Original Mass Effect on HD 4550?

D

dparm

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 26, 2007
Messages
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Was going to gift my brother the original Mass Effect for Christmas since he's got a renewed interest in games. He has an i7 860, 4GB DDR3, HyperX SSD, and an ATI HD 4550 graphics card -- unsure if it's 512 or 1024MB.

I know the 4550 is fairly low-end but ME1 is an old game. Is he going to have a crappy experience playing ME1 on that card? What sort of detail settings/resolution can he safely run it at? I'd hate for him to run below his display's 1920x1080 native res.
 
that card is not even as fast as an 8600gt so it may play but only at a low res and mostly low settings. if its a ddr2 model then its going to struggle even more.
 
I don't have any hard numbers to back it up, but based on some HWCompare graphs and my own testing on a similar card:

I benched some older games - DA:O, UT3, and LoL on an HD4350 512MB card paired in an Skt 939 X2 @ 1.8 Ghz with 4GB RAM - the 4550 a better card, but not exponentially better. I was unable to push the 4350 past 1200 x 800 with playable framerates. While ME1 and DA:O are about 18 months apart, if you're expecting to play at 1080p, you'll definitely need a better card. It'll be playable, but not likely enjoyably playable, above 1200 x 800.

I would say that card is definitely a bottleneck in that system, which would be a perfectly serviceable gamer with a graphics upgrade. I would see if you could get a cheap x770 card, maybe a 5770 used or a 7 series Radeon or comparable Nvidia camp. I remember getting decent 1680 x 1050 rates on my x1950 Pro playing ME1 and DA:O and the 5770 was a game-changer at the time.

You can usually find a used 5770 here in the forums for around $60-80. A new 7770 will run around 125 - 150 (considering shipping and tax). I haven't used NVidia cards in my builds for years, but the 650 TI looks like a good price/performance card.

HTH!
 
I agree with DVAmon about the game being playable at 1280 x 800 but just get a new card. it doesn't have to be anything extravagant. Get an old 8800GT for around $25 here on this forum and it will probably max out that game.
 
Man, the 4550 must be a real turd if an old 8800GT can beat it by that much.

I guess I'm spoiled as I played the original on a GTX 260 and am now replaying it on a GTX 560 Ti.
 
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