| |
Site Navigation
Main
News
Forums
Games
Games Database
Top 100
Release List
Support Files
Features
Reviews
Previews
Interviews
Editorials
Diaries
Misc
Download
Gallery
Music
Screenshots
Videos
Miscellaneous
Staff Members
Privacy Statement
|
|
|
|
GeminiDragon
Village Dweller
Joined: 17 Oct 2003
Posts: 10
|
| Best Video Card for playing Morrowind? |
|
I recently upgraded my video drivers, and I was real impressed with the color and detail, I did see an improvement. But all in all I do need one of the newer video cards. I've got a dell, and it came with the GeForce4 MX 420 in it, I've since downloaded the coolbits hack and have sped it up but I was wondering what everyone thinks is a kiss a$$ video card to buy for running this awesome game??
Thanks,
Don't laugh at my system, it runs great but needs improvement (mainly in the hardware department).
DELL 4550
80 GB HD
512MB RAM
TEAC DVD 40x
Liteon CDRW
GeForce4 MX 420
SoundBlaster Live 5.1 Gamer
19" Dell Trinitron Black monitor |
Thu Oct 30, 2003 5:51 pm |
|
|
stanthony
One Smart Dog
Joined: 28 Oct 2002
Posts: 556
Location: Tallinn, Estonia |
Your system is ok, there is nothing wrong about it.
As to video cards. If you prefer GeForce *don't* use MX. This is very lite version of GeForce, and I'm not even sure it supports shader water effect (very cool in Morrowind). Personally I prefer ATI. I use Radeon 9100 with 128 MB DDRAM and very happy with it. In fact it uses Radeon 8500 chipset but thats enouth to support shaders and overall performance is fantastic for the price.
_________________
- Druids do not fight with metal weapons! Sit here, and you over here. Put the elbows of your right arms on the table...
- Arm-pulling? Get me back me pan!
R.A.Salvatore The Cleric Quintet. Canticle |
|
Thu Oct 30, 2003 6:19 pm |
|
|
Danicek
The Old One
Joined: 15 Dec 2001
Posts: 5922
Location: Czech Republic |
quote:
Originally posted by stanthony
*don't* use MX. This is very lite version of GeForce, and I'm not even sure it supports shader water effect
GForce4 MX versions are in several areas closer to GForce 2 than to GForce 3. This means they do not support many new features introduced in 3 and 4 series.
Gforce 4 Ti 4200, 4600 are very cheap today and they support new features. Several types of GForce FX are also good choice (however you should read everal reviews and comparation tests carefully).
From some points of view is Radeon better choice. You will get more for less money. There are many comparation studies avalaible on web, so you can read them. |
|
Fri Oct 31, 2003 5:54 pm |
|
|
~NOBODY~
The One And Only
Joined: 15 Sep 2003
Posts: 1824
Location: Vivec, Jobasha's Rare Books |
I have MX 420, and it's quite good. Morrowind works very well when I use it, and it has VERY nice water. Every game that needs 3D accelerator works well with it. |
|
Fri Oct 31, 2003 8:42 pm |
|
|
Kendrik
Thin Blue Line
Joined: 13 Jun 2002
Posts: 550
Location: England |
I have a GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 256 and Morrowind looks very nice on that 
_________________
"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true."
JAMES BRANCH CABELL
~Member of The Nonflamers' Guild~
~~Champion of the (Unofficial) RPGdot Text Signature Contest 2002~~ |
|
Fri Oct 31, 2003 10:04 pm |
|
|
Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
There's some good comments above. *Don't* buy a Geforce MX or FX 5200 - they lack features and have low-bandwidth memory interfaces. Sorry, ~NOBODY~, if you're happy with yours that's all that counts but it's hard to buy a slower card these days.
The Geforce Ti 4200 is an absolute steal down here but doesn't have DX9 pixel shaders (only DX8.1) - but the performance is excellent for the price.
Otherwise, the higher the budget, the better you'll be able to get (obviously). Don't be unnecessarily dazzled by 256Mb cards - the extra memory makes no difference on current games and a faster 128Mb will be a much better buy.
Unfortunately, in the budget Geforce range (MX, FX5200, sometimes FX 5600) a wide range of memory can be used which gives huge variations in performance. I have generic 128Mb FX 5200's in stock that will yield from ~3000 through to ~8000 in 3DMark2001 on an average P4 - so some are nearly triple the performance than others.
_________________
Editor @ RPGDot |
|
Fri Oct 31, 2003 11:13 pm |
|
|
cfmdobbie
High Emperor
Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 1859
Location: London, England |
Note to self: upgrade computer 
My gaming machine is currently out of action, but when it's running it's a 700MHz Slot-A Athlon, 256MB RAM and a first-gen 32MB GeForce256 DDR...
Once Doom3 and Half-Life 2 hit the streets I'm buying the biggest baddest machine money can buy. I only upgrade when id release a new game, anyway - may as well make the most of it.
