UT 2007 - which card?

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Hacker5

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I built my machine in August of 2003 and haven't upgraded yet. Now that UT 2007 is coming out, I would like to be able to play it without having to build a whole new system.
I'm currently using a 128mb 9800 pro video card which I highly doubt will cut the mustard. My question is, what would be the best video card upgrade for my current system in order for me to be able to play UT 2007 with desent fps? I'm thinking of a 256mb 6800gt???

Hacker 5 (golf hacker, not a computer hacker)

2.8ghz OC to 3.2ghz
FIC 9800 Pro 128mb
Asus p4c800 deluxe
Corsair TWINX 1024 PC3700
2 maxtor 60gig - Raid 0
 
Yeah, the 6800GT or an X800GTO2 would be good. However, your 9800PRO will still be able to play it in case you don't really need to upgrade for anything else.
 
AGP wise the 6800GS would be a good pick, can run most games lag free at 1280x1024.

The 7800GS is around the corner for AGP, after that I would start looking to upgrade to PCIe, IMO.
 
7800GS will probably be THE card to get in AGP, but it begs the question, why are you still spending money on AGP? Most people bring out the "they want to upgrade old hardware" argument, but that doesn't make any sense because they are dumping big bucks into a "use in one system only with no upgrade path" video card.
 
I believe the UT series has been very well coded overall. I believe it will run well on most cards.
 
PWMK2 said:
Yeah, the 6800GT or an X800GTO2 would be good. However, your 9800PRO will still be able to play it in case you don't really need to upgrade for anything else.
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lmao

How the hell can you even PRETEND to know this?
 
how can anyone even guess what UT2007 will run like on current or older cards, i certainly have no idea

the only educated guess I can make is that the most expensive cards will be faster than the less expensive cards

we won't know how it performs until it is out
 
dfloyd70 said:
I believe the UT series has been very well coded overall. I believe it will run well on most cards.
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Yep, previous UT games have looked and played fine on older hardware. UE3 looks like a new animal though.

http://www.beyond3d.com/interviews/sweeneyue3/

The visual quality difference will huge between low and high detail. But it will probably run OK.
 
Brent_Justice said:
how can anyone even guess what UT2007 will run like on current or older cards, i certainly have no idea

the only educated guess I can make is that the most expensive cards will be faster than the less expensive cards

we won't know how it performs until it is out
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I remember an interview with Tim Sweeney last year. He said that a Geforce 6800 (not sure if it's nu, gt, or ultra) would be able to play UT2k7 at 1024x768 at high detail. Unfortunately, I can't find that interview anymore (however, in case you can find it, the interview was done in May 2005 because I remember them asking sweeney if he thought the g70 or r520 was going to be better, and he said g70).

If he was talking about the 6800ultra than you're definitely going to want to upgrade that 9800pro. I am also quite sure that the Unreal 3 engine uses SM3.0, so having a compatible card would be a big plus.
 
It was the 6800 Ultra in the Sweeney quote.

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1028791677&postcount=14, dug up a post by yours truly:

DougLite said:
Tim Sweeney said:
The most visible technological improvements in UT2007 come from the move to Unreal Engine 3. Environments are now alive with rich shaders, and per-pixel lit. As such, a DirectX 9 compatible card is a must. Expect the minimum spec graphics card to be an NVIDIA GeForce FX or ATI Radeon 9700 level card. If you're looking for decent performance however, you'll need to aim a little higher. At E3 2005, Epic's Tim Sweeney suggested an NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra level card for decent frame rates at 1024x768 resolution.
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http://www.beyondunreal.com/main/ut2007/about.php scroll down to the Technology section.
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The mention of per pixel effects smacks of FEAR, and that means pretty serious hardware requirements.
 
Do you think then that 2 OCed 6600gts could handle it at 1024? Thats usually what I run most of my games in...
 
Thanks all, for the info. I guess I'll have to wait until it comes out and see how the old 9800 pro will do. As I said, I doubt I'll be satisified. I downloaded the Call of Duty 2 demo and couldn't even run that at 1024x768 without serious chop. UT 2007 will be a lot harder on the hardware I'm sure.
Sounds like most of you are leaning towards the 6800 gs or Ultra cards or possibly 7800 gt. However, one guy recommended the x800gto 2. I'll have to do the research and see which are best. Thanks again.

