Civ 5 Graphic Card Upgrade Question...

[Arboris]

Greetings folks,

I am considering a Graphic Card Upgrade for Civ 5 and I was curious if anyone could reccomend a good upgrade based on my current system specs...

Asus P5N32-E SLI Motherboard
Windows XP Pro OEM SP3
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 (3.0 GHz, FSB1333, 4 MB L2) CPU
3GB of Ram
x1 Asus GeForce 8800GTS 640MB Video Card
Seasonic 650W High-Efficiency Power Supply
Thermalright SI-128 Heatsink w/ 120mm Quiet Fan

I don't want to go overboard on the upgrade if I will run into a bottle neck issues due to cpu limitations that will greatly diminish the card's performance.

Any suggestions?

Thank you!
-Arboris

 

[The_J]

Moderator Action: Moved to tech support.

 

[Ilikeciv]

Ah, another new member to chat with. I guess it depends on your monitor... If you have something that is quite high res, like 1920x1200, you will need more power than at 1280x1024. That said, I just built my first new system in 4 years, and I have the new Dell U2711 monitor @ 2560x1440 resolution. I power it with pair of GTX 460s in SLI. It runs Civ V on high settings with 4x AA, but the cards were screaming the whole time, with about 90% utilization one one, and about 40% on the other. The fan noise and heat didn't seem worth the eye candy, so I turned the settings to medium and it still looks pretty good, but runs much cooler and quieter. That being said at those lower settings, the one card ran the whole load, so the GTX 460 might be a great choice.

It seems Civ V is pretty inefficiently coded right now, but I'm sure that will change with a patch.

Good luck with your choice!

 

[chaotoroboto]

Greetings folks,

I am considering a Graphic Card Upgrade for Civ 5 and I was curious if anyone could reccomend a good upgrade based on my current system specs...

Asus P5N32-E SLI Motherboard
Windows XP Pro OEM SP3
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 (3.0 GHz, FSB1333, 4 MB L2) CPU
3GB of Ram
x1 Asus GeForce 8800GTS 640MB Video Card
Seasonic 650W High-Efficiency Power Supply
Thermalright SI-128 Heatsink w/ 120mm Quiet Fan

I don't want to go overboard on the upgrade if I will run into a bottle neck issues due to cpu limitations that will greatly diminish the card's performance.

Any suggestions?

Thank you!
-Arboris

Civ 5 doesn't require much - your best upgrade will be lateral, to a DX11 capable card.

The LAPTOP version of the Radeon 5650 will run Civ 5 in DX11 mode with all the settings on high at 1600*900, with no AA, at fluid frame rates. Desktop 5670 cards outclock the laptop 5650 and have the same number of pipelines/shaders, so that's all you need (EDIT: If you don't want to run AA, and IMHO the other video bumps are way better.)

Look into getting an OEM or Student version of Windows 7 as well - it's required for the DirectX11 tricks, and trust me, they're beautiful and worth it.

 

[Arboris]

Ah, another new member to chat with. I guess it depends on your monitor... If you have something that is quite high res, like 1920x1200, you will need more power than at 1280x1024. That said, I just built my first new system in 4 years, and I have the new Dell U2711 monitor @ 2560x1440 resolution. I power it with pair of GTX 460s in SLI. It runs Civ V on high settings with 4x AA, but the cards were screaming the whole time, with about 90% utilization one one, and about 40% on the other. The fan noise and heat didn't seem worth the eye candy, so I turned the settings to medium and it still looks pretty good, but runs much cooler and quieter. That being said at those lower settings, the one card ran the whole load, so the GTX 460 might be a great choice.

It seems Civ V is pretty inefficiently coded right now, but I'm sure that will change with a patch.

Good luck with your choice!

My monitor runs at 1920x1089....

I have been leaning towards the GTX 460, so I suppose I should also look at upgrading to windows 7?