Budget Cards

[Spooky]

Hi everyone, i'm struggling to run S.I and TOA with my current system, i have a :-

P4 1.8ghz
512megs of ram
Albatron TNT2 m,64 - (32mb sdram)

S.I and TOA are near unplayable and i usually play DAOC classic at the lowest settings. As you can you see, i think my processor and ram do not need updating, they are above recommended spec. However the graphics card does. I was thinking of getting a Geforce FX 5200 - basically because they are cheap and offer very good graphics. What do you think? is there any better 'bubget' graphics cards out there?

I'd also like to hear from some people who use the GFX 5200, does it play alright? are you able to have most of the settings at the highest? Screenshots would be appreciated

thanks

 

[Chrystina]

Albatron TNT2 m,64 - (32mb sdram)

EVERYTHING > TNT2

 

[Leleith]

From friday news a few weeks ago:


Optimising the performance of DAoC in Windows XP

Here is a little technical tip that some of you may or may not be aware of which should help boost the performance of DAoC on computers running under Windows XP.
First start by right clicking on the shortcut link that you use to start Trials of Atlantis (or the Camelot.exe file in your ToA directory) and select the option "Properties" and select the "Compatibility" tab. Check the box "Run this program in compatibility mode for" and select Windows NT 4.0. Click on "Apply" to confirm everything and you're done.
Various tests performed by players have indicated a performance improvement while running the game, most noticeable when in or around towns.
Please, if you are unsure how to perform the above operation - DON'T ! This little tweak will not work with version 1.68 anyway as the optimisation will be directly implemented into the game.

Give it a shot and see if it gets any better. Me and comps dont work well together, so i wont give any tips on what to do, other than that

 

[Spooky]

EVERYTHING > TNT2

What do you mean?

 

[Chimaira]

Remember trying to play Quake III with TnT1 yes TnT 1

 

[Spooky]

I should have said, the TNT 2 did not come with the PC, the original card was a GeForce 3 - it mysteriously stopped working. When i took it in to be repaired they replaced it with the TNT2 and charged me £80 - ripped off or what!

Just been reading about the GeForce FX 5200 it sounds as if it will run S.I/TOA quite happily at the top settings, who needs to spend £300 on a card ?

 

[Spooky]

Does anyone know whether or not the FX 5200 can run all the graphical effects? it should do it supports 9x

 

[katt!]

9600 pro/xt is pretty good. apparently theres some new nvidia budget card that pwns as well ;x

 

[SoWat]

I've been looking for a replacement card for a while, but have been totally confused with all the SE, XT, Ultra, Pro spec cards out there.

Tom's Hardware has done a pretty comprehensive card comparison which may help you look at cards ranked against others.

It might be worth looking at this test with another browser open to check on prices.

 

[Spooky]

I've been looking for a replacement card for a while, but have been totally confused with all the SE, XT, Ultra, Pro spec cards out there.

Tom's Hardware has done a pretty comprehensive card comparison which may help you look at cards ranked against others.

It might be worth looking at this test with another browser open to check on prices.

Thanks for the link, that's very useful.

 

[CjkaceBM]

The FX5200 has in-built support for DX9 but may as well not support it as it is so slow as to be unusable when turning on these features. It is however very good in DX8.1 games.

Realistically I would suggest that you sit down and work out exactly how much you can spend, and then go from there.

If you are set on buying a cheap but ok card then the FX5500 is the way to go imo as they aren't much more expensive than the FX5200

http://www.spodesabode.com/content/article/fx5500/1

UK sales

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=60996

 

[cHodAX]

The 5200 is a complete dog in DAoC, 10fps with effects on and 2fg on screen. Spend a little more or you will end up wasting your money and needing something else to replace it.

 

[Damon_D]

Go for the FX5700 with 256 mb ram, it will only cost ya slightly more , and is a very good buy for the money

 

[Sycho]

Fx5700 256 ddr, fx5900/5950 256 ddr models are nice cards but then again you could get the nvidia 6800 model when it's out ^^ and buy a low cost geforce/radeon for now.(ti4400-4600 are very very nice low budget cards about £80-120 in uk i think now).

 

[Esoteric]

Ive got a 9600xt 256mb, couldnt be happier. Got it cause it was slightly budgety but had the best bang for buck. Just underperforming next to some extremely expensive cards.

 

[Shike]

I run with nvidias ti4200 cards in 3 PCs here at home and i'm really happy with them, suspect they come really cheap today aswell.

 

[Asharith]

ati9600pro arround 125 euros.. and best value/money imo

 

[cHodAX]

(ti4400-4600 are very very nice low budget cards about £80-120 in uk i think now).

Or spend £100 on an ATi 9600XT for vastly superior image quality and much higher framerates at maximum detail levels. Seriously Matt, don't recommend something that is vastly overpriced for it's performance level, bloody Nvidia fanboi 6800 does rock though, even if it does need it's own nuclear power source

 

[cHodAX]

ati9600pro arround 125 euros.. and best value/money imo

Good card if you can find the non-crippled version and not the one with the uber-slow memory. Personally I would spend a little bit more and play it safe with the 9600XT which is the best value per euro around at the moment if you shop around and find a good supplier.

 

[Path]

Or spend £100 on an ATi 9600XT for vastly superior image quality and much higher framerates at maximum detail levels. Seriously Matt, don't recommend something that is vastly overpriced for it's performance level, bloody Nvidia fanboi 6800 does rock though, even if it does need it's own nuclear power source

And just where can you find a 9600XT for 100? Not around here anyway, even with gimped memory

 

[cHodAX]

And just where can you find a 9600XT for 100? Not around here anyway, even with gimped memory

http://www.aria.co.uk/

£111 (inc VAT) normally but it is on offer in the 'Deal for the day' section once every couple of weeks for £102 (inc VAT) and with the new ATi/Nvidia cards due soon you can expect another price drop. I bought 2 of them a fortnight ago, one for my brother and one for my second machine. Superb card. Gimped memory one is £90 or so, not worth it as it badly hinders the performance. Wait on 'Deal for the day' imo

 

[cHodAX]

Oh and http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/ is doing the Asus branded 9600XT with TV-out/DVI and a voucher for a FULL copy of Half Life 2 when it ships. £122 (inc VAT) but pretty decent bundle.

 

[cHodAX]

Ebuyer £104 (inc VAT) so I am getting closer