Video Card Recommendations...

[Chief Rum]

Got any?

A year ago, I had to upgrade my RAM to play CM4 (and it's much improved descendant CM03/04). Now comes a game that requires me to upgrade my video card: Rome Total War. Ugh. :)

I have an ATI Radeon 7000 at the moment. I have found it difficult to really pin down exactly what works with R:TW unfortunately (you would think this sort of info would be easy to find). I did go into a Best Buy yesterday and check out the box, and it listed ATI Radeons starting at 8500 and going up (as well as the usual GeForce cards).

I have an ABIT AN7 motherboard, which supports at least up to 8X AGP, and I know that ATI, ABIT and AMD (my computer processor make) all more or less work well together.

I am looking to spend maybe a $100 after rebates (not counting tax, may be willing to go slightly higher), but I don't want to break the bank. I also want to go get it (I hate waiting if I have the option to avoid it), so I am hoping to have some idea of what I should be looking for before I hit the local computer stores (Best Buy, Fry's, probably Circuit City because I happen to have a left over gift card from Xmas there, yeah, laugh at me).

Anyway, I would welcome any advice/recommendations/warnings, etc. Thanks.

CR

[hukarez]

Have you found an average of prices that you're willing to work with? I'm fond of ATI myself...had a couple of nVidia cards back in the day, and an old frat brother from SB works for company dealing with nVidia chips.

I've been able to play Rome: Total War with my ATi 9800 Pro, which has been modded and all. It looks pretty sharp to me. Any initial price range you want to deal with, exactly? I know some folks who have an ATI 9600 XT, but for the most part, a lot of my friends are running 9800 Pro 128MB cards. The price at some of the local shops around my area are selling it for $227...not sure how much Circuit City or Best Buy is selling them for.

EDIT:

On a side note, since you've got an ATI card, maybe you can check out ATI's "trade in" program? It's on their website, where they'll accept old cards and give you a trade in value for a newer card. I'm not quite sure about the specifics, though I'd imagine you'd need your old box, and the cables, etc..

[Daimyo]

Try searching the hotdeals forum at fatwallet.com. They almost always have a bunch of postings for good prices on video cards.

[Rich1033]

Have you tried the demo to see how it runs on your computer? The demo ran fine for me. All I have is a P4 2.8, 1 gig ram, and just the intel integrated video that came with it.

[Chief Rum]

Thanks for the recommendations/advice, guys. I bought an ATI Radeon 9600 SE with 128 mb memory and 8x AGP, which seems like it will work for what I want to do. The basic model was listed on the R:TW box and in the demo as being able to run the game, and everything I have looked at on the card documentation indicates it will work with my MB.

I got it from Circuit City for $147 (including CA sales tax), which may sound like a lot until you hear about the $30 mail-in rebate and the $50 on that gift card I got from my aunt and uncle. So this will (in the end) cost me just under $70, which I think is completely reasonable for a middle-range card (from what I can tell right now anyway).

I don't even have the game yet (stupid CC didn't have R:TW, wuzzup wid dat?), but I am looking to get it tomorrow. Tonight I will work on installing the card and adding a CDRW as well. Kick ass. :)

CR

[hukarez]

I don't even have the game yet (stupid CC didn't have R:TW, wuzzup wid dat?), but I am looking to get it tomorrow. Tonight I will work on installing the card and adding a CDRW as well. Kick ass. :)
Does CC even deal with PC software these days? It seems all the CC's in my area seem to be "phasing out", or at least have a lot smaller selection of titles for PC than before.

[Daimyo]

From everything I've read the SE's should be avoided like the plague... they are often slower than the regular cards from a couple generations back that can be found for similar price. For that price though, as long as it does what you need I guess its okay.

[Chief Rum]

It worked okay with the demo. About to go get the game right now. I don't play a lot of high end graphics games, so if this card does the basic stuff and does a decent job with the few games that require good graphics that I have, I'll be happy.

CR

[ice4277]

Keep us up to date, I am looking to get a card in the 100-150 range and would appreciate any input.