New Graphics Card

[Oldtimer]

Hi guys,

Flying has become a distinct possibility again...... But first, maybe a better graphics card so I can see where I'm going. Current rig is an e6750/ati 4750/win xp sp3 and 4Gb DDR2 1333 ram (yes...... I know....).

Anyway, what would your suggestions be for a better second hand gfx card for a few more fps but no mega-hole in the bank balance. Next planned upgrade would be to a quad core chip.

All suggestions gratefully received.

OT

[DD_Arthur]

Oldtimer I'm using an ex-Mr. Zooly Nvidia gt460 with 756mb of vram. By todays standards this is now getting past it however I think it's fab! I can run Rise of Flight with pretty high graphics in the 30-50 fps range. That don't sound too huge but the game itself runs so smoothly that there are no problems whatsoever. It can also run CLoD in the same range of fps with high aircraft and cockpit detail and low land detail. However, the game is........ lumpy. A combination of the limitations of my system and the the coding of the game itself.

I can run IL2 with everything maxed out at a fixed 60fps. Interestingly HFSX 6.0 runs much more smoothly than my UP3 install.

There seem to be quite a few of the 460/470/480 family of cards on Ebay at present. A quick run through found these for example;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Zotac-GeForce-GTX470-nVidia-1280MB-/251099234788?pt=UK_Computing_Computer_Components_Graphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item3a76ae41e4

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sparkle-Nvidia-480GTX-GeForce-1536-MB-SXX4801536D5NM-Graphics-Card-/261057278117?pt=UK_Computing_Computer_Components_Graphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item3cc839f0a5

Or for a few more quid you could punt up for the Nvidia 560 series. I think a few of the guys use variations of these cards with very good results

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-inno3D-GeForce-GTX-560-Ti-with-CUDA-1-GB-DDR5-PCI-Express-2-0-/190697529209?pt=UK_Computing_Computer_Components_Graphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item2c66755f79

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gigabyte-NVIDIA-560Ti-560-Ti-OC-Edition-900MHz-factory-OC-PCI-E-Graphics-Card-/190697576483?pt=UK_Computing_Computer_Components_Graphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item2c66761823

Also, if your motherboard supports it I'd get more ram or move up to 4gigs of DDR3. Time to consider this too;

http://www.software4students.co.uk/t/brands/windows-7

[Sid]

OT, I completely agree with my esteemed water-borne warrior in that a 460 class graphics card will allow you to enjoy IL2 with no issues. I run the game with a 1GB 460 no problem, the only issue is that they aren't as available now as when I got mine a couple of years ago.

One place to go is here http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/all/gpu-nvidia/geforce-gtx-460-pci-e-(288-336-cores) Good price and will see you right with IL2.