What graphics card for maximum effects? [Archive]

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Chicane-UK

25-01-2008, 12:45

Stupid question I suppose but.. I own a GeForce 8600GT. Its a nice card but enabling HDR on it KILLS the performance in TDU.

What cards are you guys running to be able to run the game in 1600x1200 (or 1680x1050) with full antialiasing and HDR on...?

penusliski

25-01-2008, 12:56

randomus_r

25-01-2008, 13:03

Turn down resolution. I have a Sapphire ATI Radeon 2600XT, and I can run HDR and 4xAA at 1024x768 with a decent fps, your card should be about the same, if I'm not mistaken :)

But if you really want to run with full graphics at that high res, you'll be looking at the 8800GTS/GTX, or wait for the 9 Series cards to come out.

Chicane-UK

25-01-2008, 14:56

I suppose with lots of antialiasing, I don't need as high a resolution... i'll mess around with settings tonight!

I'd love to see the game in massively high res with every possible visual effect turned on - it is a very good looking game! :)

kalniel

25-01-2008, 14:56

X1950XT 256mb is able to run the game absolutely max, as would a 7900GT, 7900GTO, 7950, X1950XTX, X1900XTX, HD 2900pro, HD 2900XT, HD 3850, HD 3870, 8800GT, 8800GTS, 8800GTX, 8800Ultra and so on.

Chicane-UK

25-01-2008, 15:03

7900GT

I've got an 8600GT Extreme... isn't that better than a 7900GT?! Video card models are so darn confusing! :)

Nagumo8

25-01-2008, 15:05

weird chicane, i run at 1680x1050 with max settings and its never dips below 40fps? I usually turn off HDR just cos i like it to run over 60fps.
I only have a 7800GT thats o/c'd.
No i don't think a 8600 is better than a 7900GT, confusing i know.

kalniel

25-01-2008, 15:50

I've got an 8600GT Extreme... isn't that better than a 7900GT?! Video card models are so darn confusing! :)
No it's far worse. With video cards pay more attention to the second digit, so the *900 is towards the upper end of performance and the *600 is only mainstream (slow). One generation difference is not enough to make up for that, so your mainstream card is not as fast as a performance card from the last generation.

Chicane-UK

25-01-2008, 16:26

Doh. I'll choose a bit more carefully next time :) Thanks for that.

Kevin_Gandhi

25-01-2008, 16:50

xxxcrazyjossxxx

25-01-2008, 16:58

But still it shouldnt be a problem. i have a 8600GT and i get round about 35-45 fps and even upto 60 in some places. HDR ON full anit aliasing- 4x, high details. but the only diffence is I run it in 1024x786 (14" monitor :mad: ). have u tried updating the latest driver. might happen coz of driverrs out of date. other than that, its a good gfx card. virtually runs everygame in full setting and max res. i did a lot of research before buying this and thats what i found. only bought it 2 months ago.

Thats a downer, i have an 8600GT, i can have full settings but have to have HDR off. I might try using a lower screen resolution, however my monitors bigger so maybe thats why... :noooo: Do you use everything application controlled? Or do you have certain things twigged with in your N-Tune?

Nagumo8

25-01-2008, 17:09

a 14" monitor!!! ouch my ipod has a bigger screen :p

Do you get a generally low fps, or is it randomly stuttery?

lallan7

25-01-2008, 17:29

Im running TDU w 1440x900 resolution. Laptop with 7900GS 512mb. Details hiigh. No HDR, no AA.

Runs very smoothly. I guess fps is above 50fps all the time...

pogostickio

25-01-2008, 20:10

it's a buzz to here people getting over 50 fps. Really. I play at 1280 x 1024, 2 x AA on a 21 inch CRT monitor and I sit around 30/40 fps on my X1950pro AGP. But I'm glad to hear other people are playing with great visual quality. Really good to hear about that. :) :)

Nagumo8

25-01-2008, 21:48

Lol, do i smell a hint of sarcasm :p

Glockerz

25-01-2008, 23:09

I got an 8800gts 640mb (Can Play Crysis On High, 2X AA). I can play TDU on high, 2x AA, same as Crysis for 40-60fps. 1680x1050. No HDR, I don't use it because it's ugly.

