New Graphics Card

Jonathan · November 21, 2009, 08:13:18 AM

I've now got a 24" monitor, and a 7600GT graphics card, which is over 3 years old, so i think its getting to the time when I need to upgrade. What sort of cards should I be looking at, preferably with HDMI output that lets me out sound through as well, and that will work with my current motherboard, but if/when I upgrade that will not become obsolete.

I'm not exactly sure what my price range is but it is more than £70, and less than about £150(max £200).

SC4BOY · November 21, 2009, 12:52:15 PM

Video cards are good values now that ATI and nVidea are at each other's throats. I personally don't think you should spend more than $100US on a new card. There are a number of excellent (and rather expensive) cards available, but you really need to ask what you are after. Your pc is old enough that you aren't going to get MASSIVE gains in graphic performance.. The only things that really stress graphics cards today are the big MMOL games.. if you don't play those, I think you should ask yourself if you should just save your money toward a new pc (which also are GREAT values now with the new I-7 and I-5 intels out there).

Your pc has the highest quality PCIe interface with full 16 line interface so you CAN put about any video card you like in your system (assuming your case will handle it.. some of the "super cards" are quite L O N G. Also some of the new cards will put a lot of stress on your power supply.. some of the "super cards" will draw about 300 watts on the video card alone.

) I don't think that is the real issue though.

Your card is very capable, even though old, and will give decent (not superior) performance on even the MMOL games, so I'm curious in what area you are dissatisfied with on your current card?

BigSlark · November 21, 2009, 01:09:57 PM

Johnathan,

I also have a 7600GT that drives a pair of 22" LCDs with no issues whatsoever. Then again, the most graphically intense game that I play is Team Fortress 2...

Any of the new ATI cards for around $150 USD would be a good choice, I don't know what the market is like in the UK. Let me know if you need some import/export assistance.

Peace,
Kevin

Jonathan · November 21, 2009, 01:29:44 PM

Well I can't tell if it's my graphics card or my monitor ( and I really don't want it to be my monitor so Im going to go with graphics card:) ) but in some programs when I drag things around it creates black "shadows". This happens in sins of a solar empire but also on the total opposite end of programs it also happens when moving things in MS Paint.

And if I take a screenshot there are not black shadows so it's not a rendering sort of thing.
Mostly I play SC4, sins of a solar empire and may play a bit of WoW, also occassionally play Sims 2.

Also there is not something like PCI 16 x2 which most moderner GFX cards use but my motherboard doesn't?

Thanks
Jonathan

SC4BOY · November 22, 2009, 12:42:30 AM

If a screenshot doesn't show the problem, I think it would be your monitor. When you take a screenshot, the pc captures the video buffer memory (obviously it can't read the monitor since its hanging out there on the end of a cable and has no "read" capability in that sense) I suppose it MIGHT be some card problem.. can you borrow a friend's monitor for just a few moments to check?

In order to take advantage of the new supercards, you would I believe have to have a new motherboard since that channeling takes place in what is normally called the "northbridge" circuitry.. the part which deals with the PCI bus. (although the new intel units integrate this on the processor chip). I don't think you would get significant performance gain from just adding an expensive new video card. I'm not sure what you mean by PCIe 16 x2 unless you mean mobo's with multiple PCIe slots. Some of the new boards have 2 or more PCIe slots with full 16 channel access, but if you read the fine details you find it really isn't very productive in most cases unless you have a very expensive crossfire or SLI linked system.. most of them use fewer channels as you multiply the # of video cards.. and of course you can't do that on your system anyways as you only have 1 slot that is PCIe

Besides with what you say you are using it for, my question would be "WHY?"

Jonathan · November 22, 2009, 02:40:43 AM

Sorry I meant PCIE 2.0 and PCIE 1.1, I don't want a crossfire or SLI system it would be too expensive when I don't need it.

I have just reset my monitor (I had changed some of the settings because white had a slight red tinge) and it seems to dissapeared, there's on a very small amount of white ghosting.
Could it be anything to do with I have linked my monitor and PC with a HDMI cable?

I can live with it because once I get into a game after 5 minutes I don't notice it but it would be better without any ghosting or shadows at all.

EDIT: you are right it is my monitor

, I just connected it up to my parents computer which has a 8600GS graphics card, and the ghosting was still there although there was less of it.(although my parents computer plays SC4 much worse, without any plugins), compared to my computer (which even has 1GB of plugins)?

Jonathan

westamastaflash · November 22, 2009, 05:40:42 AM

I just picked up a EVGA Nvidia GTX 275 and I barely noticed any differences in Simcity 4 compared to the GS7600 I had before. But I can play Mass Effect on full settings now. Looks like some of the older games can't take advantage of the newer cards.

Andreas · November 22, 2009, 08:12:18 AM

Well, there's simply nothing complicated in the SC4 graphics what could be rendered better with a faster graphics card. All buildings are pre-rendered and basically simple boxes that have the pre-rendered textures attached to, so the most resource-intensive stuff is rendering the traffic animation, smoke, fireworks and such. Any cheap integrated graphics on a modern mainboard (like my ATI Radeon 4200 HD) will do fine for SC4.