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What makes a good gaming videocard?

K

Kenkennings

Lurker
You guys helped me quite a bit in the past so i thought you guys could help me some more. What do i look for when buying a decent gaming videocard? Right now im looking for something around $60 that will run battlefield bad company 2. I kind of like this one but i dont know how well it will run it. Newegg.com - XFX PVT95GYAJ2 GeForce 9500 GT 512MB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

When i get my taxes i plan on buying this one. Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Let me know what you guys think and whats more important when it comes to running games. Thanks!
 
Kenkennings said:
You guys helped me quite a bit in the past so i thought you guys could help me some more. What do i look for when buying a decent gaming videocard? Right now im looking for something around $60 that will run battlefield bad company 2. I kind of like this one but i dont know how well it will run it. Newegg.com - XFX PVT95GYAJ2 GeForce 9500 GT 512MB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

When i get my taxes i plan on buying this one. Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Let me know what you guys think and whats more important when it comes to running games. Thanks!
Click to expand...

You wanna look for VRAM, core and shader clock speeds, resolution, brand and I suppose ports depending if you want VGA/DVI/HDMI (all assuming you wanna get technical about it).

Price and compatibility are most definitely the most important factors though.

What kind of specs are you currently running in your rig?
 
I have the 9600GT. I have a 2.5GHz Quadcore and 4GB memory. I'm pretty sure the 9600 is the weak point in my rig. It does run BC2 just fine though. While not at full settings, it runs it at a good setting, one high enough not to complain about graphics but not so high that it lags.
 
Specs:
Processor: Dual Core (Suggesting Hyper Threading for performance) 3.0 GHZ.
GPU: nVidia 9800 GTX or 250 GTX.
RAM: 2GB (Suggesting Dual Channel)
Graphics Memory: 256 MB.

I think that's enough to run it at low-mid settings.
 
Kenkennings said:
Right now im looking for something around $60 that will run battlefield bad company 2.
Click to expand...
That is your limiting factor. Also, how do you define "run"? You aren't going to get terribly good fps on a card that sells for $60 new. Perhaps a good deal on a used card might help you out.
 
Well for $60 you are not going to be running BC2 at 100 fps at max settings. I use to have the 9500 and it was a good card but you will need to run the game at about medium/low settings to get a decent framerate. Keep in mind that as games advance, bf3 for example, you will need a more powerful card.

I suggest that if you can, wait. Save up ~$140 and go for a gtx 460. Cheapest decent one here: Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1372-TR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) Superclocked 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

I own Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1373-AR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) Superclocked EE 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card and it is a great card and it comes with a lifetime warranty. I play bfbc2 at 64.5 fps on everything high except HBAO which gets me 10 more fps. I run at 1920 x 1080, remember that the resolution you run at will affect performance.

If the ~$140 is out of the question then I agree with lordofthereef in that you should look into a used card.

If your board is old then a video card might not be your only slow down. CPU speed and RAM capacity are important factors.
never mind I see your specs. Those are fine for bc2 but for other games you might struggle.

The 6850 is an ok card but I prefer Nvidia. I can't go off of personal experience here but this benchmark here: Google Image Result for http://tpucdn.com/reviews/ATI/Radeon_HD_6850_CrossFire/images/bfbc2_1024_768.gif will get you about 110 fps at 1027 x 768 so at 1920 x 1080 that would be about 70-80 fps.

I would wait for your taxes to come in and get the 6850 or the gtx 460.

I hope I helped.
 
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