Chicane-UK

25-01-2008, 23:15

I played around with settings this evening a bit...

I can run 1024x768 with 4x AA and HDR and its smooth - but the native res of my TFT being 1600x1200 makes it look rubbish. Then I can go to 1280x1024 with 4x AA and no HDR and thats ok, but then 1600x1200 with 2xAA to keep it smooth.

I keep thinking about getting a second 8600GT and SLI'ing as the cheapest way to more performance, it but the model I have has been discontinued now! :(

Chicane-UK

26-01-2008, 08:16

I did some reading around and have found a pair of 7800GT's for sale quite cheap that I could SLI - would they probably perform quicker than my single 8600GT?

Glockerz

26-01-2008, 09:04

I did some reading around and have found a pair of 7800GT's for sale quite cheap that I could SLI - would they probably perform quicker than my single 8600GT?

Man, don't have 2. The insides that face each other don't get cooled, overheat, blow up, and you won't have cards. Get an 8800 or 9600 for a little more.

penusliski

26-01-2008, 09:28

I did some reading around and have found a pair of 7800GT's for sale quite cheap that I could SLI - would they probably perform quicker than my single 8600GT?
Sorry guys for interfering, from what I heard so far, TDU is very bad at supporting SLI and many got much worse performance with it than with a single card. Not sure if it stands for all cards and drivers, but do a little search about this before u rush into anything...

kalniel

26-01-2008, 09:45

I did some reading around and have found a pair of 7800GT's for sale quite cheap that I could SLI - would they probably perform quicker than my single 8600GT?
A single 7800GT is faster than your 8600gt ;)

Colster

26-01-2008, 10:42

I use a PCI-E X1950 512MB which runs fine with everything on @ 1440x900 including HDR although it can stutter sometimes in the city - as I result I tend to use HDR off as I don't really like the effect anyway.

WhiteSnake76

26-01-2008, 12:55

Man, don't have 2. The insides that face each other don't get cooled, overheat, blow up, and you won't have cards. Get an 8800 or 9600 for a little more.

Where did you get that rubish from?
Ever seen a SLI rig and how much space there is between the cards?
More than enough for cooling + wen using 2 cards in SLI they dont get nearly as hot as a single one because they dont have to work as hard as a single card.

Only thing to keep in mind is that the powersuply is powerfull enough for 2 cards, you easly need 500watt or more as a minimum depending on what cards you got.

desrat

26-01-2008, 17:04

best thing to buy right now would be the Nvidia 8800GT 256mb for around £110 for any gamer not just TDU. Its just a great combination of high end grunt with a low end price tag.

hurstryan15

26-01-2008, 18:38

I'm running it on a Palit tuned version of the 8500GT (oc'd in the factory, with extra cooling and the like) and the FPS sits in the low-mid 30s with 4x AA and HDR on.

jcoleman_11

20-02-2008, 00:25

i actually have two 8600GT's in SLI and let me tell you something, for the price of both i could have gotten a decent 8800. i really regret my choice, and ya, TDU really doesnt run well in SLI, i often get white flickering and my car doors open and close and my wheels turn from left to right randomly....really messed up.

cbunting

20-02-2008, 04:35

Hello,

It's not the card. I have a standard Dell XPS 400 which I choose all the best parts at the time. I also bought an 8600 GTS card that is factory overclocked. Guessing that my monitor driver is whack, I can only go as high as 1280x1024 but I can run all settings on high with HDR and AA maxxed as well and I have no problems. However, I play on med settings @ 1024x768 without hdr and aa because my card runs hot. I use rivatuner to put the fan at 100% when it hits or goes above 60c.

But other than that, the 8600 seems to work pretty good.

Chris

Andreaz1

20-02-2008, 09:57

What cards are you guys running to be able to run the game in 1600x1200 (or 1680x1050) with full antialiasing and HDR on...?
Well, not HDR, but I can do 1600x1200 and 2xAA (don't see much difference between 2 and 4) with mah 7800GTX :bravo:

Dustwave

21-02-2008, 04:28

I run two XFX 8800gts 640mb XXX editions in SLI at 1680x1050 with everything forced to the max with nHancer. HDR on, AF 16x, AA normally 8xS Super Sampling at 60fps steady (vsync on), with AA at 16xS super sampling i get around 50fps with some drops here and there but it generally doesn't go below 40. Depends a lot on the driver version too. Some versions have significantly less good performance.

cbunting

21-02-2008, 09:58

Hello,

One thing I've noticed though is through the city area towards the lower right of the map gets glitchy for me. I'm guessing this is because of the buildings and all with the additional polygons that need to be rendered.