Hacker5 (golf hacker, not a computer hacker)
 
When I saw the Unrreal Engine 3, it was at GeForce Lan 1, where nVidia launched the 6800U...Tim Sweeny said that the Ultra was the first gpu to render the engine with any kind of acceptable visual performance (err something to that sort). So I'm guessing that with around a medium level of eye candy at 800x600 a sinlge 6800Ultra would be adequet.

At the launch of the 7800GTX the scripted demo of UT2K7 was running really smoothly...though the night map of the city could very well have aided to the SLI'd 7800GTX system running it.

Though I would consider going with 2 gigs of ram if you want higher quality textures and higher resolutions. If you can stomach it, my friend and I saw some eVGA 7800GS AGP cards at the Milpitas Fry's for $350.
 
yeah hacker wait--I am. Makes no sense otherwise. But when you finally upgrade, you may find you'll be upgrading more than a video card--ie. bottlenecks blah blah.

gl
 
the "demo" that was shown of the new ut was running at 1280x12024 on a 7800gt. it was very smooth...don't know if it was 30 frames or 70, but it gives you an idea.
 
something tells me, unless EPIC "breaks the mold", that it will run surprisingly well on a large scale of hardware from low to high at various settings and resolutions of course

matter of fact, having a SM2.0 limited card like the 9800Pro may actually work to your advantage performance wise since you will not be trying to do SM3.0 effects on a low end 6600GT for instance

of course it would be at low res and low settings, and you wouldn't get the eye candy that SM3.0 will offer at that time, but it depends on what you are after, best IQ or best performance, in order to get both i am gonna go out on a limb here and say i think a 7800GT or x1800XT or higher will be needed to get the best of both worlds, of course with the G71's and R580's of the world being top notch

one of your worst enemies is that system, Intel P4 and socket 478, well, and AGP.......your upgrade paths are virtually non-existant at this point, as others have mentioned, at least to the point where it would be a waste to upgrade what you have now

if i were you i would start saving for a new PCI-E Dual Core AMD based system now so maybe you will have something you wont really have to worry about in the near future, i know, its a big chunk of $$, but you should be able to sell that P4 system, part it out on ebay and get more than you think, which will make it easier

personally, i find it is easiest and costs no more $$(aside from initial system cost) to stay on the high end of things than to stay behind, once you have that initial $1200 or whatever invested, if you sell it within a year or so, it will bring nearly as much or more sometimes than what you paid for it, and that same $1200 roughly will typically buy you new all updated high end parts, just keep doing it every year that way and you will stay on top, if you let 2-3 years go by, your old stuff is truly too old to get much for, and you end up losing more money than if you upgrade more often

same concept i apply to gassing up the truck, from full i can top it off at half a tank for $25, or wait until i am nearly dry to drop $55 in it, and risk running out of gas or not having a near full tank in the case of an emergency i need to go somewhere and have no time for fillups

i digress.......you get the point though
 
finalgt said:
lmao

How the hell can you even PRETEND to know this?
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Yeah, is it possible that most of todays cards probably wont even handle this game? I'm sure your x1800's 1900's, 7800's and there elite models will play it, but I highly doubt any card today can take it to its full potential.

You guys are looking to far ahead...:(
 
I guess I'm gonna go email someone from the company right now and ask how 2 6600gts will do on 1024 with it. Prolly decent...I don't expect to run maxed out, but atleast a mix between high and medium would be good nuff for me...
 
I would wait for the game to come out first for two reasons:
The first is that new cards will come out between now and that the prices on current cards will drop
The second is to see benchmark results so you can get an idea of what cards are good and which ones aren't.
 
misenthrope said:
matter of fact, having a SM2.0 limited card like the 9800Pro may actually work to your advantage performance wise since you will not be trying to do SM3.0 effects on a low end 6600GT for instance
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There is nothing limited about SM2.0 on the 9800Pro. And I think it would be far kinda to run the SM2.0 path on a 6600GT......
 
