Idiots Guide to Video Cards

[jay ratkowski]

Hello,
My last video card was a geforce 4 64mb card that is probably 5 years old.

I have never played a PC game more involved than solitare, but have started playing Madden on PC, so needed a new card.

The Madden requirements are very slim, so I figured I didn't need to spend a fortune. I bought this card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121060

Seemed reasonable enough, I figured I'd be rocking some decent graphics.

I've got Madden '07 set to 1024x768 32bit with a lot of the textures and details to medium or high (generally 1 step down from max). So nowhere near maxing out the graphics on the game.

Visually, everything looks great, but the performance stinks. The gameplay is choppy and it seems to be a problem with the video card. The drivers on the card stink as well, so if I go down in resolution, Madden stops recognizing video at all.

It would seem I bought the wrong video card.

So... keeping in mind that Madden is the ONLY computer game I play or will probably ever play (and I don't need max resolution to be happy), what should I look for in a proper card (or is there something I'm doing wrong with this card?)??? What kind of specs are most important? Any suggestions for a card under $100 that should do the trick? Or do I need to spend more?

My PC is a 2.8GHz Pentium D, I've got 1GB of DDR 400 RAM, Win XP Pro, my motherboard has slots for AGP and PCI Express x16. Any other details you need, let me know.

I just did a fresh install of XP, so there's no spyware or applications slowing down performance.

Thanks!

[newbieguitarmaker]

Originally Posted by jay ratkowski

Hello,
My last video card was a geforce 4 64mb card that is probably 5 years old.

I have never played a PC game more involved than solitare, but have started playing Madden on PC, so needed a new card.

The Madden requirements are very slim, so I figured I didn't need to spend a fortune. I bought this card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121060

Seemed reasonable enough, I figured I'd be rocking some decent graphics.

I've got Madden '07 set to 1024x768 32bit with a lot of the textures and details to medium or high (generally 1 step down from max). So nowhere near maxing out the graphics on the game.

Visually, everything looks great, but the performance stinks. The gameplay is choppy and it seems to be a problem with the video card. The drivers on the card stink as well, so if I go down in resolution, Madden stops recognizing video at all.

It would seem I bought the wrong video card.

So... keeping in mind that Madden is the ONLY computer game I play or will probably ever play (and I don't need max resolution to be happy), what should I look for in a proper card (or is there something I'm doing wrong with this card?)??? What kind of specs are most important? Any suggestions for a card under $100 that should do the trick? Or do I need to spend more?

My PC is a 2.8GHz Pentium D, I've got 1GB of DDR 400 RAM, Win XP Pro, my motherboard has slots for AGP and PCI Express x16. Any other details you need, let me know.

I just did a fresh install of XP, so there's no spyware or applications slowing down performance.

Thanks!

This should do the trick http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143084

[jemsite]

that is a crummy card for hires gaming.. ok for 1650x1080 desktop. has only 4 pixel pipelines

x1600 or better (12 pixel pipes)
x1650

newegg has many under $100... glen

[newbieguitarmaker]

Originally Posted by jemsite

that is a crummy card for hires gaming.. ok for 1650x1080 desktop. has only 4 pixel pipelines

x1600 or better (12 pixel pipes)
x1650

newegg has many under $100... glen

I prefer nvidia but it doesn't really matter if your not running high res stuff

[newbieguitarmaker]

hey dude i have an agp 6600gt with a doom3 fan on it. It is off my old comp that I'm not using anymore. I'll sell it to you for 50 bucks. I even have the S cable plug thing that came with it, it gives you an s out and hdtv out. It will run your game just fine man and you can't beat 50 bucks I think when i bought it, it was like 200 haha

edit: It is an evga, forgot to say. I love evga, I bought a xfx 7800gt for my new comp and I want to go back to evga once I get an 8900gtx. http://www.evga.com/products/moreinf...128-A8-N350-TX

[waylay00]

Originally Posted by newbieguitarmaker

This should do the trick http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143084

You can do much better than that for a little more money.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130087

[newbieguitarmaker]

Originally Posted by waylay00

You can do much better than that for a little more money.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130087

he doesn't need an 8 series to run a madden game dude, but true after i reviewed that card I was like ehhh... I think my 6600gt would be fine for him.

[waylay00]

Originally Posted by newbieguitarmaker

he doesn't need an 8 series to run a madden game dude, but true after i reviewed that card I was like ehhh... I think my 6600gt would be fine for him.

It's not a question of what he needs, it's simply a matter of price/performance ratio...For just a little more, he can get MUCH more use out of the 8600GT. Please note that I said 8600GT, not 8800GTX or 8800GT...

[newbieguitarmaker]

Originally Posted by waylay00

It's not a question of what he needs, it's simply a matter of price/performance ratio...For just a little more, he can get MUCH more use out of the 8600GT. Please note that I said 8600GT, not 8800GTX or 8800GT...

I know, but he does wants to spend under 100 and I don't trust the drivers of any of the 8 series yet. Also the performance isn't that great above the 6600gt I have price/performance wise. Just don't want you to think I'm trying to push "my product"

[newbieguitarmaker]

this should help out http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/04/...for_the_money/

[jay ratkowski]

The tomshardware link led me to these cards (all variations of the same series):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814127210R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814141032R

My gut says get the more/faster memory, but does the fan make that much of a difference for the gaming I'll be doing? My case has 2 LARGE fans and a couple small ones, so even though there's no cooling directly on the card, it's not very hot inside the case.

So now I'm seeing the apparently better cards have more pixel pipelines and usually faster RAM... is there anything else I should be worried about?

[jemsite]

76000 is good bang (12 pixel pipes) for the buck but i'm not crazy about open box from newegg.

if you want ATI at that cost this is probably better much newer gpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102084

compare all nVidia's here
http://www.nvidia.com/page/technology_vista_home.html

compare all ATI's here
http://ati.amd.com/technology/window.../Products.html

i use both without problem. i dislike ATI's .NET control panel but there newer cards are probably better than nVidia. for HD video playback (not gaming) their cheap x1300 crushes many nVidia cards 3x the cost... glen

[newbieguitarmaker]

Originally Posted by jay ratkowski

The tomshardware link led me to these cards (all variations of the same series):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814127210R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814141032R

My gut says get the more/faster memory, but does the fan make that much of a difference for the gaming I'll be doing? My case has 2 LARGE fans and a couple small ones, so even though there's no cooling directly on the card, it's not very hot inside the case.

So now I'm seeing the apparently better cards have more pixel pipelines and usually faster RAM... is there anything else I should be worried about?

clock speeds, but yes cards need at least heatsinks, they get very hot. If my card wasn't supercooled it would be probably 30-50 something deg celcius

edit:also I have to agree ^^^

[waylay00]

Originally Posted by jay ratkowski

The tomshardware link led me to these cards (all variations of the same series):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814127210R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814141032R

My gut says get the more/faster memory, but does the fan make that much of a difference for the gaming I'll be doing? My case has 2 LARGE fans and a couple small ones, so even though there's no cooling directly on the card, it's not very hot inside the case.

So now I'm seeing the apparently better cards have more pixel pipelines and usually faster RAM... is there anything else I should be worried about?

A fan/heatsink is a must. You might not think so, but it can get VERY hot inside of a case. I typically shy away from the heatsink-only options, unless it's a very cheap card that doesn't output a lot of heat (usually the worst performing ones, but there are a few exceptions).

[jemsite]

no fan or heatsink and your card will not last long.

if you're worried about noise jay, replace your CPU fan and lose the other "small" ones (as they're the noisy ones)... glen