Which cheap video card to play Spring

Redfish · Post by **Redfish** » 10 Mar 2005, 16:20

I need a new videocard to play spring, but don't want to shell out a lot of money. Does anyone have any advice? Does it run on a 9600 ATI ?

aGorm · Post by **aGorm** » 10 Mar 2005, 16:44

It almost certanly will. In the min specks it says Geforce 3 Ti, and a 9600 card is quite alot better. Its also my personal choice for cheep cards.

Don't whatever you do get anything from the geforce 5 FX serise, as the only good ones were the 5700 and the 59XX but you could get a slow GF Series 6 for the same money and get more performance.

But as you suggested, yes, a ATI 9600 will be plenty enough.

Oh, and be warned, if its a sepcial ed 9600 (An SE) card that means slower than a standard (but still plenty powerfull enough...) its the XTs that are slightly faster.

Or on Geforce cards its XT's that are slower and ultras tha tare faster! Complicated ehh...

And what im saying may not be true with shadows on in spring, apparently they take a bit of "umf" from your PC. So if you want shadows ull probably need somthing a bit bigger. Whats your budget? Maybe I could point out one of good value?

aGorm

EDIT:
A quick look on the net suggest you can get a Geforce 6600 for under 100 pounds, and that would beat the socks of any ATI 9600... But then the ATI 9600 are around 60 pound so its up to You.

Cheesecan · Post by **Cheesecan** » 10 Mar 2005, 17:39

Right now the 6600-series of cards is the best bang for the buck you'll get, if you can find them where you live, the 6600 GT PCI-E version when SLI'd even being comparable to the high-end cards if you have a newer system.
You can find Geforce 6600 XX cards from about $125 to $200 in both AGP and PCI-E. With that you'll be able to run Spring in as high resolution as you like, even with FSAA no problems at all.

I also advise against buying a FX-series' card, compared to the new generation budget cards(X300 and 6200) they are quite poor. A second-hand 9800 Pro/XT would be a great choice as well.

Redfish · Post by **Redfish** » 10 Mar 2005, 19:14

I'd say 100 is absolutely the maximum i'm going to spend. Since it's only for playing Spring :D

aGorm · Post by **aGorm** » 10 Mar 2005, 20:02

Well, Im assuming you live in england. If you go on dabs you can pick up a 6600 for less than 90├é┬ú! And that will power anything you like. Even Doom 3 runs ok on one of them... On medium settings...

Whats your computers spec btw?

check here:http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/compone ... ?catid=187

This is just an opinion, but its a relativly informed one...
I didn't look to hard though so you may wanna shop around a bit...

aGorm

Cheesecan · Post by **Cheesecan** » 10 Mar 2005, 20:04

Where do you live by the way?

AF · Post by AF » 10 Mar 2005, 22:24

no FX series eh? I have an FX 5200 Ultra and I thought it was alright for 30 quid though I havent seen much about the next range up. Mind you, you lot are probably die hard ATI fans

aGorm · Post by **aGorm** » 10 Mar 2005, 22:52

No, I am a lover of good hardwhere. I Had a Geforce 4 ti 4200, and it rocked. Then i got an 5900, which was fine, although the ATI card was infact better, and so i got a ati 9800. but then it refused to work so i sent it bck and stayed with my 5900 till it exploded (it was overclocked to much... although recenlty i tryed it agin and it actully has started to work fine.... ill make a bob when my dad needs it for a computer)

When it exploded i got my 6800 gt
what a card
beats the pants of the ati cards

if anything im an Nvidia fan

( i used to be a voddo fan till nividia briought them out... vodoo 3, ummm)

But a 5200? that was one of the worst cards nvidia made and im a fan of them? ├é┬ú30 was actully a rip off im affraid. You could have brrought an ati card that would have been better. The FX series ws flawed untill the later stages (ie the 5700 and the 5900)

get an upgrade! I demand it!

aGorm

jouninkomiko · Post by **jouninkomiko** » 11 Mar 2005, 00:40

i have a 5200 ultra as well and it works pretty decently... (runs spring too)

[K.B.] Napalm Cobra · Post by **[K.B.] Napalm Cobra** » 11 Mar 2005, 03:01

What about my trusty 9200?