The UT series is always coded well so that they are somewhat efficient. Much more efficient than other games out there IMO. You can play the latest UT2004 on rather low level hardware with fair settings with good performance. I used to play it on a P3 866MHz with an FX5200. I don't hve any numbers FPS wise, but it was not choppy at all. I expect that UT2007 will play fine on all low/midrange systems. But really there is no way to know. The demos of it right now are not complete, and will be somewhat inefficient. Of course they are. All non finished games have loose ends to tie up.
 
I hope my Nvidia 8800 Ultra does....

man, are they gonna skip the 8xxx and 9xxx series because of dx10 maybe?
it'd be odd seeing an Nvidia 9800
 
Tigerblade said:
There is nothing limited about SM2.0 on the 9800Pro. And I think it would be far kinda to run the SM2.0 path on a 6600GT......
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well, as long as you dont want the fastest speed and dont want the latest eye candy effects and dont want to be able to do true HDR according to Futuremark, then yeah, there's nothing limited about a 9800Pro and SM2.0, but yes, running the 6600GT in SM2.0 codepath would probably yield faster rates
 
Since when was HDR a part of SM2.0?

The only thing it doesn't have is raw horsepower, SM2.0, featurewise, is spot on. Think your getting SM3.0 and 2.0 mixed up.....
 
Tigerblade said:
Since when was HDR a part of SM2.0?

The only thing it doesn't have is raw horsepower, SM2.0, featurewise, is spot on. Think your getting SM3.0 and 2.0 mixed up.....
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i think you are confused, SM3.0 hardware support is required to do what most people consider mainstream HDR(not just bloom effect which can be done on SM2.0 hardware), Valve did a decent job of implementing a "neutered" HDR on SM2.0 hardware, but only because of performance and obviouly they didn't want to piss off all the "9800Proienites"

thats an old card man, old tech, time to let it go, its done if you want to play the latest games with the best IQ

see Futuremark's interview with bit-tech(i think it was), where they say, they were not going to make HDR SM2.0 backwards compatable, that SM3.0 hardware would be required for HDR done right, thats why a 9800Pro cannot run the HDR tests in 3DMark 06
 
All you have to know about the unreal 3 engine is that it's benchmark card.. Or shall is say cards is sli 7800gt. With this set up you're promised full settings at decent fps.
 
misenthrope said:
thats an old card man, old tech, time to let it go, its done if you want to play the latest games with the best IQ
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I let my 9800xt go along time ago....man. Still doesn't mean it's a limited SM2.0 card, however you dress it up. The only thing it lacks is horsepower, and on feature spec I guess the x850xt pe makes his grandaddy proud.....

Talking of limited SM2.0 cards.....*cough* FX series *cough*
 
Tigerblade said:
I let my 9800xt go along time ago....man. Still doesn't mean it's a limited SM2.0 card, however you dress it up. The only thing it lacks is horsepower, and on feature spec I guess the x850xt pe makes his grandaddy proud.....

Talking of limited SM2.0 cards.....*cough* FX series *cough*
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i know you dont have one now......it didnt lack horsepower, it was a darn good card in its day, but it was a SM2.0 only part, it cant do SM3.0, same with the x850, it's a SM2.0b limited part, it cannot do SM3.0 either

and i fail to realize the relationship between SM support and the FX cards, i think you are confusing its lack of 24bit precision mode in DX9 apps, thats why it suffered so bad, it only did 16bit or 32bit, not 24bit, the 9800's would do 16bit or 24bit and maybe 32bit i forget, but thats why the 9800's were better, when the game code asked for 24bit precision, the ATI 9800 could do it, but the FX cards were forced to do 32bit because dropping to 16bit was not an option, so thats why there was such a large performance hit, the Nvidia FX was actually performing the task at a much higher precision than the ATI card was(albeit because the FX core lacked 24bit support), therefore it performed worse, but in many DX9 games it performed admirably

not to be rude, or say i know it all, because i dont, but perhaps you should brush up on your info?

this much i do know, as it relates to the topic of a good card for UT2007, i would not want a SM2.0b limited card right now, expecially if i was buying a new PCI-E card, i would definately make sure it has SM3.0 support, Futuremark avoided SM2.0b dumbed down HDR implementations, i would not be surprised if UT2007 requires a SM3.0 capable card to use some of the HDR type effects
 
I highly doubt you will be satisfied with anything not current gen ( 7 series or x1X00 series ).
 
