RAM or Graphics Card

JabbaLovesLava · Post by **JabbaLovesLava** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 8:57 pm

Here is a link to my current GFX, that's to the website RDST provided ^_^
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... =A177-3080

CarbineImpulse · Post by **CarbineImpulse** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 9:10 pm

However, a 5200 is NOT the card you want to get.

I had a GeForce FX 5200 and it caused me no end of probs and that was on a high spec machine. I think it's worth forking out a bit more (if you can afford it) for one of the Geforce 6 or 7 series. nVidia have also always struck me as being slightly worse in terms of providing support or decent working drivers (the 5200 threw up no end of nv4_disp.dll errors until eventually they provided a driver that worked!) so it's worth taking all these things into account. Buckets of RAM is nice too

sawyerdk9 · Post by **sawyerdk9** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 7:36 am

Jabba, how much RAM do you have?

yankeefan05 · Post by **yankeefan05** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 7:42 am

Really both r important. U should put the graphics on low that might make the game run more smoothly. I have a 1GB RAM but 512MB RAM is good.

Leviathan · Post by **Leviathan** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 10:39 am

In fact, the amount of Physical Memory required to play video-games like Star Wars Battlefront I / II, or similar ones, will depend on the sort of Random Access Memory you are using, since SD-RAM, DDR-SDRAM or DDR2-SDRAM (Being labelled "ECC Registered" or not) do not provide similar performances, for a common quantity...
Moreover, the Frequency (Represented by Standards like "PC3200, PC3700, PC4200 , PC5400, etc...) can equally influence on the gains you will get by replacing your actual Memory...

JabbaLovesLava · Post by **JabbaLovesLava** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 11:41 am

I have 512 RAM

OGEB1103 · Post by **OGEB1103** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 11:45 am

CarbineImpulse wrote:
However, a 5200 is NOT the card you want to get.
I had a GeForce FX 5200 and it caused me no end of probs and that was on a high spec machine. I think it's worth forking out a bit more (if you can afford it) for one of the Geforce 6 or 7 series. nVidia have also always struck me as being slightly worse in terms of providing support or decent working drivers (the 5200 threw up no end of nv4_disp.dll errors until eventually they provided a driver that worked!) so it's worth taking all these things into account. Buckets of RAM is nice too

And what is exactly the problem because i have that card and my game works perfect, even on high settings!!! Though it would be nice to have a better card

RDST · Post by **RDST** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 1:35 pm

OGEB1103 wrote:
CarbineImpulse wrote:
However, a 5200 is NOT the card you want to get.
I had a GeForce FX 5200 and it caused me no end of probs and that was on a high spec machine. I think it's worth forking out a bit more (if you can afford it) for one of the Geforce 6 or 7 series. nVidia have also always struck me as being slightly worse in terms of providing support or decent working drivers (the 5200 threw up no end of nv4_disp.dll errors until eventually they provided a driver that worked!) so it's worth taking all these things into account. Buckets of RAM is nice too
And what is exactly the problem because i have that card and my game works perfect, even on high settings!!! Though it would be nice to have a better card

10 bucks your not getting over 25 fps on ANY maps (if not then you must have a crap load of RAM and a nice CPU). The 5200 isn't a bad card (i've had one for a number of years, with no problems). It just doesn't have the power to run newer games. Also it doesn't run DirectX 9.0 unlike some newer cards. Go for Jabba's card its the most well rounded and will get you good preformance will still being relitivly cheap.

CarbineImpulse · Post by **CarbineImpulse** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 2:34 pm

I've now got a Geforce 7800 GTX512. The 5200 was returning problems only on really high performance requiring games. It would often result in an nv4_disp.dll error. Do a google search and you'll find that this is not an uncommon problem with the FX5200. It seems to be a problem which results in causing an "infiniate loop". Sometimes contributed with the many FX5200 error site with a failure of it to interact properly with very fast CPU's (mines a 3.4GHz Intel). Once the 8X.XX set of drivers came out it fixed the problem (nothing else on the system had changed) but those set of drivers were a long time coming. If you think you've got probs or worries with your FX5200 I'd have a look on google, Nvidia support is almost non existant!

RDST · Post by **RDST** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 2:55 pm

CarbineImpulse wrote:I've now got a Geforce 7800 GTX512. The 5200 was returning problems only on really high performance requiring games. It would often result in an nv4_disp.dll error. Do a google search and you'll find that this is not an uncommon problem with the FX5200. It seems to be a problem which results in causing an "infiniate loop". Sometimes contributed with the many FX5200 error site with a failure of it to interact properly with very fast CPU's (mines a 3.4GHz Intel). Once the 8X.XX set of drivers came out it fixed the problem (nothing else on the system had changed) but those set of drivers were a long time coming. If you think you've got probs or worries with your FX5200 I'd have a look on google, Nvidia support is almost non existant!

I hate you... 7800 GTX? what do you need that for? Best card out there.

But yes, your right, the 5200 does have a lot of problems. Fortunatly, mine didn't.