AF · Post by AF » 11 Mar 2005, 10:13

wha? It was th cheapest directx9 card I could buy at the time. Besides I dont have the money for an upgrade and it plays every game I have at max res/detail

aGorm · Post by **aGorm** » 11 Mar 2005, 10:22

5200! MAX RES FULL DETAIL!?!? WHAT GAMES ARE YOU PLAYING!?!

Im raely sorry to say that even My OLD DX 8 geforce 4200 Ti out paces a 5200. Dispite the numbers difference. When you brought it did you not check reviews and do resarch on it? They were the most poo suxing card about. You so should have got an Ati if you had a low budget, as at the time there low end cards were better...

If spring runs good on a 5200 (which jouninkomiko says it does) then it will work hunky dory (fine if your not english) on a 9200, so no worries [K.B.] Napalm Cobra.

I suddenly feel like i might have a half decent computer...

aGorm

AF · Post by AF » 11 Mar 2005, 10:33

It plays Homeworld 1+2 it plays TA and thats all I'm bothered about, though there are plenty of other games I cba mentioning them. I am a Nvidia fan and at the time I wanted the cheapest video card I could fidn that was directx9 compat and the cheapest nvidia card I could find was the 5200 ultra

[K.B.] Napalm Cobra · Post by **[K.B.] Napalm Cobra** » 11 Mar 2005, 10:59

Munter.

And I'm not english, but we have a governer general, so I understand honkie dorie just fine.

aGorm · Post by **aGorm** » 11 Mar 2005, 11:04

Homeworld 2? all Maxed Out?

Whats you PC specs guys?

I got: AMD Athelon (not 64) 3200 Barton
1 gig of Ram in Dule Channel
Geforce 6800 GT 256 ram

Now I know thats good enough to play on...

aGorm

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » 11 Mar 2005, 14:20

I'll still be playing on my Voodoo3 PCI, with only 16MB of memory. You'd be surprised what you can handle through a card like that. I've played games that were recommended to only be played with 128 megs of memory on 64, so I'm not concerned.

aGorm · Post by **aGorm** » 11 Mar 2005, 14:40

Yes, I had a voodoo 3. They rock. Way ahead of there time. Unfortunatly they got so ahead of themselves that none brought the best cards they had, and to many people started making cheeper clones and so bust they went. Its only real problem is lack of support. Hopefully though spring will be well wirten enought to work on one!

aGorm

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 11 Mar 2005, 16:46

It's my analysis that any card which will run the 3D ta demo replayer will probably also be able to run Spring with roughly the same efficiency. There have been many new features added which increase its complexity and therefore GPU load, but also many optimizations I'm sure.

genblood · Post by **genblood** » 11 Mar 2005, 16:51

The voodoo line of cards where great when they came out. I still
own the Voodoo 5500 card. The community still has hacked drivers
for it and I'm glad it is still going strong.

I have a old Quantum3D X-24 Obsidian pic card sitting on my
old hardware shelf. I don't through out old hardware. I just put
it on a shelf. I got sound cards, pci video cards, agp video cards
and other stuff you find in the PC. I figure I'll use this old hardware
one of these days.

For now, I'll just keep them in there anti-static bags on the shelf
till I find something to do with them.

Back to your issue, I would go with ATI 9600 for my first choice
and for a backup I would select a Nvidia 5700 LE 256MB AGP card.
I own both an I prefer the ATI for windows systems and Nvidia for
Linux based systems. Nvidia has better Linux drivers then ATI at the
momment.

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 11 Mar 2005, 17:00

Maybe SYs could post the system specs they're currently using?

Spring RTS Engine

Which cheap video card to play Spring

Which cheap video card to play Spring