Video Card Help!

Merged threads because I'm getting tired of all the GPU-SC2 threads. I'd appreciate it if people actually read the notices at the top.

 

Its beginning to be annoying. Everyday someone posts a new thread and wants his specific build to be completly analyzed. So, here we go again:

Source

As you can see, its about a X800 or X1800. My last PC had a X1650 installed (AGP) and i were barley able to play on LOWES settings. So i'd think that your PC will most likly NOT RUN SC2 !!

By the way: If you have read this you should have pretty well known this by yourself.

Either you should go buy a new video card or, since the video card is somehow old and I'd assume the rest of your PC ain't a highend build, better go off and buy a whole new computer (your's is what....about 5 years old?).

 

Hey guys, I am getting pretty excited about the upcoming release of Starcraft 2, and I am looking to upgrade my machine. I am currently using a laptop which is more than capable of running SC2. However, I'd like to update my desktop so that I have a 2nd machine to play it, in the event my wife needs to use one of the two machines.

So here's the scoop. My desktop currently passes the tests as far as CPU/CPU speed, OS and RAM, and disk space. My major issue right now is the video card.

I want to upgrade it, but I am not sure what to get. My current video card is the NVIDIA GeForce 5600. I know...it's old. But I got the system relatively cheap when I first bought it.

I have an ASUS P4P800 motherboard, and I've recently upgraded my system with RAM.

What I'd like to know is:

-What's a decent video card I could go with that isn't necessarily the bare minimum to play the game? The recommended are as folows:

1) 512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800
2) GTX or ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better

-Should I go with something better than those? I don't need to be able to play the game on the absolute highest setting. Somewhere in the middle to mid-high range would suffice

-How much should I be expecting to spend, and would it be a bad idea to get a used one? I've done some of my own research, and I've found cards ranging from $30 to $400.

Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for it being so wordy!

 

Hopefully...

Hopefully my post was a little more detailed than: "Can my system run this, etc, etc, etc..."

I already know that my system can't. I just need some video card advice. I've done all of my own research, so hopefully my post wasn't too annoying. Thanks guys.

 

I tried searching for your motherboard specs and found it's a socket 478. There's a bunch of different models but none seem to have a PCI Express slot (what new video cards use). Some don't even have an AGP slot, just regular PCI. It's not worth plunking down money on an AGP graphics card. It's old tech and most AGP cards still available are overpriced.

I would suggest holding off on the upgrade until you're ready to replace your CPU+MB+RAM+GPU (or your entire desktop).

 

I would suggest holding off on the upgrade until you're ready to replace your CPU+MB+RAM+GPU (or your entire desktop).[/QUOTE]


I really appreciate all of the help. I just didn't want to hear that. It makes sense though, and I am not entirely surprised. I have the laptop for now. (it belongs to a friend who has no need for it...it's on loan) If he asks for it back, I'd have no Starcraft 2. Though not the end of the world, it really would suck.

The irony is that when Starcraft was released, the computer I had at the time was incapable of running it. It's funny how life works sometimes!