Thanks to all the patches I was able to put off buying a new video card to play Civ4 but now am thinking about getting Elder Scroll 4 Oblivion so the purchase seems inevitable. What's the best card for my Dell dimension 4500s to play both? Any thoughts? There's a Best Buy down the street so I'll probably go there to buy it.
best video card for Civ4 and E.S.4 Oblivion
- Thread starter davbenbak
- Start date
Jasond
Chieftain
What does your motherboard support? PCI-E or AGP or PCI
p.s. if it's a dell, I heavily doubt you'll be playing Oblivion unless its their 4grand system/3grand laptop
p.s. if it's a dell, I heavily doubt you'll be playing Oblivion unless its their 4grand system/3grand laptop
Paeanblack
Prince
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2001
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- 518
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2746&p=1
Even the best possible video card you can buy today can't run Oblivion with all the eye candy turned on. No matter what you own, you will be turning off some visual effects and/or lowering the resolution.
The ATi X1800XT paired with an Athlon 64 3500+ (or Intel equivalent) is a good place to start looking if you are buying today. Go up or down from there depending on what your budget can handle.
As far as Civ4 goes, any machine that can run Oblivion reasonably will be great for Civ4.
Even the best possible video card you can buy today can't run Oblivion with all the eye candy turned on. No matter what you own, you will be turning off some visual effects and/or lowering the resolution.
The ATi X1800XT paired with an Athlon 64 3500+ (or Intel equivalent) is a good place to start looking if you are buying today. Go up or down from there depending on what your budget can handle.
As far as Civ4 goes, any machine that can run Oblivion reasonably will be great for Civ4.
Underdawg
King
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102697
X1800XT 512MB $299.99 Great Price/Performance Ratio (Can do HDR+AA in Oblivion)
OR if that is too pricey for you:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130283
7600GT 256MB (I have this and I play Oblivion) $169.99
Actually, I just looked up your dell, and in my humble opinion, it is *censored*. Better get a new pc, do you play Civ4 on that thing? it is already below minimum specs for Civ4
X1800XT 512MB $299.99 Great Price/Performance Ratio (Can do HDR+AA in Oblivion)
OR if that is too pricey for you:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130283
7600GT 256MB (I have this and I play Oblivion) $169.99
Actually, I just looked up your dell, and in my humble opinion, it is *censored*. Better get a new pc, do you play Civ4 on that thing? it is already below minimum specs for Civ4
Actually, the game run fine. I've got a P4 2GH with a gig of ram. Even huge maps with 18 civs runs runs without much gap between turns. Some wonder videos are a little choppy but I can deal with that for now.
What would be the intel eqiv to athlon 64 3500? Once you start having kids it's hard to stay current both time and money wise. It's starting to look like a console migth be cheaper than upgrading.
What would be the intel eqiv to athlon 64 3500? Once you start having kids it's hard to stay current both time and money wise. It's starting to look like a console migth be cheaper than upgrading.
SoxSexSax
Chieftain
The best card if you are talking about pure performance is probably either the most expensive ATI card or the most expensive NVidia card.
However, if you take cost into account, I would plump for a radeon 9800. Yeah, its a little dated but its a lot cheaper and its still a very good card.
Basically, it depends on your definition of "best".
However, if you take cost into account, I would plump for a radeon 9800. Yeah, its a little dated but its a lot cheaper and its still a very good card.
Basically, it depends on your definition of "best".
boneys26
BTS Play session tester
davbenbak said:
I went out to upgrade my ATI radeon 9600 pro 256mb vram i got a 6600GT for £134.99 and it was crap the game was slower so i went back to my ATI card i am now looking to build another newer pc this time i'm going to go for a p4/p5 (if p5 comes out in time) 2gig ram DDR3 500MHz, staying with ATI for graphics cards they seam to run better than the others
My expiernce dictates 128mb RADEON 9550XL(quite a new and inexpensive little product) has the ability to play Civ4 with the same smoothness as a high end 256mb but only when combined with major supply of memory, Virtual and other. I was using a dell dimension 4500 2.0g. when I discovered this. only after buying the 256 after the mem upgrade did I learn this. Sucks cause lI still can't play Oblivion I betSoxSexSax said:
Anything that will run Oblivion will run Civ4, obviously. And how good a card you get for Oblivion should be dictated by your budget.
Really, Civ4 runs on GeForce4 cards (don't run OB at all) and on GeForce FX cards (run OB in horrible quality at horrible FPS). So to have a playable Oblivion, you at least need a GeForce 6600. Right now the GF 6800 series cards seem to me a good balance of cost and quality. They're the high-end card of their series, but the entire 6xxx series is much cheaper now.
Really, Civ4 runs on GeForce4 cards (don't run OB at all) and on GeForce FX cards (run OB in horrible quality at horrible FPS). So to have a playable Oblivion, you at least need a GeForce 6600. Right now the GF 6800 series cards seem to me a good balance of cost and quality. They're the high-end card of their series, but the entire 6xxx series is much cheaper now.
Eternalsteelfan
Prince
Solver said:
On my 6600 which I bought new for around $120 and a gig of RAM, I can play huge maps with 18 civs and Oblivion with decent settings and HDR.
Snerk
Smeghead
Can my ati radeon x300 run oblivion on minimum settings? Im planning on getting it... I got 2 gig ram and a 1.86 gHz pros.
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