whats a good video card

[impmallet]

I'd go for the 1950PRO if you have an AGP set-up. There are simply no faster AGP cards available than the ATI 1950's. You should be very happy with that card.

 

I recently installed a 1950 Pro AGP 512MB in my 939 MB with an AMD X2 4800 CPU. At first I wasn't impressed - frame rate was only slightly faster.

But then I turned up the video to the highest setting... wow!!! Blew me away! FPS didn't go down at all and the quality is simply amazing.

 

Highly recommended.

 

-Jumonji

 

I'll have to agree with you both, I recommend the 1950 Pro whether your on AGP or PCI-Express, as I've found that it's notably faster then other cards in its price range(though don't quote me on this because I'm sure there is some exception). I myself use a 1950 Pro AGP (256 MB Version) and I am very satisfied, and this card will probably be able to hold out for at least another year before becoming too obsolete to play new games.

[hero4682]

thanks for all the info guys..

[Ichthyic]

I'd go for the 1950PRO if you have an AGP set-up. There are simply no faster AGP cards available than the ATI 1950's. You should be very happy with that card.

 

indeed, a couple weeks back newegg was having a sale on the Saphire version of that and the GT version. I bought the GT version for 140.00, and it came with a 30.00 mail in rebate. I then proceeded to overclock the GT to run faster than the pro version (it's extremely amenable to overclocking).

 

I can run 1024x758 in full detail (no AA) and maintain 30+ fps usually, and that's on machine that only meets the minimum specs (other than 1gb ram).

 

I looked around quite a bit before deciding on this card; it does a MUCH better job with the shaders that oblivion uses than the equivalent Nvidia cards.

 

and Newegg almost always has the best prices on these things. most certainly the best service (rush order for an extra 3 bucks got me the card the very next day!).

 

been running it about 3 weeks now with no issues whatsoever, overclocked to the max allowable in the overclocking utility that comes with the drivers for the card.

 

of course, this is all assuming you want/need to stick with AGP. otherwise, your far better off going to PCIexpress (more cards available at far lower prices).

[hero4682]

hey, how does that overclocking work?? i have no idea what that is..lol

 

my pc meets all the required specs, and i still get a pause when i play... maybe i can still tweak my game.

[Karasuman]

Here's how you do it with an ATI card.

 

1. Get a program called ATI Tool. You can find it here: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/Tweaking/ATITool/

 

2. Install it and open it up.

 

3. you should see a couple overclocking sliders on the ATI Tool interface. The goal is to move the sliders little by little until you reach the maximum safe frequency for both your core and RAM. That fuzzy cube you will see will indicate whether you've OC'ed too much by showing white splotches. The splotches are called artifacts, and when you begin to see them, that's bad. Kick the sliders back down under the clock frequencies where the splotches started showing up, little by little, until they are gone. Make sure you let the artifact test run for a few minutes, as your card may not show artifacts right away. Letting it run for a few will give you a better indication of the card's stability at the frequencies you've set. You can alternatively just let ATI Tool find the max core and memory frequencies for you, though this may or may not take considerably longer. It's probably the safest method though. Hope that helps :)