QUICK HELP: Graphics Card + PSU. Please, thank you

My friends wanting to upgrade his comp just a little to run company of heroes, he is not a pc gamer but really likes company of heroes and that will probably be the only game he would play on his comp. He has integrated graphics and a pci slot/250W psu. We got a geforce 5200 agp not knowing that he only had pci slots [I feel really bad for this......]
Right now, he just wants to be able to run company so that he can play it for the moment. We plan to make a computer around mid2008 so I don't want him to spend too much, just enough to run company pretty smoothly. He was introduced to that game through me and my older comp that has a radeon x700 and he doesn't mind how that looks in terms of graphics. I think he's willing to spend around 100 for both graphics and psu.

Any suggestions for graphic cards or psu's would be appreciated. Thanks guys

 

geforce 6600 is slightly better than the x700 and costs about the same i think

 

awesome. thanks for the tip but I would appreciate some more feedback from others. I'll definately look at the 6600 when we go to the store tomorrow.

 

for under 100! just off the top of my head for i would say

EVGA GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130062

$95.83(WITH SHIPPING) -15.00 Mail in Rebate = $80.83 not to bad!

 

Thanks for the reply phil, I appreciate it, but he only has pci slots, no express.

that is a great deal though lol

 

Something like an x1650PRO is about the best you'll get in that price range. Check out this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102057

 

that would be a pretty good card, considering that price, but it needs to be pci

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but PCI is not suitable for what you want. Yes, there are cards in PCI that will run the game, all of them limited to low settings (certainly far worse then an X700) and the extra kick in the nuts is that the best PCI card, which is a crap in pure gaming terms, will cost as much as a good Pci express or even AGP card and is not even comparable to its pci-e or agp equivilent in terms of performance.

I.e PCI-E X1300 vs PCI X1300 - the PCI-E one is much faster and a better performer, and will cost only about 50% of the cost of the PCI version.

My advice, just get that new computer sooner rather then later and cut your losses, no point wasting money on a dead machine just to play games at horrible settings.

 

yeah overlooked the part about your friend needing PCI. PCI is really old technology, theres not much hope of him getting a graphics card that will run CoH at decent settings or framerates.

I say tell him either get a new computer or introduce him to a less demanding RTS like warcraft III or age of empires 2 lol.

 

Thanks for being frank Havok. The thing is, he's never used his computer for gaming ever, and he doesnt really care at all about graphics. I plan on getting a nvidia 5200 at around 40$ just so he can run it. I do understand that pci's are the worst of the worst atm but I really want him to enjoy the game.

Thanks guys

EDIT: yea durable, don't sweat it. I think he'll stick w/ coh for a while, nothing else has really ever enticed him.

I'll just see what you guys have to say about the 5200 and check tomorrow morning since I need to go to bed now because we're waking up early tommorow to catch the bus to fry's.

 

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1426&page=3

Scores an 1800 on 3dmark 2003

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6158594/p-5.html

Radeon x300, which scores around 2000-2500SE in 3dmark 2003 gets 8fps average at 1024x768 medium quality. Also, unfortunately, the x300 is a generation above the 5200, so it should be running the game more efficiently.

Doesn't look good, but theres still hope if you can run it at 640x480 on low settings?

 

Well, you should be able to get an x1550 PCI card for that price, which won't be too horrible.

 

.... dang. not looking too great. I think he would be running all low anyways. THanks for the benchmarks durable pants.

I think the x1550 is a little pricey for him atm.... we'll see tomorow I guess

 

The Geforce 7600 GT AGP is my best pick. A Geforce 6800 GT or 6800 Ultra AGP wouldn't be so bad either, but it's hard to find these nowadays.

 

He only has a PCI slot, no AGP slots. I made that mistake too in my first reply.

 

My bad. Sorry about that. Hmm...

PCI only cards? You won't get a decent card that will play Company of Heroes well.

I suggest you do a motherboard, processor, memory and GPU upgrade. The cheapest I can come up with is an AMD Athlon X2 4000+ Brisbane Socket AM2, a $40-50 Socket AM2 mobo with all the usual refinements, a pair of 1 GB DDR2 667 Corsair Value RAMs will all cost around a little more than $200. And of course a decent GPU for gaming. You can get an ATI Radeon HD2600XT 256 MB GDDR3 for $99. Or if you want a little more bang, you can get a Geforce 8600GT 256 MB GDDR3 for around $130. All-in-all, it won't go past $350. You shouldn't expect the best, but it's more than good enough for most people.

I'm sorry but you really won't get anything worthwhile with a PCI video card. It's not worth the money IMHO. You're better off saving for a major upgrade like the one I posted or a new computer.

Good luck with upgrading.

 

You mention the 5200, do not get that card. The AGP version is not supported officially in COH, and although it works, framerates are poor, at low settings. Now, remember, the PCI version with perform even worse. I know you said that your friend didn't mind the graphics, but I'm sure he will notice choppiness, which he will definitely experience with a PCI 5200 in the extreme.

A total overhaul is a good idea, but unfortunately the ideas above simply won't work because it's probably a Dell/HP/whatever machine from what you're saying, with a non standard PSU possibly, so you could be looking at virtually a new machine in entirety - new case, power supply, board, processor, the list goes on.

So if it's just a card you need, and COH is absolutely the most intensive game he'll be playing for the next year or so, a PCI X1300 or X1550 should see him through the game at low settings ok.

Also, given that the machine is a low specification one judging from the low psu and without graphics expansion, you'd really want to make sure that he also has the processor and more importantly memory for the game as well as graphics horsepower.

 

Thanks guys, what do you guys think of the 6000 series then if I can find it for the pci. I really wouldn't like him to spend too much in the begining.
he has a celeron d 3ghz 1 gb ram. I should have said this a long time ago

thanks havok for giving the advice I needed cuz you seemed to know I would not really be able to make to much of a differnece on his comp; thanks still symphony for the advice

 

The Celeron D and 1Gb ram is fine, at least, so he doesn't have to worry about those, but do make sure his Anti-virus is up to date and he's using something like Spybot Search and Destroy to stop spyware.

You can get a 6200 PCI, but it's not really any better then the already mentioned X series cards from Ati, possibly actually worse as I think alot of 6200 models in PCI are very heavily Turbocache reliant. No matter what you get or where you look, it simply won't get any better then low settings...

Just out of interest, they're much older cards but I tested an AGP Geforce 4 vs a PCI Geforce 4 - both the Mx440 models and both with 64mb of dedicated ram. The AGP version performed over 100% (30fps on PCI vs 70 on AGP) faster in some games, using the same driver set. This should give you an indication of how limited PCI is.

Take a look here, for a review on the PCI X1300, notice how handicapped it is compared to the regular PCI-E version.


further reason to maybe reconsider...

 

thanks a bunch guys: we got a nvidia 5500 at fry's: seemed to be the best card for the money [60$, plz don't cringe guys, we don't plan to make a new computer for a while]. it runs coh lowest possible settings ok, a little lag but not too much. I just hope it doesn't lagg a gripload during firefights...

again: thanks a lot for all your imput, I really appreciated your guys' imput