Post by **ShadowHawk** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:03 am

Ahh you make me sick

. Wish I could afford a pricey card like that. I stopped using nvidia cards a long time ago because I was running into some probs myself (mostly compatibility/stability with the drivers at that time) so I switched to ATI and have stuck with them ever since. I like the cards because USUALLY they have good, stable drivers and can handle overclocking pretty well. I've only ran into a few cards/driver versions that strayed from the norm. Both are good chipsets and to be honest it is a matter of preference. Some games run better on an Nvidia chip while others run better on a ATI Radeon. Some even run well on both. Just depends on the coding. Usually though, there isn't much of a difference in performance with a game optimized for one or the other.

On RAM though, Lev is right. DDR2 is the best, but it does depend on if your MB can handle it. I run cheap pc2700 DDR and things run fine, but that is about it. I can accept pc4200, but I live on a tight budget, so what gets the job done smoothly as possible is what takes priority over what gets it done faster and better. My MB is two years old, Processor is about a year and a half, one memory stick is three years (or when that speed first came out, however long it was) and the other six months for a total of 768 (256 and 512 respectfuly), and video card is three months with 256 mem (just checked it the other day, so I was wrong on the 128mb stated earlier. ATI's site said it only went to 128, but I have a third party card that bumped it to 256 and it is also the 9600xt, not gt. Loosing my mind. It is a Visiontek Xtasy card.).

Again things run smoothly, but I can't bump up the settings on some games to high and get a decent framerate. But at medium quality on most games looks great to me, that's great not AWSOME. I'm addicted to TES: Oblivion and been playing that one now and I have to run it on low settings on it though. I love that series. Been playing it since Daggerfall. Guess it is time to convence my wife for an upgrade again.

Postulio · Post by **Postulio** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:27 am

1 GB DDR RAM
Nvidia GeForce 4 MX- its a crappy video card but im too broke to afford a new one for now. swbf2 runs smoothy on my pc still, so im happy. Except ships arent as shiny as they could be

OGEB1103 · Post by **OGEB1103** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 2:59 am

RDST wrote:
OGEB1103 wrote:
CarbineImpulse wrote:
However, a 5200 is NOT the card you want to get.
I had a GeForce FX 5200 and it caused me no end of probs and that was on a high spec machine. I think it's worth forking out a bit more (if you can afford it) for one of the Geforce 6 or 7 series. nVidia have also always struck me as being slightly worse in terms of providing support or decent working drivers (the 5200 threw up no end of nv4_disp.dll errors until eventually they provided a driver that worked!) so it's worth taking all these things into account. Buckets of RAM is nice too
And what is exactly the problem because i have that card and my game works perfect, even on high settings!!! Though it would be nice to have a better card
10 bucks your not getting over 25 fps on ANY maps (if not then you must have a crap load of RAM and a nice CPU). The 5200 isn't a bad card (i've had one for a number of years, with no problems). It just doesn't have the power to run newer games. Also it doesn't run DirectX 9.0 unlike some newer cards. Go for Jabba's card its the most well rounded and will get you good preformance will still being relitivly cheap.

I have 512MB of RAM, DirectX 9.0c, CPU of 2.66GHz and where would i find out the Frames Per Second?

CarbineImpulse · Post by **CarbineImpulse** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 3:07 am

Fraps is probably you're best bet although there's other progs out there.

OGEB1103 · Post by **OGEB1103** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 3:53 am

Would you class Tantive 4 as a laggy map? Cos i got around 30 fps on that!
And do you mean other video capturing programs

CarbineImpulse · Post by **CarbineImpulse** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 5:07 am

Tantive IV is not a prob for mine at all, there's no great long distance views so even in the most intense action I very rarely get below 60 FPS.

I have all my settings up as high as possible anti aliasing (x4) Distance view and LOD view both at 99% and my monitor is set at 1024x768 res.

Sorry to hear you aren't getting more than 30, maybe adjusting the video options down a step may help for you achieve a better FPS rate.

And do you mean other video capturing programs

there are other progs about that can analise FPS, Fraps is probably the best, but there are others, I seem to remember that there was one called "Benchemall" but a good look round on google or download.com might find you something else.

sawyerdk9 · Post by **sawyerdk9** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 8:39 am

My motherboard can handle a gig of RAM

With Jabbas card the ATI 9250 do you think it would run fine with 250mb of RAM of should I get another 256mb?

Ipodzanyman · Post by **Ipodzanyman** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 8:50 am

The Processor also matters, to make the game run perfectly all of it needs to be at least at reccomended standards. If you have no pci-x, (if you have the money) Get a Geforce 7800 GS OC 256mb, it runs like you won't believe...

JabbaLovesLava · Post by **JabbaLovesLava** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:02 pm

Uh, i dont think you need more RAM, BUT if you can get 256 more, the ABSOLUTELY go for it.

Leviathan · Post by **Leviathan** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:05 pm

Off-topic : OGEB1103, if you need to get informations related to your Graphics Process Unit (Such as the Frames Per Second it is displaying at specific moments), then I would advise you to consult this nVidia.com web-page, since it lists advantageous resources intended to nVidia products' owners...