[Chevis]

I started playing with the res tweaking and put my res at 2048x2048 and really liked it. It looked nice but my framerate dropped off too much in crowded areas. I have been looking to update my graphics card and I need some help. I have looked some stuff up but it seems so complicated. My current system is...

[Dell Dimension 9100]
Pent 4 CPU 3.00 GHz
2.99GHz, 2.5GB RAM
GeForce 6800 Graphics card

I'm currently looking at the 7 series cards now.
XFXGeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 <- this is what I have my eye on now because of the price. Does anyone know if XFX is a good brand? Will it run FFXI in the 2048x2048 res? Is there something better that I could use that wouldn't go over $200? FFXI is the only game I play on my PC so if I could get it to play at the 2048x2048 I would be happy. Again, I'm not very good at this stuff so any input would be wonderful.

Thanks!

-Chevis

[Feba]

wait a couple weeks and get an 8400 or 8600. Fully DX10 compatible and capable cards, for about 180-200$

[Feba]

http://kotaku.com/gaming/nvidia/nvid...rds-252930.php

also, make sure your PCI does have a PXI-e16 slot, a lot of PCs won't.

[Chevis]

Thanks Feba!

I will have to look up my PCI info because I'm not 100% sure on it. Also, will these cards only work with DX10? Vista is DX10, correct? I'm not really sure. I don't want to upgrade to Vista right now. Will the card work with DX9?

Thank you again.

-Chevis

[Mhurron]

Yes they will work in XP.

No matter what you get, you will always have lag.

[Feba]

yes, the cards run fine in backwards compatibility. Keep in mind FFXI is actually DX7 or 8.1 (I forget)

And about the manufacturer, I've never heard of XFX, but i'm honestly not terribly familiar with hardware manufacturers. I personally would go with EVGA, I've heard a lot of good things about them.

[Malevolent]

BFG Tech has some nice cards too. I havn't had any trouble with them yet. I just started using their mother boards as well.

[Omniblast]

Some of the 6800 cards are AGP. You may not be able to upgrade to the new cards unless they support AGP as well. AGP is a older slot type that was for video cards back in the late 90's. The new card type is pci-express x16.
You may need to get a new motherboard if you wanted to upgrade, and then by that time you might as well get a computer that came with vista built in.

Most current generation cards can run 2048 x 2048 background, whether or not you get fps that is acceptable you will always lag no matter what. Also Nvidia cards have a tendency to lag in Bard songs and Firaga III. (as in my case.)
I've been a loyal Nvidia user for many many years, I use to be Voodoo 3 3dfx and ATI's All-in-Wonder Pro series.

I currently have 2 cards, 1 eVGA 7950 GX2 pci-express, 1 BFGTech 6800 GXT OC AGP. (the bfg card has been sent back for repair once. Lifetime warranty.)

Oh yeah and I forgot, you may not have the power requirements to run a bigger card unless you have some freeded up 12v pins or if the load in your power supply does not provide 30-40 amps you will not be able to run bigger cards as well. 600+ Watt power supplies can sufficiently run higher cards. (I really don't think this will be a problem for you, but just as a precautionary measure, if your system starts to shut down for no aparant reason after some time period of gaming you might want to check out a bigger power supply.)

[Feba]

That's basically what I was talking about, but it's probably good to look up a guide to AGP/PCI/PCI-e/PCI-e x16 slots in general if you want to mess with your PC.

[Chevis]

I bought my PC in 2005 so I will look up if its PCI or AVG. FFXI always has its LAG issues no matter what I play on. If I play on the xbox(not often) it still has its own lag and it has to have more graphic power than my PC. On 1024x1024 I get what I think to just be the standard lag now(BRD songs, Whitegate, Dynamis). When I bumped it up to 2048x2048 it would lag more often where it usually doesn't. (Mob using an AoE or even at a tele crystal) If I were to get a new card would the lag in 2048x2048 still be the same?

Thanks again for all the responses.

-Chevis

[Feba]

Uh...AVG is an antivirus. AVG and AGP are very very different. Also, PCI and PCI-e/PCI-e16 are VERY VERY different. They WILL NOT work with each other.

It might be in your best interest to learn about PCs another time, and let your local PC shop take care of it.

And no, no matter how powerful your computer is, you will still lag. If you mean FPS loss, that's a very different thing, but yes, am ore powerful graphics card will help. If your PC is two years old though, you're also going to be suffering from RAM and CPU, along with many other things, so if you really want a huge performance boost, a GPU might not be your best path.

[Omniblast]

Chevis,

It would lag less in the telepoint, I'm 99.9% certain it will be an improvement.

Dynamis and whitegate and bard songs, I ALWAYS lag in those areas, effects. There's just something wrong with the drivers and SE's programming. You technically shouldn't use the most updated drivers for your video card, but actually the approved ones specified by their tech support. (this is idiotic by design)

[Feba]

about the bard songs, that's a problem with nVidia drivers. ATI cards don't have those problems from what i've seen, but I recommend against ATI anyway. Crappy driver support in general, even if they work fine on FFXI.

SE does list on the POL site what drivers to use with what cards. This is one of those issues that will never get fixed because SE says it's NVs problem, and NV says it's SE's problem. Nobody wants to put in the effort to just make it work.

I'm fairly sure that newer nVidia drivers don't have that problem however.

[Chevis]

Sorry AVG was a typo I had it running. Once I learn what kind of slots I have I will repost and see if its even worth it to upgrade. The only thing I have installed into my PC are new RAM and DVD burner so I don't know all that much about the insides.

Thanks again for the help everyone. I know more now about what I'm getting into.

-Chevis

[Chevis]

I ended up getting a 8800GTS.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out. I did a lot of looking into different cards and I am very happy with the one I got. It runs great and is a big step up from what I had.

Thanks again.

-Chevis