But runing anywhere near the top right, left and bottom sections of the map or anywhere in the middle, I don't have the glitching.

I usually drive the enzo pretty fast through there unless I run into something. Which seems to be on a per minute basis. lol

SubyRS

27-02-2008, 03:12

god112

27-02-2008, 07:38

He He I play TDU with MSI7600GS 256MB all setings high HDR off AA off and rez is 1024x768 and i get around 30-40fps on 1280x1024 settings high HDR and AA off i get around 20-30fps. If i turb on 4xAA on 1024x768 rez i get around 20-35fps and i think that qiute good for cr*p video card like mine, what you think about it. Oh and P.S. with HDR on 1024x768 I get around 15-20fps and on
1280x1024 I get around 9-11fps

pogostickio

27-02-2008, 13:21

Lol, do i smell a hint of sarcasm :p

No. I was being serious. :respect:

Dustwave

28-02-2008, 02:12

Not true that you can max out TDU with an 8800GTS.

I have an Evga 8800GTS KO (fastest card in class out there) and I can't run TDU with HDR on wthout a massive frame rate hit. With or without FSAA enabled.
I run the game at native resolution of 1680 x 1050 and while it looks and plays great, enabling HDR is not an enjoyably playable option for me.Sure you can, i could. Though that was with a XFX 8800GTS 640mb XXX edition, which is actually faster than yours (no yours is not the fastest in it's class). There could be something bottlenecking your computer. When i had one (now have two) XFX 8800GTS 640mb XXX edition i sure as hell could run it smooth at 1680x1050 with everything maxed ingame (including HDR on), and everything except AA maxed in nHancer. (Now with the second one added i have AA maxed aswell). On my machine turning HDR on or off doesn't make all that much of a difference anyway. Sure there's a difference, but i wouldn't use the word massive to describe it.

Raiggu

29-02-2008, 19:05

Well, i have now 8800GTS 512Mb (G92) which is superior when compared to older (G80) 640Mb-model. And i have overclocked my cpu(Q6600) and my vga, but this damn game doesn't still run smoothly(!)

I get 14600p from mark'06 and ~20K from '05, and i think there's something wrong with this game 'cause it doesn't work properly even when you have high performance-pc.

And i play it in 1280x1024(i have 19 inch Lcd).

Peter1987

15-04-2008, 15:12

GwaltWart

17-04-2008, 12:35

Most card from geforce 7600GT and on work excellent at full graphics, although with 7 series may need use lower resolution to use max effect.

I have geforce 9800GTX and it work at highest resoultion all effects on no lag and 60+ FPS all the time.

My recommendation is any card that allows game to play with 35+ fps average with resolution of 1024x768 or higher and max effects should be good enough.

Note the processor power may play factor with older cards and gaming.

My PC Specs:
Athlon64 x2 5600+
4GB ocz sli 800mhz gaming ram (dual channel)
1500GB of HD space
CoolerMaster 600W PSU
Geforce 9800GTX
Creative Fatality X-FI Xtreme Gamer Sound Card

Andreaz1

17-04-2008, 18:03

My PC Specs:
Athlon64 x2 5600+
4GB ocz sli 800mhz gaming ram (dual channel)
1500GB of HD space
CoolerMaster 600W PSU
Geforce 9800GTX
Creative Fatality X-FI Xtreme Gamer Sound Card
:nuts: No wonder you can get the game to run that good :nuts:

Peter1987

17-04-2008, 18:20

So, can I run the game in 1280x1024 with HDR on the 8600GT?

If yes, can I turn the AA on also?

(I also use minimum 4xAF)

Or I have to buy the 9600GT?

Liam509

17-04-2008, 22:06

7900GT, 7900GTO
Props, :D fyi, the gto is the same as a gtx for people that dont know, just the memory is slightly worse.

