I need a new Video Card after installing Call Of Duty 2.

Soujurn · 12-16-2005, 01:25

My Asus A9550 SE just ain't cutting it.
What do you all recommend? Anything worthwile for under $200?

The rest of the system should be up to snuff though.
AMD 64 3000+ CPU on a MSI K8T Neo2 MB w/1024MB RAM.

David_G17 · 12-16-2005, 07:21

fwiw, i've heard a lot of people say you need 2 gigs of ram for it.

also, lots of people are liking the Nvidia 7800 cards - but they're over 200 i believe.

eta: the above comes from reading reviews on newegg

pyblood · 12-16-2005, 09:12

For around $200 you may want to look at a 6600GT, 9600XT, 9800Pro, or X700Pro. They are pretty decent video cards.

Washington,D.C. · 12-16-2005, 10:12

I like the Nvidia 6600GT and the 6800.The 7800 is way expensive.I don't care much for ATI cards.I haven't had much luck with them.

powasky · 12-16-2005, 15:28

You don't need "2 gigs of ram" to run CoD2. I've had it running with onboard graphics, sound, and 512 of RAM. Go for the 6800 if you can.

Flotsam · 12-17-2005, 00:11

I recently picked up a XFX 6800 ($180 at newegg.com) to replace my FX5500 card - I'm running Battlefield 2 at medium settings w/o a problem on an older Dell 8250 (P4 2.4ghz, 1gig 1066 RDRAM).

The card can be "unlocked" to run as a Ultra - currently only 12 pipes are enabled, and 5 vertex shaders - I was able to unlock 4 more pipes & the extra shader w/o any difficulty. I did add an aftermarket heatsink/fan to keep temps down, though. It seems to work just fine.

Snake6 · 12-17-2005, 01:14

Wait till after the Holidays if you can hold out that long, the Geforce cards should drop in price...go for the Geforce 6600GT it will play COD 2 pretty well

Hailstorm · 12-17-2005, 07:53

Alright, I would suggest getting the best NVidia series card you can get. With the cards in that price range you will get better performance. The 6600 is a very fine choice. I went from a 9800XT to a 7800GT OC and the performance is great. The 9600 and 9800 series are older cards. While the 6600 is a newer generation. You don't need two gigs to run call of duty. I run 1 gig without any issues. I suggest that you change your BIOS settings to increase the speed that it is set at for the card. I can't recall exactly whats its called. But normally its set at like 64mb. Take it up to 256mb.

funbob · 12-17-2005, 17:19

I'll put in a vote for the 6800GT. It's an excellent card and more than powerful enough to run all current and upcoming titles. It also overclocks very nicely to 6800 Ultra speeds. There is no game on the market that needs 2 gigs of RAM. While 512MB is pushing it with newer titles, 1 gig is just right.

fastvfr · 12-19-2005, 13:49

Here's a BIG +1 to the 6800GT recommendation.

I got mine from Zip Zoom Fly for $302 delivered, and it is the Gigabyte model with heatpipes wicking heat from the GPU and DDR3 up to a cooler located on the card's UPPER portion, where it looks very sn***y.

Extremely stable even when running under a modest overclock, too. My version is the AGP model and, with its 16 pixel pipelines, it is all the card I'll need for a long time.

Two things a gamer just cannot skimp on are his power supply and his graphics solution. $300 is cheap for what you get in the 6800GT, but go no lower than a 6600 for tolerable performance.

Remember to buy with future games in mind, and the fact that they will not be less graphically intensive nor less detailed. Suffice it to say, I usually suggest that folks save enough cash to buy the model they really need rather than trying to 'settle' on a cheaper model; 90% of the time they have to buy the better one to play some new title before long anyway, so their suddenly-obsolete $150 5900FX card just collects dust from then on.

Some bargain.