_________________
Charlie Dobbie
=Member of The Nonflamers' Guild=
=Moderator of the Morrowind/Oblivion Forums= |
|
Sat Nov 01, 2003 11:55 am |
|
|
~NOBODY~
The One And Only
Joined: 15 Sep 2003
Posts: 1824
Location: Vivec, Jobasha's Rare Books |
My comp stats:
PIII Celeron 1200
256MB SDRAM
GeForce4 MX 420
And everything's Cool! |
|
Sat Nov 01, 2003 12:07 pm |
|
|
Danicek
The Old One
Joined: 15 Dec 2001
Posts: 5922
Location: Czech Republic |
Yes, your PC is good enough for all games (and I have slower PC than you). What we are trying to say is that GForce4 MX series does not support many GForce 3 features (and of course even fewer features of full GForce 4 cards). I do not talk about how fast these cards are. I am talking about technical features such as pixel shaders... |
|
Sun Nov 02, 2003 1:14 pm |
|
|
GeminiDragon
Village Dweller
Joined: 17 Oct 2003
Posts: 10
|
Hi all,
Thanks for the feedback!
Right now I'm okay with the MX420, Hey it could be worse right?
Any thoughts on the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro, 9700 Pro Series??
Specs look like they rock, and prices aren't that bad. Supports DX9 and has 4 rendering pipelines. 128 MB goes for less than $300
Anyhow, toss me some more comments and
Happy Gaming to all Morrowinders! |
|
Mon Nov 24, 2003 3:12 pm |
|
|
jellylad
Village Leader
Joined: 16 Apr 2002
Posts: 94
Location: London |
If you can lay your hands on one, the 9700 is a very good card. A lot cheaper than the 9800 but still very powerful. They're quite hard to come by these days, but I'd recomend one. It should be good for a couple of years for most games I reckon. |
|
Mon Nov 24, 2003 3:54 pm |
|
|
Bigpapa
Stranger from north
Joined: 22 Oct 2001
Posts: 930
Location: Strange place. |
I'm still stuck with my comp, which is enough to run all games that i want to play.
some specs:
AMD Athlon 1200 mhz
512 mb RAM (133mhz)
Hercules Geforce 3 ti 500
Only reason to force me upgrading my comp, would be a must have game that refuses to run in it. I don't need fastest around, but it should run programs i have installed, that's my opinion. |
|
Wed Nov 26, 2003 2:24 am |
|
|
FlipMoeJack
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 23 Jun 2002
Posts: 176
Location: New York |
I'm running all my games on this PC I built back in 2001:
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 1900+ 1.6 Ghz
Graphics Card: GeForce 3 Ti 500
Soundcard: Soundblaster Audigy Gamer
RAM: 1024 GB DDR RAM
Motherboard: VIA KT266A
Hard Drive 1: 20 GB 7200 RPM
Hard Drive 2: 120 GB 7200 RPM
O/S: Windows XP Home Edition SP1
My little brother had the GeForce 4 MX 420, and it was complete garbage compared to my GeForce 3 Ti 500. The reason why he bought the card at the time was because his PC only had one PCI slot open, and had a built in Generic AGP card (stupid Compaqs). Since then we built a new PC for him and he replaced his GeForce 4 MX 420 with a Radeon 9500 and I must say, that card kicks the crap out of my GeForce 3 Ti 500.
My next planned videocard upgrade is going to be the next Radeon, hopefully the Radeon 9900 Pro. Of course I'm getting a new processor with that too: AMD 64 FX 2.2 Ghz. Motherboard? Maybe Nforce 3. I'll stick with my Soundblaster Audigy Gamer sound card for now, pretty damned good.
_________________
(-[ApoK Forever]-) |
|
Thu Nov 27, 2003 1:44 am |
|
|
Danicek
The Old One
Joined: 15 Dec 2001
Posts: 5922
Location: Czech Republic |
quote:
Originally posted by GeminiDragon
Right now I'm okay with the MX420, Hey it could be worse right?
Of course it could be worse. I played it first time with my good old GForce 2 and I enjoyed it a lot. |
|
Thu Nov 27, 2003 6:38 pm |
|
|
nightspore
Village Dweller
Joined: 19 Sep 2003
Posts: 10
Location: nyc |
Morrowind is notoriously processor-bound, so really any video card (except for maybe 3dfx voodoo cards) will give you acceptable performance. I got much more of a performance boost when I upped my processor from 1.4 ghz to 2.4 than I did when I went from a GF3TI-200 to a Radeon 9700.
The only real advantage that the high-end cards (Radeon 9700-9800, GF FX5900) will give you is the ability to crank up FSAA and Anisotropic filtering at very high resolutions, which makes an already great looking game look so much better. With my 9700 I can run 6x FSAA, 16x Aniso up to 1280x1024 before encountering any sort of slowdown. At 1600x1200 I lose about 20-30% framerate. |
|
Sat Nov 29, 2003 6:13 am |
|
|
|
Goto page 1, 2 Next
All times are GMT. The time now is Fri Apr 12, 2019 1:26 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
