Video card for BF2

[Wintermute]

Well BF2 doesn't support the excellent and popular GeForce 4Ti. I need to get a card that is supported but I don't want to spend any serious amount of money on it. I don't have PCIe so this limits me to the following cards:

GeForce 5800 Series (AGP)
ATI Radeon 9800 Series..............£100
ATI Radeon 9600 Series..............£70
ATI Radeon 9550 (RV350LX)
ATI Radeon 9500 / 9700 Series
ATI Radeon 8500 Series
ATI Radeon X300 Series
NVidia GeForce 6800..................£100
NVidia GeForce FX 5950 Series
NVidia GeForce FX 5900 Series....£115
NVidia GeForce FX 5700 Series....£50

I couldn't find prices for some cards from any of the three UK retailers I usually use.

I don't really want to spend more than £100 so it probably comes down to a choice of three that I can find for sale:

Asus GF FX5700 V9570GE/TD/256 FX5700LE 8x AGP +DVI +TV-out Retail £75
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...83&GroupID=331

Connect3D ATI Radeon 9600XT 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail (GX-034-CO) £82
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...00_Series.html

HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon 9600 256MB DDR TV-Out/Dual DVI (AGP) - Retail (R9600-TDDW256-C) (GX-008-HT) £76
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...00_Series.html

Any advice from anyone? Why is the Connect3D 128MB more expensive than the Excalibur 256MB? Is there anything cheaper out there which will run this game? Does anyone have an old card lying around that they want to sell?

Thanks for your help.

[asch]

If you can spend about $125, check out this deal that is currently on.

Originally Posted by USN_Squid

Hard to beat this deal as well:

Buy.com has the XFX nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT Video Card, 128MB GDDR3, 128-Bit, Dual DVI, AGP 8X for $180 - 5% off [Exp 6/26] - $30 rebate [Exp 7/15] - $15 rebate [Exp 7/15] = $126 with free shipping. [BizRate]

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...999&adid=17662

[Black_V!per]

That 6800 would be your best bet IMO.

[asch]

Originally Posted by Black_V!per

That 6800 would be your best bet IMO.

Yeah, if you can find one that you can open up the additional pipes on.

[Black_V!per]

Well ya >>--( '.')-->

[Wintermute]

Originally Posted by asch

Yeah, if you can find one that you can open up the additional pipes on.

I have absolutely no idea about overclocking. If it is something risk free and quick then I might be willing to do it, but if it takes me hours and might trash hundreds of pounds of graphics card then it is not for me.

Thanks for the link asch but

FREE Budget Shipping is not available for International orders

It would cost me a fortune to ship to the UK.

Hardware seems to be about 1/3 more expensive in the UK which sucks. I have seen one 6800 for at £110 ($220) and several at £150.

ATI 9600s seem a bit more affordable starting at £50.

What are the significance of pipes? Does AGPx8 mean 8 pipes?

[ECHOS]

Originally Posted by Wintermute

I have absolutely no idea about overclocking. If it is something risk free and quick then I might be willing to do it, but if it takes me hours and might trash hundreds of pounds of graphics card then it is not for me.

Thanks for the link asch but It would cost me a fortune to ship to the UK.

Hardware seems to be about 1/3 more expensive in the UK which sucks. I have seen one 6800 for at £110 ($220) and several at £150.

ATI 9600s seem a bit more affordable starting at £50.

What are the significance of pipes? Does AGPx8 mean 8 pipes?

Gforce 6800 GT OC 256mb with gddr3 already comes overclocked but i think it out of your price range

[DigitalAssassin]

I have a 9600XT 128MB and it doesn't run too bad. I have a 1.4Ghz CPU and 1GB RAM and run everything on Medium @ 1024X768.

[Sniper]

Even though it says it isnt supported, it still may be. It doesn't support the GeForce 5200 either, but I know someone *cough* Wyzcrack *cough* who plays it very well, though he has to use low settings.

[Wintermute]

Originally Posted by Sniper

Even though it says it isnt supported, it still may be. It doesn't support the GeForce 5200 either, but I know someone *cough* Wyzcrack *cough* who plays it very well, though he has to use low settings.

Yeah I have tried running the demo but it won't even start, it just goes back to the desktop. I have read about other people trying to run BF2 using GF 4 Ti 4200s even witha 'fix' and having no joy.

Looking at the benchmarks the 9600pro is only a little better than the 4200. I would basically be paying for £100 BF2 and an almost unchanged PC. I think I will save up and get the GF 6800 or better in a few months.

[=Sarc=]

The GF4 will definitely not run it because it doesn't have DX9 shaders. It has DX8 shaders. Who would have thought that would have made a difference down the road?

[ImJustMito]

Here is a good comparison guide that compares a few of those products.

The one that I really liked, and have since bought and use daily, is the Tyan Tachyon 9600 128mb.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gra..._guide-83.html

It works great in BF2 even on high 1024x768.

[mosdl]

Regarding the 5700 series - my 5700 Ultra plays the game decently on mid settings, but framerate tends to be in the higher 20s. Been thinking of a 6600GT

[slugslinger]

Originally Posted by ImJustMito

Here is a good comparison guide that compares a few of those products.

The one that I really liked, and have since bought and use daily, is the Tyan Tachyon 9600 128mb.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gra..._guide-83.html

It works great in BF2 even on high 1024x768.

hmmm i dont know about that buddy i got 9800 pro 256 and i have sum framerate issues with ur settings. what kinda rig do u have?

[Wulfyn]

dabs.com offer a Sapphire built Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR AGP RP DVI VO for £85 including VAT.

I play with a 9700Pro and the game plays very well at mostly medium, and can cope with everything on high, but the framerate for me drop to around 20 on average so not really playable. Still for the money I think it is a pretty good bet.

Bought nearly my entire system from dabs around 2 years ago and didn't have any problems.