Video Card

[HellFire]

Hi every1, I'd like to upgrade my ATI Radeon HD 4670 video card to a newer one, your suggestions are invited.  I'm on Vista.

Likewise am looking for an updated version of SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD
Sound Card, mine is 2 years old.  Recommendations pls, TY.

[BaldEagl]

I'm liking this evga geforce 250

http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=512-P3-1154-TR

but just wanted to make sure my ps would handle it as it does say...  

Yes, it will work as long as you have the right power connector for it.

how much difference would there be on an older system (AMD Athlon 2.0Ghz) on identical cards with one having a 128bit memory interface and the other 256?

i'm trying to find the best AGP card and there is a lot to weed thru, especially for a computer tard like myself.



zzee

While bitrate is a component of bandwidth pixel pipelines and bitrate affect picture quality delivering more or less information to each frame (fill rate) vs. memory type and speed which affect performance (fps).

Hi every1, I'd like to upgrade my ATI Radeon HD 4670 video card to a newer one, your suggestions are invited.  I'm on Vista.

Likewise am looking for an updated version of SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD
Sound Card, mine is 2 years old.  Recommendations pls, TY.

We'd need to know what make and model power supply you have or it's wattage and +12V amperage ratings, what type and speed CPU you have and how much memory is in your system to make an informed recommendation.

[Spite]

What's the difference between the GTS and the GTX? Also, how does that compare to the ati 4850?

The GTS is the re-brand of the GTX9800 series if that hasn't been mentioned already.

Discussed in full in this review of the BFG GTS 250 OC 1GB mentioned in the first post, as are speed charts for the Radeon 4850 and 4870 512MB versions:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gts-250,2172.html

"it also performs right in the middle of the Radeon HD 4870 and 4850 cards. Of course, that was BFG's overclocked OC (OverClocked) Edition board"

Note the comments at the end in regards to the negligible benefit of 1GB over 512MB versions and bear in mind what BaldEagl said about system memory requirements for 1GB cards.

I'd likely pick the 512MB 250 (a squaddie has one and likes it a lot) over the 4850, and I'd pick the 4870 over them all but 512MB versions of the 4870 are now scarce as most are 1GB versions and more costly.

Jappa52 listed a GTS250 512MB version from EVGA at 149.99 and here is EVGA's overclocked 1GB version at 159.99, the same one Newegg is listing at $155.  (This card would be mostly identical to the BFG in the review)

Newegg also lists an XFX Radeon 4870 1GB with lifetime warranty also at $155, but unfortunately, this too is a 1GB card.  They do list an 'OpenBox' Saphire 4870 512MB at $109 (500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connectors recommended ).  But yes, it's open box ... tough call.

Amazon.com list both EVGA and XFX 512MB versions of the GTS250 for around $136 and Newegg lists cheaper 250's (sort the list by lowest price), but I'd be inclined to stick with the EVGA, XFX lines as well.

[HellFire]

Ooops, my mistake .... forgot to list the pertinent data:

       My OS: Windows Vista Home Premium SP1   System Type: X86 based PC
       System Model: Maximus Formula
       Proc: Intel (R) Core (TM)2   CPU             6400 @ 2.13GHz (2CPUs) ~2.1GHz
       Memory: 465.76 GB

I wish to upgrade my ATI Radeon HD 4670 Video Card & also upgrade my SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD.

Your suggestions/advice are kindly solicited. TY

[BaldEagl]

Ooops, my mistake .... forgot to list the pertinent data:

       My OS: Windows Vista Home Premium SP1   System Type: X86 based PC
       System Model: Maximus Formula
       Proc: Intel (R) Core (TM)2   CPU             6400 @ 2.13GHz (2CPUs) ~2.1GHz
       Memory: 465.76 GB

I wish to upgrade my ATI Radeon HD 4670 Video Card & also upgrade my SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD.

Your suggestions/advice are kindly solicited. TY

Still need to know the amps and watts on your power supply and if it has a PCIe connector but it doesn't look to me like the video card is holding you back.

If it were me I'd get rid of that 512 chip of RAM you have and insert 2x 1 Gb sticks.  That alone will help you out a lot.  If you want to get away from on-board sound the Creative X-Fi gamers are good cards.  They have their own processors and RAM and totally unload audio processing off the CPU but they used to have driver issues with Vista.  I'm not sure if those have been fixed or not.  If $90 is out of the budget then I'd get a high-end Creative Audigy for around $30.

With those changes you'd see a good performance boost and may not need a better video card.  If you do upgrade the video card the gains will be marginal at best without those other changes first.  Even afterward the gains may not be that great as you're going to be somewhat CPU bound by your 1066 FSB and 2 Mb L2 cache.

The good news is that CPU could be overclocked to around 2.6 Ghz depending on your motherboard and CPU cooler or it could be replaced by a faster LGA775 chip.

Hope that helps with the decision making.

[Jappa52]

Wanted to thank everyone for their help... I learned a few things from this thread. 

I ordered the EVGA 250 512 this morning and hope to have it next week! 

[HellFire]

BaldEagl   

Thx ever so much for ur erudite advice to me, I've decided to act on ur suggestions & purchase the 2x1GB sticks from Newegg.com, u've saved me $$    
 
Hellfire

[MrRiplEy[H]]

If you want to get away from on-board sound the Creative X-Fi gamers are good cards.  They have their own processors and RAM and totally unload audio processing off the CPU but they used to have driver issues with Vista.  I'm not sure if those have been fixed or not. 