Chicane-UK

18-04-2008, 08:58

So, can I run the game in 1280x1024 with HDR on the 8600GT?

Well i've got an 8600GT Extreme (Leadtek) - I can't run it with HDR and FSAA but I do run it at 1280x1024 with 4x FSAA and it's fine. If I switch on HDR at that resolution it's painful. I've never tried just running HDR without FSAA though - might have to try that?

Liam509

18-04-2008, 20:13

Well i've got an 8600GT Extreme (Leadtek) - I can't run it with HDR and FSAA but I do run it at 1280x1024 with 4x FSAA and it's fine. If I switch on HDR at that resolution it's painful. I've never tried just running HDR without FSAA though - might have to try that?

Yeah, i would only recently that cards have started to support HDR & FSAA and alot of the time its buggy.

kalniel

18-04-2008, 20:20

Yeah, i would only recently that cards have started to support HDR & FSAA
*Pats his x1950xt*

:)

Liam509

18-04-2008, 21:27

*Pats his x1950xt*

:)

:p Ati succeed again! Hurrah for decent prices :D

MADNESS_3D

19-04-2008, 00:15

Not true that you can max out TDU with an 8800GTS.

I have an Evga 8800GTS KO (fastest card in class out there) and I can't run TDU with HDR on wthout a massive frame rate hit. With or without FSAA enabled.
I run the game at native resolution of 1680 x 1050 and while it looks and plays great, enabling HDR is not an enjoyably playable option for me.

I have to agree
i've just conceded defeat
been trying to get my Graphics card (XFX 8800 GTS 320 XXX) to run tdu
4xAA HDR 1680*1050
its not doing it (ive tried oc'ing to 675,1620,2000)
frame rate drops to around 22fps and i find below 30 to low for driving games
its rediculous because crysis and colin mcrae dirt work ok

im gonna save and buy the next flagship card from nvidia
if only i had of known that buying a GTX 18months ago
would have given me a card which even now is among the best you can get

That or i find another cheap 8800 GTS 320 and try SLI but i think i may be limited by lack of memory in which case this wouldnt help

well 9900 GTX here i come

NigelJoseph

19-04-2008, 07:28

Alright Well I Have That G25 Issue Which I Still Haven't Sorted But Since Most Fingers Point At Some ATI Cars Not Working Properly With TDU Unfortunately... Anywho Id Like To Know What Card To Get So I Can Play TDU With My G25 At Full Settings.
Specs:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+
2GB RAM
ATI X1800XT
Audigy 2 Platinum
Logitech G25...

I Cant OC My Card Cuz It Just Artifacts And Regardless Of How Low The Graphics Are They Stutter And Yes I Properly Set My Processors Affinity With TDU...And I Have The DC Optimiser...
So What Should I Get 8800?

Colster

19-04-2008, 07:36

I changed from an ATI x1950 pro to 9600GT and that solved the G25 FFB problem for me and upped the fps significantly too

NigelJoseph

19-04-2008, 07:48

Im Getting About 30FPS Before It Cocks Itself Up. What Are You Getting Now?

pogostickio

25-04-2008, 08:34

Can I run TDU in 1280x1024 HDR on without/with AA with a 512MB 8600GT smooth? Just cause I'm planning to buy a new video card instead of my 128MB 7600GS. I don't know which one I should buy, the 8600GT or the 9600GT, sure, the 9600GT is much better, but it costs double as the 8600GT...

A little off, but also want to ask that if somebody plays Oblivion too, is that running fine with the same settings up there? Just cause these are the two games that I play the most, and they need the most hardware...:) And Dirt also but I play that game much less.

I have a P4 Dualcore 2,8Ghz Processor and 1GB RAM, running with WinXP. +I have an LCD monitor, so 720x576 and 1280x1024 are the only proper resolutions that I have now, every other res is off the scale...

Now I run TDU in 720x576, no HDR, 4xAA, high settings, around 30FPS. Same with Oblivion.

Hello and let's revive your post! To begin answering your question(s) I would definitely get another gigabyte of memory. I upgraded to 2GB RAM and all my games are a lot smoother. Map loading times for games like Battlefield 2 are also much quicker. With the amount of memory you have games like Oblivion won't run well at 1280 x 1024, regardless of which graphics card you use.

