Video Card

[kilz]

just upgraded from a 8800ultra Nvidia to a N250 GTS Nvidia and i must say was well worth the 200 dollar investment 

[Dragon]

 

 

[Getback]

just upgraded from a 8800ultra Nvidia to a N250 GTS Nvidia and i must say was well worth the 200 dollar investment 

$200! what am I missing. Just looked at newegg and saw one for $135.

[Bronk]

$200! what am I missing. Just looked at newegg and saw one for $135.

They shipped it to alaska by pony express.... takes a lot of ponies.

[guncrasher]

well at least you save money on cooling fans, or is it so cold you need to install heating fans? 

semp

[bustr]

Best Buy - NVIDI GTX275 OC $223
Best Buy - ATI HD 4890 $199 <---reviews test it aprox. equal to the 275.

More bandwidth = Proportionaly More EyECandy / raising FPS / lower average stutters.

I have everything maxed, no FPS dips and I see the AH world in all its virtual glory. I have 2 bad hops in my path to the game server that drop packets. I used to have rubber bullets frequently, see players warp repeatadly and be shot down by rounds that hit me after the con flew by. I had repeated collisions avoiding head ons where I saw up to 20 yards of air between me and the con. Since I upgraded my video card, I've stopped having rubber bullets, seen 2 real warps and 1 occurance of rounds hitting me late. I had 1 collison that killed the con by my pulling up from a Head On at the last second.

This begs the question:
How much of any players perceived problems running the game are system resoruce exaustion\weak hardware vs. The Internet? HiTech's genius is the graphics tools he introduced into the game to help players balance the game's resource requirments to their computer. He has never indicated turning down the graphics would maintain the EyECandy. Manageing expectaions is the realm of the almighty.

None of this works unless first your computer can even support these Video cards. By this point unfortunatly you have become a member of the Internet Gameing Hardware Hero's Leauge.(IGHHL)

Bandwidth Gb     GPU Speed
GT9800 57.3Gb   GPU 600Mhz<---What I upgraded from. Overclocked it to 700Mhz. Still had to turn off shadows and water. Occasianaly got rotating kiosk propblem in furballs with lots of sounds.
GTX250 71.7Gb   GPU 738Mhz - $130 - $160<---,
GTX275 129 Gb   GPU 648Mhz - $250 - $350<---,
GTX285 158 Gb   GPU 666Mhz - $350 - $450<--- Price spreads due to various versions of same cards. Some versions have much higher GPU speeds.
GTX295 223.8 Gb GPU 576Mhz - $550 - $700<---'

The higest version of the GTX295 comes with integrated water cooling. The base model GTX295 is considered 2-GTX275 on one board. Three digit bandwidth on my video card and finaly,,,WoW did HiTech create some beutiful virtual reality. Wonder if my computer can NOW play games like Halo and all those other FPS style games? 

XP Pro sp3
Intel Cor Duo E8500 OC @ 3.89Ghz
ASUS P5Q Pro
4Gb GSkill RAM
GTX275 OC

Reminds me of becomeing a Hardware Hero in AW.................

[TheZohan]

why bother with such slow nvidia when you can have the fast ATI 5970

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10400295-64.html?tag=mncol;posts

[Bino]

why bother with such slow nvidia when you can have the fast ATI 5970

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10400295-64.html?tag=mncol;posts

Two words: price, availability

That said, if I could afford one, and if I could find one, I'd buy it. 

[Masherbrum]

why bother with such slow nvidia when you can have the fast ATI 5970

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10400295-64.html?tag=mncol;posts

Awesome, you'll spam every VC post with a link to a card that is still in production.   

[BaldEagl]

why bother with such slow nvidia when you can have the fast ATI 5970

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10400295-64.html?tag=mncol;posts

Why bother with a Chrysler whan you can have a Lamborghini?  You've got one right?

[bustr]

ATI 5970 starts at around $700. Most AH players spend that much for a PC to last them 5 or 6 years. I was lucky enough that my wife gave me the GTX275 as an early Christmas present to celebrate her new job. My budget for video cards is $150 max. But that keeps bandwidth in double digits. The 4890 at $199 was tempting and is competitive with the 275. Still my budget is more important to me as probably most players of this game.

Find the video card you can afford with the most bandwidth you can get. NVIDIA uses DDR3 memory and ATI uses DDR5. NVIDIA uses a wider BUS to achive bandwidth. ATI uses faster memory. As the cards get more expensive, both companys in effect are doubling up a chipset from a earlier fast high bandwidth card onto one board with lots of cooling. A bit cheaper than SLI or Cross Fire with two earlier cards of either brand. But how many players have the cash for 2x number of video cards let alone one?

Internet Gameing Hardware Hero's Leauge.(IGHHL)....

[guncrasher]

ATI 5970 starts at around $700. Most AH players spend that much for a PC to last them 5 or 6 years. I was lucky enough that my wife gave me the GTX275 as an early Christmas present to celebrate her new job. My budget for video cards is $150 max. But that keeps bandwidth in double digits. The 4890 at $199 was tempting and is competitive with the 275. Still my budget is more important to me as probably most players of this game.

Find the video card you can afford with the most bandwidth you can get. NVIDIA uses DDR3 memory and ATI uses DDR5. NVIDIA uses a wider BUS to achive bandwidth. ATI uses faster memory. As the cards get more expensive, both companys in effect are doubling up a chipset from a earlier fast high bandwidth card onto one board with lots of cooling. A bit cheaper than SLI or Cross Fire with two earlier cards of either brand. But how many players have the cash for 2x number of video cards let alone one?

Internet Gameing Hardware Hero's Leauge.(IGHHL)....

amen to that.  I sure as heck wont spend that kind of money for a card that in reality wont make the game any more playable than the $150 card I have right now.  sometimes too much is waay too much.

semp