Regarding video cards

There have been a lot of posts recently with people asking about performance issues and TF2. While I’m sure there are many of us here, myself included, who are more than happy to help people out so they’ll get the best experience they can with TF2. The most common factor I’ve noticed in all these types of threads are old video cards. While processor speed and RAM do play a part in being able to run a game, the video card is one of the more important aspects of gaming.

For many people it may be a bit of a stretch to spend $100 on a new video card, especially if money is tight, but if you’re serious about playing games on a PC then a new video card is worth the investment. There are a few things to consider before you buy a new video card.

1) If you go with a bare minimum, you’ll get the bare minimum. You can buy a video card for $50, but you’re looking at one that only has 256M of RAM. It will be able to get you by, but you’ll be upgrading your video card again sooner than later because it will just be yet another game that requires the next low end card to run If you decided to skimp now, you’ll be spending more money later to make the same purchase you should have made in the first place.

Look for a card that has a minimum of 512M of ram. Most stores sell them for around $100. This should hold you for a few years. If you plan on running Windows Vista, or you already are, get a video card that also supports DX10. Others may disagree with me on this point as the use of DX10 in games hasn’t been that spectacular yet, but if you’re planning ahead, DX10 is the route Microsoft is pushing games to go and there isn’t much of a price difference between DX9 and DX10 cards.

2) Don’t buy a video card simply because it meets the minimum specs of one game. If you pay close attention to games you can bet that each year a new game will raise the bar on system specs. There will come a time when your computer just won’t be able to run some games as specs will require more processing power. Buying something that only meets the minimum specs today is an easy way to ensure that you’ll be upgrading your video card again tomorrow. Rather than upgrading the power of something a little each time, take larger steps. In the long run you’ll spend less money because you won’t be upgrading as often.

3) systemrequirementslab.com is meant as a gauge to rate your computer, it DOES NOT accurately represent how well a game will run on your computer. If you only meet the minimum specs of a game and system requirements lab says your computer can run the game at the bare minimum, you can expect low frame rates and lack of visual effects.

4) If your current video card is an AGP card, you may just have to bite the bullet and upgrade your entire computer. AGP video cards were great for their time, but you’ll be severely limited on what options you can get. If you have a free PCI slot, then go with a PCI video card instead of a new computer, but if you do buy a new computer make sure you get one that has a 16x PCI-Express video card slot. Granted, PCI-Express is at the top of the food chain, but if you already have a computer with a PCI-E video card, then the chances are pretty high you don’t need to upgrade just yet.

If anyone else has suggestions to add to this post, please do so. =^ )

I agree 100% with everything said above. I'm a big proponent of building your own machine. It's a great learning experience, and you can save some money. So if you are looking to upgrade, check out tomshardware, and spend a few hours researching. I know there are a bunch of folks on here who are willing to help, if you have any questions.

If money is tight right now, but you are looking to upgrade, now is the time to do it. The nvidia 8600 and 8800 series cards are having some serious price cuts, because nvidia is pushing the just released 9 series. The 9 series is a very minor incremental upgrade from the 8 series. They probably could have stuck some new letters after 8800, and that would be more accurate. The 9800gx2 is essentially two 8800 ultras on one card. You're definitely going to get the most bang for your buck in buying an 8 series card, right now.

They are dx10 cards, have mature drivers, and are going to be able to play new games for the next 3 years, and by that point, you'll have gotten more than your money's worth.

When looking at a card, it is important to look at the following:

• Pixel Pipelines (DX9 cards) or Stream Processors (DX10 cards)
• Pixel Pipelines: More than 8
• Stream Processors: 128 for a ATi or 64 for nVidia MINIMUM
• Core Clock
• 400mhz for a low-end card or 500mhz for mid-range
• Memory Speed
• 667mhz for low-end cards (DDR2), 1000+ for everything else (GDDR4/GDDR4)
• Memory Bus
• DX9: 128-bit for low-end (sub-$50), 256-bit minimum everything else
• DX10: 256-bit, 320-bit, 512-bit
• Memory (now the thing that everyone gets confused about)
• Memory is in direct relationship with resolution
• anything up to 1024x768 is fine with 256mb
• 1280x1024 needs 512mb or more

On the memory thing: the more memory you've got the higher-resolution you can support and higher-resolution textures. Most cards (sub $100) dont have the power for high-res textures and thus it really can only adequately represent your actual monitor resolution.