Lot's of good info out there but if I can upgrade my card and get desent fps at 1024x768 with medium detail. I guess that will have to suffice. I can stomach shelling out $250 to $350 for a new card and hell who knows, maybe even another $250 for some 2048 pc4000 memory just to play this game.

I'm not building a new system for 1 game that I play. This computer under normal circumstances is awesome for what I need it for. My only weakness is UT and now that 2007 is coming out, I would like to be able to play it. I'm currently running 1280x1024 with my settings at high for UT 2004. Obvsiously it would be nice to stay there but reality has to set in at some point.

I was going to build a new system and give this computer to my boys but after formatting my boys computer, it runs like a champ. Now don't laugh but it's running great and it's a Dell Dimension XPS 266D upgraded to a Celeron 700 mhz, woo hoo!! Smoking!! LOL.. Seriously though, for what they need it for, it works great! They're young yet and their gaming consists of 102 dalmations and Bob the builder. Aside from that, the computer is on a 6 meg dsl line which flies for everything else they use it for. So with that computer running great, my tightness prevents me from building the system I wanted to which would of ran about $3500.00.

So as you can see, I try to build a "close to top of the line computer" when it's time to build but when I do, it has to last me some years. This staying on top stuff paying $1200 a year or what ever won't work for me. Besides, what can you get for $1200.00 now days? A processor? Shit!

Thanks for the input but I think I'll stick to my original game plan. Watch when the game comes out, see how the different video cards perform and then buy just like Killdozer and a couple of others recommended in their replies.

Hacker5 (golf hacker, not a computer hacker)
 
Hacker5 said:
So as you can see, I try to build a "close to top of the line computer" when it's time to build but when I do, it has to last me some years. This staying on top stuff paying $1200 a year or what ever won't work for me. Besides, what can you get for $1200.00 now days? A processor? Shit!

Thanks for the input but I think I'll stick to my original game plan. Watch when the game comes out, see how the different video cards perform and then buy just like Killdozer and a couple of others recommended in their replies.

Hacker5 (golf hacker, not a computer hacker)
Click to expand...

i understand what you are saying, but really and truly, if you do it that way you get to have pretty much the latest stuff, or close, and you actually spend less to do it because re-sale value of this stuff after a year is still very high on the open market if you market it correctly, which is hard to NOT do where if you wait 2-3 years, your old stuff is junked and you have to spend that $1000-1200 all over again.......so lets say in 5 years time, out of pocket using the every 2-3 years upgrade method you will have spent $2000-2400 and will have had an outdated PC for 2 out of the three years, whereas with the once a year upgrade method, you will stay on the top and only have spent lets just say $1500 to allow for occasional unnecessary upgrades like a new LCD or whatever

lets see, roughly now, this is of course assuming you already have a decent power supply and case monitor, keyboard, mouse, dvd-rw drive, hard drives, etc.....and you dont mind overclocking

Opteron 165 $335 shipped
your memory of choice $150 +/- shipped
evga NF41/7800GT combo $375 shipped
Zalman HSF $35 shipped

$895

that leaves plenty for other upgrades like anything mentioned above that you dont have or want to replace with newer stuff

then in a year or so's time you sell it on ebay, its really easy, and if you keep all the original receipts and boxes, manuals, etc......so that they get everything with it as if it were a new package.....you will get as much or nearly as much as you paid for it

then your $1000-1200 original investnment just gets re-invested because you dont need to buy alot of that stuff every year and that same $335 that got a Opty 165 now will get a much nicer faster CPU next time, etc...etc....

i dunno why this wouldn't work for anyone else, but it has worked for me year and year again......i always end up with a very fast system with little to no out of pocket expense
 
how about, wait until the game comes out and then upgrade to whatever hardware is available at the time?
 
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