PCI-E Recommendation for games

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rob
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R

Rob

Hi - I've got a Dell 2.8 pentium machine and I'd like to play Doom 3 on it
at quite hi-res on my 19" DVI TFT monitor. It's got a pci-e slot and is
currently running on the onboard graphics. I don't have a great deal of
money to throw at this so it's looking like the X600 card. Could anyone
advise me on:

1. Noise - I'm trying to keep the computer as quiet as possible.
2. XT or Pro - is there really that much difference for Doom?
3. 128 or 256mb? I've read that Doom runs better on 256mb - again, much of a
difference?

Or am I wasting my time looking at the X600?

TIA

Rob
 
The ati x600 won't do justice to doom3 at decent resolutions. ATI's open GL
driver support isn't great, and that card in 128 OR 256 won't help much. IF
you insist on ATI and budget is an issue, consider the newer x700 series. If
you want to, compare it to Nvidia's latest PCIe offering , the GeForce 6600
GT. I have both a GeForce 6600GT and Radeon X800XT, both are great cards,
but I prefer the Nvidia for Doom3 at 1280x1024.
 
K-Gun said:
The ati x600 won't do justice to doom3 at decent resolutions. ATI's open
GL driver support isn't great, and that card in 128 OR 256 won't help
much. IF you insist on ATI and budget is an issue, consider the newer x700
series. If you want to, compare it to Nvidia's latest PCIe offering , the
GeForce 6600 GT. I have both a GeForce 6600GT and Radeon X800XT, both are
great cards, but I prefer the Nvidia for Doom3 at 1280x1024.
Click to expand...


Many thanks for that - I hadn't realised the Geforces were quite that good.
They're also a similar pric to the X600s. The only thing I couldn't check
were benchmarks between the 6600 and the 6600GT. I gather the GT has some
extra facilities and faster memory, but I'm not sure how they translate into
performance. Can't be much worse than the Intel onboard graphics - 4fps at
minimum settings!

Rob
 
Rob,
Go with the GT, memory is DDR3 and chip is clocked at 500 vs standard DDR at
a 300 clock on the non-GT. The GT only comes in 128 meg to date, but at 1024
x 768 it works at 60+ fps with all bells and whistles on my rig.
 
According to the chief designer of Doom 3 in several articles that have
appeared on the Internet and in magazines, there is NO video card on the
market, nor will there be in the next year, that can fully play Doom 3 with
its graphics settings maxed. He intentionally designed it that way so that
the game will not be outdated in just a year or two. It will continue to
look better for years to come as the video hardware available gets better.
 
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