And you've already answered your question on the 8600 / 9600. If the 9600 is around double the cost of the 8600 then I know it sounds lazy just to say this but the price difference should advise you of which card is the better component. Look at it this way. You can have a mud brown coloured 1.1 litre Ford Fiesta for £5,000 or a 1.8 litre Ford Focus RS (in tango orange) for £10,000. Which do you think will get you to work faster?

Or to give more techy advice...

Whenever going for a new graphics card I always use www.Guru3D.com to read their reviews. They perform benchmarks against similar 3D cards with the games we play so you can see a real world difference and not just some 3Dmark five digit score that doesn't mean dip.

Also a point worth mentioning... what motherboard graphics interface does your current motherboard support? Or in english.. are you on an AGP or a PCI-E slot? I'm not aware that they made 7600GT cards in PCI-E flavour and I'm also not sure that the 9600 is being made available by the almost extinct AGP format. I've supplied a link to the tiny stand-alone freeware GPU-Z application. If you download it then look at the BUS INTERFACE information. That will tell you what you need to know, unless you already do!

I just had a quick peek over at Guru3D.com and the first thing I've found is this quote at the following page.

"I think everybody expected the 8600 series to perform better in games. The GT is merely 15% faster than a 7600 GT in most scenarios".

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/501/

In my opinion (and I need to wrap this up and get some breakfast) an 8600 isn't going to give you the performance increase you want. But feel free to ask more questions so we can help you to get what you want! :salut2:

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/SysInfo/GPU-Z/ :respect:

Colster

25-04-2008, 13:25

Im Getting About 30FPS Before It Cocks Itself Up. What Are You Getting Now?

I get about 45-50 in the country and it can drop just under 30 in the city, so it's not a massive fps improvement (although I do force the AA to 8 now) but the biggest thing for me is it doesn't deteriorate over time where it would get to the point where it would drop into single figures when you were getting lots of FFB thru the wheel, my CPU is probably a bit of a bottleneck now but I plan to rebuild the whole box someday so I'll stick with it for now.

It solved the G25 lag problem which was exactly why I bought it. The frame rate I was getting out of the city was acceptable and playable with the old card, it was just the G25 that drove it into the unplayable after a while of playing. I could fix this by restarting the game, unplugging and replugging the wheel or by ALT+TABing out of the game, wait till HDD stops chuntering then going back into the game (this fix never lasted too long though before it would start doing it again)

Peter1987

25-04-2008, 14:07

Hello and let's revive your post! To begin answering your question(s) I would definitely get another gigabyte of memory. I upgraded to 2GB RAM and all my games are a lot smoother. Map loading times for games like Battlefield 2 are also much quicker. With the amount of memory you have games like Oblivion won't run well at 1280 x 1024, regardless of which graphics card you use.

And you've already answered your question on the 8600 / 9600. If the 9600 is around double the cost of the 8600 then I know it sounds lazy just to say this but the price difference should advise you of which card is the better component. Look at it this way. You can have a mud brown coloured 1.1 litre Ford Fiesta for £5,000 or a 1.8 litre Ford Focus RS (in tango orange) for £10,000. Which do you think will get you to work faster?

Or to give more techy advice...

Whenever going for a new graphics card I always use www.Guru3D.com to read their reviews. They perform benchmarks against similar 3D cards with the games we play so you can see a real world difference and not just some 3Dmark five digit score that doesn't mean dip.

Also a point worth mentioning... what motherboard graphics interface does your current motherboard support? Or in english.. are you on an AGP or a PCI-E slot? I'm not aware that they made 7600GT cards in PCI-E flavour and I'm also not sure that the 9600 is being made available by the almost extinct AGP format. I've supplied a link to the tiny stand-alone freeware GPU-Z application. If you download it then look at the BUS INTERFACE information. That will tell you what you need to know, unless you already do!

I just had a quick peek over at Guru3D.com and the first thing I've found is this quote at the following page.

"I think everybody expected the 8600 series to perform better in games. The GT is merely 15% faster than a 7600 GT in most scenarios".

