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Honest Graphis card opinion.. (Read 498 times)

Aug 20^th, 2003 at 6:34am

diablo_red Offline
Colonel
I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Posts: 10

I have got FS2004 currently on order.

I checked the min spec which I exceed by some distance but I wish I had looked into the graphics card side of things first because....

Although my PC is quite new I only have a Nvidia 64MB DDR GeForce4 MX 420 graphics card (latest driver).

Now you have all stopped laughing I need to know just how well/poor the game will perform.

My spec is:

Dell Dimension 4550 Pentium 4 2.66 GHZ
512 MB DDR RAM @ 333MHZ
120 GB Hard Drive @ 7200rpm
Nvidia 64MB DDR GeForce4 MX 420 (latest driver)
Soundblaster 5.1 Live
Windows XP SP1

I am not after cutting edge graphics but will it at least be easy on the eye and playable? I also hear alot about frame rates?

All advice appreciated

Cheers

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Reply #1 - Aug 20^th, 2003 at 1:46pm

Cherokee_6 Offline
Colonel
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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Posts: 1298

I have the same Video card and it was suggested to me to install the 40.72 driver version from Nvidia's website. I did that and it runs alot better.

I have found the newest driver does not always mean the best.

P4 2.6 Ghz w/ 800Mhz FSB & HT Technology, XP Home, 512MB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at 333 Mhz, 128MB GeForce FX 5200 Video Card, 80GB Ultra ATA/100 HD, Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 w/ Dolby Digital Sound Card.

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Reply #2 - Aug 20^th, 2003 at 5:00pm

Liam Offline
Colonel
Wimbledon, London, England

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Posts: 285

Stop laughing at your 64MB graph card? What about my 8 mb on board. Embarrassed

64 seems fine too me.

Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz Northwood (With HT) Cooled by Zalman CNPS9500 LED - 2 x 512MB DDR RAM (PC3200) - 120 GB HDD - 128MB Nvidia GeForce FX5700 - Bluestorm 500w PSU&&&&Hopefully soon with RAID 0!

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Reply #3 - Aug 20^th, 2003 at 5:06pm

4_Series_Scania Offline
Colonel
He who laughs last, thinks
slowest.
Stoke on Trent England U.K.

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Posts: 3638

In myhonest view, FS2004 should be reasonable with that graphics card, but, I would'nt expect too many frame rates! i.e. the more the better......

Your machine, considering its spec of a decent CPU, super fast RAM and a 120GB HD are just screaming for any mid range graphics card!

I've got an Asus FX5600 128MB card, slower RAM than your system, a really cheap & nasty Jetway VIA Chipset motherboard and the really terrible Intel Celeron 1.7ghz CPU ! Sad

Despite my machines humble components, the Geforce FX has made FS2002 a whole new detailed experience.

I'm more than sure you'd be delighted with the results considering your better cpu etc.

http://www.asus.com/products/vga/v9560td/overview.htm

It ultimately depends on how you want to view FS2004, if you want all the pretty effects & scenery detail your MX420 won't cut the mustard.

Low resolution, low detail, FS2004 should run absolutely fine.....

My advice, spend just a bit more cash, you'll make your pc eat FS2004 for breakfast, and want to take on Doom 3 etc for lunch!

Any Geforce 3ti or Geforce4ti will considerably better the MX420 - which incidentally is actually based around very old Geforce2 technology....

Perhaps one of the best budget choices would be the Geforce FX5200, it support's Direct X 8.1 and 9 applications in hardware (something the GF4 MX's don't) they can also better a Geforce4ti 4200 in DX9 with anti-alaising etc switched on, yet cost's about £60!!!

Posting drivel here since Jan 31st, 2002. - That long!

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Reply #4 - Aug 20^th, 2003 at 7:51pm

Iroquois Offline
Colonel
Happy Halloween
Ontario Canada

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Posts: 3244

I agree. The Geforce FX is an excellent card. I could get much more out of it if I had a faster CPU. I bought my Geforce FX5200 for $67US from eBay. The FX is truly superior to the Radeon and past GF cards.
You don't need super frames though. 10fps offers fairly smooth operation. 16fps is what a movie at the cinema plays at. 25-30fps is the most you should run FS at.

I only pretend to know what I'm talking about. Heck, that's what lawyers, car mechanics, and IT professionals do everyday. Wink

&&The Rig: &&AMD Athlon XP2000+ Palomino, ECS K7S5A 3.1, 1GB PC2700 DDR, Geforce FX5200 128mb, SB Live Platinum, 16xDVD, 16x10x40x CDRW, 40/60gb 7200rpm HDD, 325w Power, Windows XP Home SP1, Directx 9.0c with 66.81 Beta gfx drivers

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Reply #5 - Aug 21^st, 2003 at 3:17am

diablo_red Offline
Colonel
I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Posts: 10

Thanks everyone for the advice.

I'll load it up and see how I get on and then make a decision as whether to get a new card or not.

One last question though.

If my current card is not compatable with DirectX 9 does that mean I should not install direct X 9 (as I understand it is with the game) or will it just simply not recognise it?

Thanks

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Reply #6 - Aug 22^nd, 2003 at 4:49am

Daz Offline
Colonel
in the morning im making
WAFFLES!
Leeds, UK

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Posts: 1171

yeah they say past 20fps and the eyes are unable to actualy see it so anything over 20 is good

another alternative is the geforce 4 ti4200 128mb its probably the best value graphics card out at the moment in my own opinion. my fs2002 runs about 20 fps fully maxed out on a cheap and nasty asus motherboard and an athlon 1.4 thunderbird and 512 ram Cheesy

upgrading soon though to an athlon xp3200 should make an improvement.

AMD athlon XP2800+ @2.34ghz&&Epox 8RDA3G 400 fsb, 8x AGP&&1024MB DDR400 PC3200&&XFX 256MB FX5950 Ultra (oc 525/1.04)&&40 gig maxtor 7200rpm&&80 gig seagate baracuda 7200rpm&&

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