Best GFX card

[franchy]

Hi all... I'm really enjoying the new GTA despite its bugs and all. My current harware configuration is in my sig. I'm kind of frustrated that I'm stuck at such a low graphics setting when trying to play the game & I have the opportunity to upgrade my GFX card at the moment and I believe that it will impact overall graphics & gaming performance the most. Specs are in my sig, so please correct me if you believe this statement to be erroneous.

 

The native resolution of my monitor is 1920 x 1080, so playing the game on a lower resolution on my monitor results in the game looking as if it has been stretch horizontally or vertically, and won't play in full screen. As a result I'm stuck on low textures and at low game settings. I would like to boost these settings and be able to play at 1920x1080 resolution with higher GFX settings.

 

I usually always go for nVidia cards but as u can see from my sig I currently have a HIS HD 4850 IceQ 4 TurboX 512MB GDDR3 PCIe. I'm wondering if I should get a 4850 with double the amount of ram or switch back to an nvidia card... I can't afford the ATI 4870 at the moment or the GTX 260 or 280...

 

So what do you guys thing I should do?

 

I am currently also playing Far Cry 2.

[nynth.plague]

Man honestly. The card your running is sweet on its own.

 

It will handle the new games that are coming out - FC2 and GTA4 run obviously.

 

I mean; im playing both with a 8600GT 256MB, and it runs sweet. I am waiting for my 9800GTX+ to come back from warranty (damn PALIT... DAMN YOU) and have to put up with this sh!thole card.

 

Im sure the 4850 is much better.

 

If i were you, the only thing that would bottleneck anything in your system @ present is your graphics card. And even then its a minature bottle neck.

 

Honestly, if i were you. Wait another few weeks. Save up the money. And buy a card the next series up. Either 4870 or GTX260... 4870X2 even.

 

At the moment an extra 512MB vram aint gonna do much. The clock speeds, mem speeds and architecture are still the same. It wont do much for the extra dosh.

 

my personal advise.

[Pixelated]

Hi all... I'm really enjoying the new GTA despite its bugs and all. My current harware configuration is in my sig. I'm kind of frustrated that I'm stuck at such a low graphics setting when trying to play the game & I have the opportunity to upgrade my GFX card at the moment and I believe that it will impact overall graphics & gaming performance the most. Specs are in my sig, so please correct me if you believe this statement to be erroneous.

 

The native resolution of my monitor is 1920 x 1080, so playing the game on a lower resolution on my monitor results in the game looking as if it has been stretch horizontally or vertically, and won't play in full screen. As a result I'm stuck on low textures and at low game settings. I would like to boost these settings and be able to play at 1920x1080 resolution with higher GFX settings.

 

I usually always go for nVidia cards but as u can see from my sig I currently have a HIS HD 4850 IceQ 4 TurboX 512MB GDDR3 PCIe. I'm wondering if I should get a 4850 with double the amount of ram or switch back to an nvidia card... I can't afford the ATI 4870 at the moment or the GTX 260 or 280...

 

So what do you guys thing I should do?

 

I am currently also playing Far Cry 2.

You will not notice that much of a difference with buying a better card. Overclock your CPU and you will notice a difference.

[franchy]

I'm already OCing my CPU thanks Pixelated... As much as I can without running into any problems with my computer...

 

I always thought the more vram you have the better games can handle higher graphical settings at higher resolutions. Is that not the case...? If I were to get a 4870 with half a gig of ram but DDR 5 instead of DDR3, ilke the 4850, would I be able to pump up my textures higher, view distance higher, amount of cars higher, etc...?

 

I found someone who is interesting in buying my ATi 4850 card at a very good price, he can't wait, it's now or never. So I also wanna know if I'm better off switching back to nvidia, like a 9800GTX+ for example or am I better off with getting a getting a 4850 with more ram...?

 

I guess ultimately what I'm asking is what do I have to do to turn up my graphics setting while being able to play at a decent FPS without stuttering or missing textures.

[babarian225]

save up till early next year.

 

the Gtx 295 is coming out will give you a 85% boost on that Ati card.

 

 

or go Crossfire i.e 4850 x 2

[Quemical]

I have a 4870 GDDR5 512MB and GTA only allows me medium texture with High Render. View distance 50. But it doesn't mean the card is weak, it's GTA not properly optimized. Other games look awsome and play at max settings with no problems

[franchy]

That's pretty good if you are running at a resoultion of 1920 res. Quemical... Are you...?

 

As I mentioned this is a 1 time deal which I have to act fast on. I can get rid of my ATI 4850 for only 10USD less than what I paid for it over a month ago so I think it's a pretty good deal. I'm considering getting the 4870 with 1GB DDR 5 ram... Which brand do u guys think is the best...

 

I've been reading about power consumption too with the cards, a 4870 with 1GB of ram would take up, against a 4850 with 512MB of ram, a bit less than 30 watts at max load. Depending on which brand you buy, some models only take up about 5 watts more power at maximum load... So I don't think I have to worry with my current PSU if I choose a 4870 with 1GB ram, unless anyone thinks otherwise...?

[Quemical]

My Res is 1680x1050

 

As far as brands i personally have a Visiontek. It got buyers choice over at newegg.com

[franchy]

Alright I've upgraded my video card and as you can see from my sig I just basically doubled my ram. The games looking better and playing smoother but I'm running into problems I haven't had before.

 

Like sometimes when I play all of a sudden I won't be able to hear anymore radio stations at all, seems to affect all dialogue too, but I can still hear SFX...

 

Also the game is crashing for me now occasionally, it'll say video card out of memory and just quit.

 

I'm not using nomemrestrict or anything like that, I'm keeping my memory resource in the green and running textures on high... Anyone know why I'm experiencing these problems and what I can do to make the game more stable...?

[franchy]

<bump>

[wuyanxu]

I have gtx260 216sp and it runs gta4 beautifuly. The thing your 4850 lack is vram bandwidth, it can't utilize 1GB fast enought. with a 24inch resolution, you are quite cheap on the graphics card.

 

If you really want to enjoy gta4, nvidia cards are the best way to do it, ATI usually are slow on drivers, and some of the new games don't work or very buggy upon release. (gta4 is a good example) Nvidia cards usually work right from the start, with fast driver releases to improve performance.

Edited December 25, 2008 by wuyanxu

[Vicetopia]

He's right.

If you really want to run GTA4 well, then Nvidia's the way to go.

 

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/screenshots/...4_GPUs_1280.PNG

 

And that's without the 180.84's.