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/501/

In my opinion (and I need to wrap this up and get some breakfast) an 8600 isn't going to give you the performance increase you want. But feel free to ask more questions so we can help you to get what you want! :salut2:

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/SysInfo/GPU-Z/ :respect:

Thx for your reply! I decided to buy the 9600 GT as it's price fallen down a lot (now it's only about 150€, not 190)! And also I've in plan another 1GB memory as it's very cheap now!(about 20€)

(just waiting for the money:))

Edit: forgot to answer, I have PCI-E slots, so I won't have a problem:)

Marv74br

25-05-2008, 05:12

8800GTS 512mb on the PC: Runs 1680x1050 with 4x AA, all MAX.
8600m GT 512mb on the MacBook Pro: Runs 1920x1200 without AA, all MAX.

How can I measure the FPS on TDU?

Liam509

25-05-2008, 18:09

Dunno whats up with your cards guys, but i can run TDU, full 4xAA (forced to 8x in catalyst) and HDR on and get a smooth 60 fps with no stuttering, on a HIS 3870xt at xt TURBO clocks (850mhz core 2380 mem)

Marv74br

11-06-2008, 21:22

How I measure the fps???

The game looks flawless btw on both my systems (just a little bit better on the Quad)

Also, what is Catalyst and nHancer ???

Liam509

11-06-2008, 21:25

http://fraps.com/ to measure FPS.

Catalyst is the overclocking/graphics tweaking utility made by ati for Ati cards

nHancer is an advanced control panel for nvidia cards.

Im in a nice mood, but you do realise www.google.com is there?

Gibbo3771

12-06-2008, 00:08

I run TDU on a SLI 9800GTX but there are some shadow rendering problems but i runs with a good 80FPS with res:1920x1200. AA16Qx and AF32x both forced via Nvidia Control panel :) so mines runs fine :) :chapeau:

Gibbo3771

12-06-2008, 00:11

Thx for your reply! I decided to buy the 9600 GT as it's price fallen down a lot (now it's only about 150€, not 190)! And also I've in plan another 1GB memory as it's very cheap now!(about 20€)

(just waiting for the money:))

Edit: forgot to answer, I have PCI-E slots, so I won't have a problem:)

i had the 9600GT and i can tell you its an amazing buy for the cards performance, makes the 8600GT look like road kill with almost twice the performance.

WhiteSnake76

12-06-2008, 00:44

No problems here with any game including GRID.

A 8800GT is a lot better than a 9600GT, so you might want to concider that as an option.

Keep in mind some older PCI-E Mobos might not be (fully) compatible with these newer cards so make sure you can return the card if it doesnt work (as it should) on your Mobo.

Marv74br

12-06-2008, 04:02

Only thing that doesn't run Full-Spec here is CRYSIS... but then again it's not really my kind of game... but if they ever do a Racing Game with that engine, I surelly will do a SLi for it :bravo:

Crysis I can run on 1280x960 at DX10 on Very High, without AA, gets 37/38fps

Marv74br

12-06-2008, 05:26

Installed FRAPS... got average 54fps on TDU on the PC Quad, 50 on the MacBook Pro.
PC is running Vista Ultimate 64bits, Mac had XP SP2 on BootCamp.

I Will play a little with the nHancer now... ;)

Doobrie69

12-06-2008, 17:37

Not true that you can max out TDU with an 8800GTS.

I have an Evga 8800GTS KO (fastest card in class out there) and I can't run TDU with HDR on wthout a massive frame rate hit. With or without FSAA enabled.
I run the game at native resolution of 1680 x 1050 and while it looks and plays great, enabling HDR is not an enjoyably playable option for me.

Pfft! I've got an 8800GTS 320Mb and I can max out everything and get 48fps, at 1680x1050, 4xAA, HDR on. Turning off AA gives me a steady 58fps. More than adequate.

And I measure fps by adding the -fps switch to my desktop shortcut, which displays it in the top left corner of the screen. Right click on the shortcut, click properties, then make sure your target looks like this."C:\Program Files\Atari\Test Drive Unlimited\TestDriveUnlimited.exe" -fps

Andreaz1

12-06-2008, 18:05

http://fraps.com/ to measure FPS.

Doesn't FRAPS reduce the framerate a little? :hin:

Liam509

12-06-2008, 18:38

Lol, i run crysis at 35 fps very high 4x aa at my max res! GO ATI!

Andreaz: Only if your recording.