Seeking video card advice

B

BenGmo

n00b
Joined
Jul 24, 2005
Messages
5
I just finally upgraded my Athlon 64 3000+ with 1 gig DDR to am Athlon x2 5600 with 4 gig DDR2. I used to be into building computers but I've been out of the game for a long time. Still running Windows XP and not likely to upgrade to Vista anytime soon.

Everything certainly runs much smoother but I still get fairly low frame rates in WoW (barely 30 FPS in deserted areas with everything but AA maxed)

Basically what I want to know is what GFX card can I get that will allow me to run WoW on max or near with at least a smooth 45 FPS? I would be willing to deal with turning setting down for wintergrasp or dalaran but I want to be able to have the game look great in 25 man raids and pvp without stuttering. WoW is the only game I play right now, mostly I just use the computer for that and web browsing, downloading etc.

My budget is quite limited, 200 is the max I would like to spend but I might go to 250 if it will make a huge difference.
 
What resolution are you running? What is your current video card?
 
obvious stuff I forgot. :p
resolution is 1680x1050
current card is nvidia 9500 GT 512 mb
 
4830/9800GT or 4850/GTS250 should do the job. Cost you 90ish and 120ish respectively. I think anything above what I mentioned maybe overkill for WoW, and will be held back your CPU.
 
The card isn't the real issue here, I don't think. WoW is very CPU limited... and X2s are slow by modern standards.
 
Ok thanks.

I'll check those out. Current video card naming patterns make my head hurt.
 
WoW uses the CPU for rendering? Because I see a big performance difference just from changing texture resolution, shadows and such.

edit: typo
 
Playing a game doesn't just rely on the GPU, there is alot of information the CPU needs to process and WoW is biased heavily on the CPU.
 
Hmmm, that's kind of a bummer. Had I known it was so reliant on processor speed I would have budgeted more for that. Live and learn I guess.

edit:But on the plus side I do have a pretty good water cooling setup that I think I can modify to work. Dangerden TDX copper block for socket 939. It looks like it would work with some careful mounting bracket mods. CPU is stable so far @ 3190 mhz with the stock heatsink. Anyone have experience with overlocking this proc?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top