graphics card

cammy987,

I'm running XP on an integrated 6150 using 128 MB of system memory for the framebuffer (WWW Link) On this board, the system uses another 128 MB of virtual memory for a total of 256 MB for video. Other specs: AMD 3800x2 (2GHz), 1GB RAM (2x512).

According to the first post WWW Link, the scores for this configuration:

* 3DMark2001 SE: 5543
* 3DMark03: 1412
* 3DMark05: 692

I'm hooked to a 22" Acer using DVI with a native res of 1680x1050. I'm usually running the game at 1400x900, all textures at low, no AA, and various other effects off.

The game is playable in single player using one AI ally on up to and including large maps (have not tried huge). (I've been doing a lot of 2v2v2v2). There is lag periodically. I would not want to play huge maps with a lot of allies using 'shared vision.' I have viewed a replay of a 4v4 with 5 stars, zoomed out, and I don't think that it would really be playable as it was rough sometimes just to view.

Lag: For example, hitting a button in the interface using the mouse will sometimes activate the wrong button. When zoomed in on a battle, sometimes ships have died, but the explosion appears later. I usually stay zoomed out. Very large battles are problematic. I recently had a battle with 1000 ships per side plus about 8 capital ships per side. The system pretty much halted. I was able to get through the battle by dropping to minimum resolution, but was not able to exert any tactical control, having to be zoomed all the way out.

I was thinking about getting a 8600 GTS before getting the game (prices are coming down and it is the best card this early-revision PCI-E board can take). So, I'll likely be ordering a 8600 GTS fairly soon now that the 9000 series is starting to come out... certainly won't be trying any multiplayer until I can get one. Probably could use some RAM for those huge battles, but I'll test it with the new card first.

Hope the post helps.

the 8600GTS is good, but if you wait until the 9800GT comes out, then you can get the 8800GT, or even ultra, for a very good price. I estimate that when the 9800 comes out, the GT will drop to about 150 dollars, and the ultra to about 300

just a suggestion

Yeah, the 8800GT would be nice at $150, but I've heard that there's been issues with the 8800GT (first PCI-E 2.0) with early PCI-E boards. I think this MB is a 1.0 (one of the first MBs with PCI-E, MSI doesn't even say the version). I don't want to re-do the whole system (socket 939) at this point.

Just saw that there's a 8600 GTS BFG card at $110 + shipping (best prices for name brands were ~$135 last week), so not a bad deal to extend the life of this system.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143113

well, i have one of the first PCI-E boards (A8N-SLI deluxe), and the 8800GT works fine on mine.

Hmmm.... maybe I need to do some more investigating, then. A few months back, I was searching about this to see if there were issues with this MB, but couldn't find anything. However, most people who bought this board used it for HTPC, so I'm not certain that too many would be looking at the 8800GT anyway.

what mobo do u have?

First link above.
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=K8NGM2-FID

FYI, The great thread at anandtech on this board doesn't help at all.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=29&threadid=1803985

I probably need to email MSI.

im not sure if its pci-e 1 or 2, but the 8800gt is specifically meant to work for a wide number of people, its basically a cheap kickass upgrade that was meant to work for crappy systems in order to make them badass for less. if it says pci-e 2 then that means that the board will work better on pci-e 2, because the only difference between 1 and 2 is the data transfer speed.

sry pci-e 2 will work better than pci-e one. typo in above paragraph

Generally speaking, yes, you're right.

Wikipedia:

PCIe 2.0 is completely backwards compatible with PCIe v1.x. Graphic cards and motherboards designed for v2.0 will be able to work with v1.1 and v1.0, and vice versa. In some rare cases it is possible that a PCI-E 2.0 card will not work correctly on a PCI-E 1.0a slot. This is only limited to certain video cards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#PCI_Express_2.0

It would be really nice if MSI had the PCIe spec listed for this board.

it does. read the special features right by the pic. it says pci-e 1x

Sins would be fine with an 8600GT. It's more of a CPU limited game.

Its saying that the board has a x16 and a x1 (short) slot. Anyway, thanks for your input, russiangangsta.

I guess I thought that there were more problems that there were with the 8800GTs. Next step is to email MSI and see what rev. the PCIe is in that board (hopefully not a 1.0a). Signing off...

and you dont even need a good cpu to run it. there are several people who i know that run this on a 3200+ or its intel equivalent on high settings (but they have 8xxx GPU's in sli mode)

btw snake, another reason for an 8800GT. it runs crysis all settings very high 1024x768 resolution AA 0 AF 0 at 20fps

It'd be fine with a 8600GTS, but that card is crap. Might as well pay $60 more or so for a 9600GT.

thank but just i got 8600 gt works perfectly

that card rocks i have one it 8600 gt and that card is bullet proof it runs every game on the market perfectly it will run front lines fuel of war witch needs incredibly high system requirements and i run it at 1280 by 1024 so ya

Did the GPGNet forums and the Sins forums get invaded by necromancers? This is like the 4th Necro'd post in the last half hour. >.<

huh what does that mean

http://www.trubritarforums.com/index.php?showtopic=92

My nub proof guide to GPU's.

A 8800 GT is 10-20x faster than your current onboard GPU!  and would allow you to max settings at 1680x1050 in sins no issue.

I would check your mobo manufacturers forums to see if anyone had issues with GPU upgrades with that mobo,  from you said it has a PCIE 16x slot,  but it would need to be 1.1 for the modern cards to work without issues.

You might need a new PSU (powersupply) though to power it, even a 8600 would be 5-10x more powerful than what your using.  I'm really surprised a onbaord GPu could even play sins

EVGA just had a big sale on the 8600 and 8800 cards on there website.