Buyin new GFX card; need advice

Zedro

I bought Oblivion the other day for the hell of it. Well, it turns out it runs like crap on my computer. A benchmark i ran showed that my graphics card was the culprit. The one i have right now is some cheap-o nvidia fx 5200 (which ran WoW and Half-life 2 decently) but now i want a new one.

Now, i'm no expert when it comes to hardware, so i spotted this little guy on newegg.com

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814133197

Looks nice to the untrained eye but i'm worried that if i buy it, it might EXPLODE when i install it. What i mean is, does it require extra cooling or extra energy supply -- something like that?

Also, please suggest something otherwise if you know of a good card that's within the $100-$150 price range.

I have about 2.0GHz CPU and 768mb of RAM.

Gdiguy

Do you know what your current power supply is rated at? Most likely you'll be ok, since that card doesn't seem like it needs a crazy amount, but it's always good to check

Also, Oblivion's going to probably chug a bit on your system regardless of gfx card; I don't know what resolution you're trying to run it at, but your CPU/ram are probably going to limit you to lower-ish resolutions

(I was getting ok but not great performance at 1024x786 (I think) with a pentium M 2 ghz and 1 GB ram laptop with a GeForce Go 6800 ultra, but I'm not sure exactly how comparable the cpu/gfx cards are)

telcus

A quick googling leads me to believe that your current card (the nVidia FX 5200) is an AGP card and that the GeForce 8500GT you're looking at is PCIe.

You might wanna check what graphics interfaces your motherboard has before purchasing a new card.

Iroh

Oblivion is going to dominate your computer unless you are up to date enough that you have PCI-Express on the motherboard. I would just hang onto the cash until you can get more parts than just a card.

romanqwerty

Is the 2.0ghz duel core?

Ive ran oblivion on a few differant computers and its seemed that it is majorly CPU hungry, Chugging like crap on my celeron and only slightly chugging on my 3.2P4.

As others of said, id be careful throwing in a gfx card just for oblivion considering the other specs of your computer.

LondonBridge

telcus wrote: »

A quick googling leads me to believe that your current card (the nVidia FX 5200) is an AGP card and that the GeForce 8500GT you're looking at is PCIe.

You might wanna check what graphics interfaces your motherboard has before purchasing a new card.

Very true, check first!

Rohan

Iroh wrote: »

Oblivion is going to dominate your computer unless you are up to date enough that you have PCI-Express on the motherboard. I would just hang onto the cash until you can get more parts than just a card.

What? He doesn't need anything more than a new graphics card, though some more RAM would certainly be helpful. But that's about all I'd upgrade, if I were him. A 7600 variant would be good enough, or a Radeon X800 GTO2 if HDR doesn't matter.

Lucky Cynic

My 7600GT (factory OCed) from evga is rather awesome. Once you turn down the draw distance and distant trees options, the game can get roughly 30-40fps outdoors but can run perfectly fine indoors. No HDR or AA but the game still looks very detailed and a higher FPS > flashy bloom and HDR imo.

A 7600GT can be found for around $110 or maybe even $100 now, however, do check the type of interface your graphics card uses. There is an AGP version of the 7600 somewhere but I do believe it maybe a bit more expensive.

Zedro

Lucky Cynic wrote: »

My 7600GT (factory OCed) from evga is rather awesome. Once you turn down the draw distance and distant trees options, the game can get roughly 30-40fps outdoors but can run perfectly fine indoors. No HDR or AA but the game still looks very detailed and a higher FPS > flashy bloom and HDR imo.

A 7600GT can be found for around $110 or maybe even $100 now, however, do check the type of interface your graphics card uses. There is an AGP version of the 7600 somewhere but I do believe it maybe a bit more expensive.

That's exactly what i just purchased from newegg.com. Turns out i needed a stronger PSU, too. Spent a total of $170 (video card + new PSU). Here's hoping it all installs well when it arrives.

I'll post a follow-up soon.

IreneDAdler

Yeah, you won't need to spend too much on a new card to see a significant improvement over the FX 5200. I remember seeing benchmarks from the cards in that generation, and the FX5200 was incredibly underwhelming.

Also, RAM is relatively cheap, so I'd probably invest in some extra RAM. I think most newer games recommend at least 1G of system RAM.

Zedro

So the card arrived in the mail and i'm still awaiting my new PSU.

Anyway, i opened up my computer to make sure the card would fit in the AGP slot and i see i need to uh...connect a power cable from the video card to the power supply. How do i do that exactly?


The video card uses the 4-pin molex connector and i don't know where to connect them. Here's a pic:



One of them fits into the card but what about the other two? I am completely lost on this. I opened up the computer to see where the other two went but i have no idea.

Rook

The yellow end at the bottom should fit into one of the spare cables from your PSU. If you don't have a spare, unplug one of the 4 pin connectors from a hard drive or CD-Rom drive and place it into the end at the bottom, use one of the ends at the top for the g/card and the other to replace what you've just unplugged.

tsmvengy

Plug one male connector into the card, plug a male connector from your psu into the female connector.

[edit]Not looking carefully enough!

What brand/model 7600GT is that?

Burning Organ

Ati 2600 is coming out pretty soon in that price range.... Oh well, too little too late I guess.

Zedro

tsmvengy wrote: »

Plug one male connector into the card, plug a male connector from your psu into the female connector.

[edit]Not looking carefully enough!

What brand/model 7600GT is that?

XFX