New Vid Card for BF2

[Biggs]

OK,

i want to get a new vid card for explicit BF2 usage. I am looking to spend up to $300.

What do you guys think: onji, target i know u guys are uber computer nerds so give me some advice please.

thanks fellas.

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

I went with the nVidia 7800GT which was 450 at the time. I think you can get a 6800GT for 288 right now. That's my recommendation.

[LA_MERC_eX1|eS' ch1|d]

First question would be do you have an AGP motherboard or PCI-E for video purposes?

After that you can see what you can find in the price range on newegg than I'd check a couple of reviews from different sites to see which performs the best. 6800GT newegg has in both AGP and PCI-E.

[Biggs]

how do i know what mother i have?

[LA_MERC_eX1|eS' ch1|d]

Well I'd start by checking your birth certificate, it lists both your mother and father's names.

You can either look at the slot and see the difference, provided you know the difference. Or right click on your desktop, goto properties-> settings-> advanced-> adapter and see what it lists your card as. Mine says ATI 9600 series AGP, but I'm not positive Nvidia lists it the same way. When you get to the advanced section it may be under a different tab so keep checking the tabs until you see what your card is.

[LA_MERC_eX1|eS' ch1|d]

Oh yeah and for optimal BF2 running you should look at having either a 512 RAM video card, or 2 Gigs of system RAM. So get a new video card now and maybe save up some for another Gig of system RAM.

[Biggs]

i am running 2 gigs of ram and an ati 9600, but i want to pwn a lil more so i figure a better vid card will allow me to see targets at greater ranges, thus getting more kills. my thoughts anyway.

[LA_MERC_Dirge]

']how do i know what mother i have?


um usuaully it's the daddy there are questions about..

But I would recommend going to social services...

hehehe

[LA_MERC_eX1|eS' ch1|d]

Sweet Biggs, do you know if you have an AGP slot or a PCI-E slot?

[LA_MERC_Diesel]

He has to have an AGP if his comp is older than a year and he has a 9600.

For that price range you probably need either a ATI 800 AGP or a GEforce 6800GT
like...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150102
for $300

[Biggs]

i got a dell and its almost a year old. and scratch the 9600 i am actually running a 9800 radeon. sry i thought i had a 9600, but no.

[Biggs]

i dont know that much about computers as u can tell.

[LA_MERC_Diesel]

np all we need you to do is be on our team and kill the commies on the other team :p:
you tell us the budget and we will advise of the cards you can choose from.
if you want to stay with ATI go with x800 or x850
but being a BF2'r EA is tight with Nvidia so I would go with the 6800 I linked above for $300
You will need a new mobo that is PCI express capable to make the next jump...which is alot more significant than from a ATI9800 to either of those AGP cards

[Biggs]

so what are u telling me? wth is a mobo?

my budget is around 300 for the card because i am buying a bad arse flat screen.
i can install ram and vid cards but i dont really wanna mess around with anything more difficult than that.

but let me know what i should do. i would like to go with nvidia, but u guys know best so i will just listen and do.

[LA_MERC_Dirge]

lol I figured Biggs for a computer geek! mobo is short for motherboard

[LA_MERC_eX1|eS' ch1|d]

LOL! I thought he was a computer geek too. I figured he had an AGP slot but I haven't be keeping up as much with hardware for the past 2 years.

Get the 6800GT. But if you really wanna pwn like Andy did in the Cobra with you the other day then you would have to upgrade your motherboard, cpu, and video card. Way more than your $300 budget.

[LA_MERC_Diesel]

go with the card, or something like it that I hyperlinked for you...6800GT will get er done, Dirge has something very similar. for $400 you get the top of the line, and do some work. I am sure Capt Obvious or T4rg3t would be glad to help you, since they are local, and good with computers, should you go that route.

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

Sweet, does this mean I'm no longer Uber Delete or is Brent now Uber Delete Repeat.

