'd go for a little more muscle when in doubt

 

[jjb8675309]

used 4890, gtx 460 maybe

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130565
cheapest 460 on newegg right now (of the 1 gigs) is that above, its about 60 dollars over the OPs budget so I'm thinking the 6770 or gts 450 is the logical choice, you don't exactly need stellar fps to play a game like starcraft imo, although it would be nice... but in a cpu bound game the op will be held back to a certain extent no matter what gpu

 

[Guest]

i saw a 90 dollar 460 awhile ago guess they went up

 

[massivepepper]

Alright guys, you've given me plenty to consider. I need to learn a little more about Vid-cards in general if I want to make a shrewd decision. There's really a whole lot about computer hardware that I'd like to become better informed about, but I have so many interests.

As it is, I think I'll probably sit on what I have as it seems it'll be fine and won't fundamentally mar my StarCraft 2 experience. It's good to know that there are choices however.

JJ, you get my best answer. Thanks for reacquainting me with the shape of things here.

 

[massivepepper]

Best answer selected by MassivePepper.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey