Video card questions

[Sir Og]

I curently have an integrated onboard video (nvidia 6150). It runs Civ relatively well on lowest settings however I get a noticable slowdown when there are more objects to draw (late game).

So I want to get a dedicated graphics card capable of running civ4 smoothly. My budget is $100-150.

I need advice on chipset and amount of RAM. Do I need 512 MB or 256 will suffice. I would also like to have a card that is cooled only with a heatsink. I don't want noisy fans.

Another think I thought about was dx10. Does anybody have an idea when it should be out. And more importantly when dx10 chips will apear on the market. Is it worth waiting?

[VetLegion]

I can't play Civ 4 on my supersilent (no fans at all) computer in my bedroom.

[Sir Og]

The integrated card that I have now has no fans and as I said it runs civ4.

Maybe your bedroom computer lacks some other thins, not just fans.

[Solver]

You don't need 512 MB of video RAM. Having 512 MB, right now, doesn't even give a noticeable performance boost on some graphically intensive games, so no, 256 MB is plenty enough.

The first DX10 cards should be out in a couple of months, but bear in mind they'll probably cost at least 400$, and that's not even for the better ones, when they come out. Those cards are very powerful, but there's absolutely no point waiting for them now if your intent is to play games like Civ4 only.

I still recommend the 6600 GT for Civ4, it has enough power not to struggle with the game at all, and it's reasonably cheap. Might be able to find one under 100$ even. But yeah, it has a fan. If I'm not mistaken, all 6xxx series cards and newer have a fan. It doesn't necessarily mean it's a loud fan, but the power of these cards has grown to the point where a fan is pretty much a requirement.

[VetLegion]

My computer is ancient (Duron 900 MHz). I'm a big oponent of 3D graphics in strategy games. If Civ 4 weren't 3D (and there really wasn't any need for it to be) I could run it

[alva]

Completely agree, actually, it should have been text only!!

[alva]

Btw, first of all, make sure you can actually add a graphics card at all.

[Tim_Augustus]

As Alva says, before doing anything else you need to work out what slots you have available - many cheaper integrated boards (especially the older ones) have no graphics slots whatsoever; older boards will probably have AGP slots while newer motherboards have PCI-express. If you don't have either, you'll need to upgrade your motherboard (and processor + ram) first...

Have a look at this article at Tom's Hardware - Sub-$200 PCI express graphics cards

Personally with your budget I would go for a 7300GT in no-fan configuration (they use heatsinks and heatpipes instead) - looks to be a pretty decent card for the price. A bit more money gets you into the sweet spot identified in the Tom's article, and you'll see that the 7600GT in the article is a no-fan model.

[Sir Og]

I have a PCIE slot. I forgot to say that in the OP.

Solver one of the reasons I asked about dx10 cards was because maybe when they come on the market there will be a signifficant drop in prices in older cards (a bigger drop than the usual).

So far I have stopped at this model ASUS EN7600GS SILENT/HTD/512M

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121007

It has no fan and is less than $150.

Thanks for the link Tim_Augustus

[Tim_Augustus]

[q=Sir Og]
I have a PCIE slot. I forgot to say that in the OP.

Solver one of the reasons I asked about dx10 cards was because maybe when they come on the market there will be a signifficant drop in prices in older cards (a bigger drop than the usual).

So far I have stopped at this model ASUS EN7600GS SILENT/HTD/512M

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16814121007

It has no fan and is less than $150.

Thanks for the link Tim_Augustus
[/q]

no worries mate.

Btw, looking at newegg.com the gigabyte 7600GT featured by tom's is priced at 149 - $13 more than your 7600GS for a much better card... and still (just) within your budget

[Sir Og]

Unfortunately Newegg does not ship to Bulgaria

A quick search showed that here the EN7600GS SILENT/HTD/512M goes for about $155.

[Tattila the Hun]

I have a 7600gt, with fan, Palit "brand". Works swell with Civ, Oblivion and Tomb Raider Legends. Costs about 160€ currently.

Silent Storm still gives it hickups.

And I run everything with 1280x1024, my LCD's native.

I've read some good things about fanless 7600gt's.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviewdb/Video%20Cards/NVIDIA/7600

[Solver]

I'm also running a 7600 GT, and very satisfied with it. While it's a good card, I don't think it's the best choice for someone who only wants to play Civ4 - it is, simply put, overkill.

[Sir Og]

I'd also like to see how Oblivion looks in full detail.

I read some reviews and they said that 7600 GT can't get more than 12 fps on the more grahpically demanding scenes.

Another thing to consider is that I might soon get a Samsung LCD that would run at 1920x1200. Would the 250MB 7600 GT be able to handle that?

[Solver]

I dunno, my FPS with Oblivion on this card hasn't been anything to complain about, from what I've seen.

1920x1200... err, no. No card can handle Oblivion in that resolution. Oblivion is the most demanding game right now, and not even the 7900 can handle that resolution at highest detail. The only option for that would be SLI (two graphical cards), but that's a really expensive option, as you need a SLI-supporting motherboard, plus two powerful video cards.

Unless you mean simply playing Civ4 in that resolution, in which case you should be fine.