Basically, what you do for DX9 cards is multiply the number of pixel pipelines by the core clock then by 1000000 (to get into hz from mhz) and thats the amount of pixels your card can process per second. Ex: 7600GT: 575mhz core, 12 px pipelines. 12x575x1000000= 6900000000 pixels per second. This yeilds a theoredical maximum of around 5700 frames per second at 1280x1024 (which is extremely unrealistic). Generally, you're going to want to divide the pixels per second by your monitors resolution which yeilds that theoredical frames per second number. Although this method is not proved, it can somtimes accurately portray your performance. 5000 theoredical frames per second should be bare miniumum for running games. A high end DX9 card (X1950PRO) yeilds around 18000 theoredical frames per second and is the good amount for running games on high.

My Video Card has 320MB of memory (Geforce 8800GTS 320) and it does fine at 1920 x 1200 95% of the time with all settings on High.  At 1680 X 1050 I never EVER EVER get any hiccups (actually that's a lie, when I tried Fraps once, my Frames dip to the high 20s and low 30s).  So I'm not in favor of just saying you need X amout of memory on your Video Card for X resolution.  A few years ago the XGI video card was first to 512MB of ram but it is much worse than even a 7 series Geforce.  In general though, you need more ram, just like you need more Ram in your System as a whole.

50 bucks is pushing it for a video card.  If you had a video card that was THat old, then chances are, you might have AGP and your options for upgrading are limited.  Graphic Cards actually are in a "golden" era because you can get the same on I go, or the 8800GT (G92) or similar GPUs like the HD3870 for less than 200 bucks and at times close to 150.  But like Hellblazer said, in general, More pixel processors/stream processors are better, a high core clock is better, a higher memory bus and memory size and speed and thus higher memory bandwith is better.  To me, there is no point in upgrating to a 100 card, you'll be struggling very quickly, and in fact, in Crysis, you'll already be playing at the lowest possible settings and struggling NOW.  $135-$210 is what a decent upgrade should be.

Though graphic card is the easiet way to improve your frames on a single purchase, your CPU and system ram also plays a role in the numbers one person gets vs. another.  Even the Sound Card can swing your frames by a good 4-5 frames.

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I'm pretty sure hes talking about todays and tomorrows games. Not yesterdays and todays.

The GTS 320 was fine when it came out, but the requirements for games have changed so much that they dont even make the GTS 320 anymore, it has been replaced by the GTS 512 because the GTS is (imho) best used on resolutions higher than 1280x1024.
Sure you can do 1080p+ gaming on a 320 and perhaps even comfortably, but your not gonna get the best performance. This is especially true when you have AA on. <512 takes a huge hit with AA at 1080p resolutions.

Pipes are key.
Processor frequency is not key (though it is a factor), which is referenced by the 8800GT/9600/3870/3850 having not gone up in frequency but having better performance. Than their immediate predecessors.

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IF playing todays and tomorrows games are key, then why reference cards that are 50-100 bucks.  Newegg still sells the GTS320 it's about 140-150 bucks.  For a little more you can get the GT and the GTS512.  Sure I agree with getting them.  But if we are talking way down low like it was mentioned, then the GTS320 is in the running.  And again, I haven't played any game on 1280x1024 in years the only except to that is Crysis, which we all had to lower our resolution to play at a decent frame rate.  Other than that, the rest of my system is good enough that the 320 at 1680 x 1050 never dips below 60fps with everything on high with AA 8X in TF2. 

Again, Personally, when I upgrade my GPU, I like to see a large increase in performance.

First try upgrading your RAM.  It is really cheap and easy to put in and can majorly improve the functioning of your computer.
Second try your GPU.  RAM is important, but doesn't overide a slower card.  i learned this when I got a 512mb card but it was only a 1550 ATI.  Plenty of RAM but the card itself just was to slow to handle most things at full speed.  I was reading a long TFA where they compared two models one with 256 MB of ram and another 512 MB of RAM.  The only difference in performence was when they turn it up to 8x.  Also one of the ways to not have to upgrade and get better performance out of your current video card is to get a second one just like it and hopefully your computer has a second slot for it.  Ths load balancing can be farther enchanced by installing special drivers and getting a SLI/Crossfire bridge.  You can't get these at your local stores(I know i tried), but online which should be the same place as where you got the videos cards in the first place.  Two running next to each other is stronger then just having one monster running by itself.

I would suggest getting a motherboard with on-board video processing.  Screw video cards... they are a waste of money.  Any real gamer knows that.

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QFT. The money is much better spent on one of these: Killer Nic [newegg.com]

Get the 9600GT if you don't have much money on hand. They are dirt cheap, and incredibly powerful for the price. I'm looking at newegg, and they're all around $160 or so.

If you can afford it, get 8800 GTS 512MB. More expensive, but my oh my are they powerful. Playing TF2 at 1080i resolution, 50FPS? Heck yea!


( I <3 my 8800 GT )