The drivers sorta work nowadays but people should still install ONLY drivers - not the creative control software.

With Vista or W7 you will lose the 'what u hear' ability i.e. you cannot record streaming sound that plays from the computer like you can with Creative and XP.

[kilz]

Wanted to thank everyone for their help... I learned a few things from this thread. 

I ordered the EVGA 250 512 this morning and hope to have it next week! 

you wont be disappointed

[Jappa52]

you wont be disappointed

welllll see what had happened was..

Ok,l got the new card in on wednesday evening. Didnt really have a chance to mess with it after install so I waited until this afternoon. I got in game and cranked up the sliders and clicked on the shadows and........ frame rates of 14-28 or so. Went back and turned off the shadows but left the water reflections on.... same result real low frame rates. Kept unselecting eye candy until I was at the settings of my old card and yet I am getting worse frame rates than my old card. I currently only have detailed terrian and water selected and am running the 512 on the main video settings..... I am stumped. I've made sure the drivers are in, run pcdoctor tests on the entire machine, run anti virus tests on the machine several times... It is probably something very simple but Im out of ideas.

Again, I ask for your help  

Time of this report: 11/19/2009, 21:25:59
       Machine name: ALPHA-BIG-P.O.S.
   Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090804-1435)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: HP Pavilion 061
       System Model: EX276AA-ABA a1540n
               BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
          Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+,  MMX,  3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
             Memory: 3582MB RAM
          Page File: 337MB used, 7080MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
    DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode

 Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250
     Manufacturer: NVIDIA
        Chip type: GeForce GTS 250
         DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
       Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0615&SUBSYS_11543842&REV_A2
   Display Memory: 512.0 MB
     Current Mode: 1920 x 1200 (32 bit) (60Hz)
          Monitor: SyncMaster 2433BW(Analog)
  Monitor Max Res: 1920,1200
      Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
   Driver Version: 6.14.0011.9107 (English)
      DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
 Driver Date/Size: 9/27/2009 16:12:22, 5900416 bytes

[1701E]

You did make sure as to remove Video drivers from the older card before installing the new one, correct Jappa?

Also settings with that card should max almost.  Your system is about the same as mine (CPU: 4850e 2.5GHz OCed to 2.85GHz), and the GPU is a bit below what I have (GTX 260), and I can run as such:

1024 Textures with Hi-res pack
4096 Shadows With Smooth shadows
Detail terrain/Water/Local water Reflections/Bump Map
Detail Range/Vis Range: 3/4 Max
AA: 3rd tick (8x)
V-Sync: on
Re: 1680x1050

Frame Rate: 45-60

In Nvidia control panel make sure everything is on "Application controlled".
Just some basic checks before the smarter ones come in.

[Jappa52]

thnks that gives me a bit of hope. game will look real good when i get it working

[BaldEagl]

It sounds like you didn't uninstall the old video driver before installing the new one.  If that's the case you have two options to get where you need to be:

Download, install and run a driver cleaner to remove any graphics driver remnants or uninstall the new driver, reinstall the old driver, uninstall the old driver then reinstall the new driver.  Either method should resolve your problem.

I leave all my Nvidia control panal settings to "overide any application" because I do more than play Aces High with my machine and want to preserve my own settings (I don't use application specific settings).

I run locked at 59 FPS (monitor refresh rate) with high res textures, all sliders maxed, reflections on but shadows and soft shadows off.  Shadows don't affect my performance but soft shadows do and I can't stand the look without them so I just turn them all off.

My system:

Intel E6750 (2.66 Ghz) OC'd to 3.2 Ghz
EVGA 780i motherboard
4 Gb (4x1Gb) Kingston HyperX DDR2 800 RAM (4-4-4-12 timings)
EVGA 512 Mb GTS 8800 (G92)
Creative X-Fi Gamer Fatality Pro
2x ASUS optical drives (1x reader, 1x writer)
2x 250 Gb Seagate SATA hard drives
2x 500 Gb Seagate NS series SATA hard drives
Floppy drive
PC Power & Cooling 750W Silencer
Windows XP Pro

 

[Jappa52]

This morning I ran a driver sweeper and removed all drivers for the card. Ran a dxdiag and made sure the generic vga driver was in then reran the driver sweeper to be sure  I downloaded the driver from the evga website and saved it to my desktop, then installed. Fired up AH, went to video settings and turned it up to 1024, got into the orange and maxed the sliders as well as turned on all the details. There was a definite improvement but the frame rates are still dropping to low 20s... I upped off a cv and flew towards a field to see what the FR would do when the ack started, its strange the FR are dropping to low 20s but would jump up a sec later. I also noticed and I have no clue why this would be effected but the sounds are off as well. I flew right over the cruiser as it fired and never heard the guns, got shot down and never heard the hits and when I killed someone they were there one second and gone the next. No explosion, no nothin. I turned off the shadows but am still having the same issues.

I'm still stumped    Anyone have any ideas?

[gyrene81]

You're gonna have to tweak the settings in the Nvidia control panel, takes some testing but forcing some options to game controlled works better than "global setting"...make sure the video card/monitor resolution matches your video settings in the game...and strangely enough, I put one notch of AA on in the game and it smoothed everything out to almost perfect.

I have the same card you have but I'm only running 512 textures and no shadows.