[LA_MERC_Diesel]

no no you will always be uber Delete
Biggs is now Uber Un-Complete
;)

[LA_MERC_Dirge]

Speaking of Uber, what happened to your sig? You have some second rate award banner there? Dare to be different, eh? lol

[LA_MERC_Diesel]

he is so proud of his good conduct award...darn gloat'r :p:

[LA_MERC_eX1|eS' ch1|d]

I think I found a new banner that still works, I'll try to get it working today and see if it updates.

[LA_MERC_th33_r00k]

']i dont know that much about computers as u can tell.

I am with Biggs on this one. I also want to run BF2 on my Dell. I am running a ATI "Sapphire" Radeon 9250 Pci card. What would you recommend for me? I am willing to take anything apart once. :dunno

[LA_MERC_eX1|eS' ch1|d]

Probably the same card, but what are the rest of your system specs? CPU speed, amount of RAM?

From what I've read to run BF2 smoothly you want 2 Gigs of RAM or a 512 Meg of RAM video card. Presently there is only 1 card with 512 RAM and that is the $500 Abit FATALITY X800 XL 512, now you could get other cards with 512 or more RAM but they are made for video editors and are much higher priced.

[LA_MERC_eX1|eS' ch1|d]

One thing I noticed about the cards you and Andy were talking about tonight Brent is the 6800GT only has OpenGL 1.5, while the ATI X800's had OpenGL 2.0. Not sure if that could be a problem for BF2 or for games in the future. Just thought I'd point it out. I'm not positive of all the techie stuff right now so someone else would have to give an opinion.

Most of the nubs around here are upgrading their whole systems, new motherboard, AMD 3500 or higher for processor, 2 Gigs of DDR400 RAM, and an Nvidia 7800 video card. Depending on the RAM in you computer now you might be able to reuse it and save $200. But everything else you would have to buy, mobo $130, CPU $220, and 7800GT $350. Totaling roughly $700, the mobo you might be able to find one for $20 to $40 cheaper and maybe find the video card a little cheaper. But it would still be around $600 on the cheap end for maximum BF2 pwnage.

If your monitor is pretty crappy then upgrading it could help you out too. But it just depends on what kind of shape your monitor is in.

[Biggs]

ok so i have 2 options:

1. go with all that new crap that will cost $700 and pwn tons more then i pwn now (which is almost impossible)

2. just get the new vid card alone and just pwn a lil bit more.

so all u computer nerds, what should i do? and thanks fellas for all the advice!

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

Just upgrade your vid card. The cost to get you to a new platform is not worth it right now. Your system as is is pretty damn good. I can see bumping up your vid card a little but you would have to replace so much to utilize new items such as PCI-E 16 or SLI or new ram, new processor, new power supply, mobo, and probably more. My advice is just get a 6800GT AGP card and enjoy for another 6 months or year then bite the big bullet.

[LA_MERC_eX1|eS' ch1|d]

Really depends on your budget, since you want a new monitor now also you should probably just get a new card and save up for a new system in a year or so.

[Biggs]

ok so i am gonna go with the new vid card and monitor now.

in about a year i am gonna get some bad arse new system with dual vid cards, and u guys can help me build it! yay!

[Biggs]

i order the 6800gt from newegg. it should be in shortly.

is there anything i need to do or know before i shove that monkey into my machine?

[LA_MERC_Diesel]

ahhh, nah just be gentle, and make sure your comp is unpluged so the static electricity does not fry anything.

[LA_MERC_Dirge]

make sure you have TWO mobex power connections free.

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

Yeah the new vid cards require 2 power connections. So if you don't have an extra one buy a y splitter. Thermaltake has a cool led yellow y power splitter. I have 2 in my case now. Also. Dirge, speaking of Uber mr I don't play ever becuase of Hurricanes and women. My sig is second rate but its one of the very few that actually update after the 1.03 patch. Did you notice my good conduct ribbon along with both my mid east service ribbon and my far east service ribbon. Mayber Uber Delete is actually Uber sweet now punk.

[LA_MERC_Dirge]

Hey at least i updated to 1.03. haven't started the game since then, but hey.

[LA_MERC_Diesel]

LMAO Andy....