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2290 No. 2290
>Newegg selling a 9800 GTX+ for $90

>While Supplies Last

>Broke as a bad joke.
>> No. 3346
DO IT FAGGOT
>> No. 3347
Over nine thousand pennies saved is over nine thousand pennies earned. Don't do it, Tripfag!
>> No. 3350
You know I spent about $150 on a graphics card a month after I posted this, right?

And I am so broke right now.
>> No. 3361
Bah. Next year those will be going for $50.
>> No. 3372
>Start working at charity that redistributes computers to poor people
>Goal is to learn more about computers
>Get a free server today because we don't need it
SCORE! Now I just need to now what model it is, how much ram & hard drive space it has, basically everything about it.

At least I won't have to use the family computer anymore.
>> No. 3373
Would a better graphics card improve framerate, or would I need something else for that?
>> No. 3374
>>3373
Depends on the game bro. Some games are GPU-heavy and will take advantage of the upgrade. Other games... not so much. For example, Dwarf Fortress will have the same framerate no matter what graphics card you upgrade to. I think Minecraft's current bottleneck is hard drive speed.
>> No. 3382
>>3374
>Depends on the game bro.
At this point it's pretty much entirely TF2 and maybe Portal.
>> No. 3385
>>3382
Short version: Yes.

Long version: Source is a perfect example of an engine that pushes a whole bunch of calculations to the GPU. You might see higher framerates or the whole game might just look better. Probably both.
>> No. 3388
>>3374

For load times and terrain generation, maybe.
>> No. 3397
>>3385
Is their any card you would recommend for TF2 that's comparatively inexpensive? The game is old enough that I figure I could get close as good as you can get without something brand new.
>> No. 3401
>>3385
>>3397

I think Source engine pushes more on the CPU than most other video games, actually. I mean, not counting things like Minecraft and DF, more like if you compare TF2 and L4D(2) to other FPSes. Though yeah, unless your CPU's way behind your video card, it's usually worth it more. Can you tell us your power supply model and/or how much you want to spend?
>> No. 3403
>>3401
>Can you tell us your power supply model
Is there supposed to be a comma there? Anyway, it's a laptop: a Toshiba Satellite that's about 3 years old (the exact model number is PSAH0U-00Q009), and the only major software change has been going from Vista to 7.

My current graphics card, the one the laptop came with, is an ATI Radeon X1200

>how much you want to spend?
About $100 or less
>> No. 3406
>>3403

Aw man, I was working under the assumption you were talking about a desktop. Uhh, I'm sure replacing a video card in a laptop is possible but it's much more complicated. In fact, I think the one you have right ow isn't actually an attached card but an onboard gpu. I'm afraid there's not much anyone can do to upgrade laptops.
>> No. 3409
>>3406
Well, I have a desktop but it's like three years older than that (a 700GR). Even if I could find a good enough graphics card that's somehow compatible, just looking at the labels on the front I don't think it's anywhere near the requirements to play the game well.
>> No. 3411
>>3409
Actually, I stand corrected. I looks like I really can get this thing working.

I think I'll get a ATI HD 6450. Is there anything significantly wrong with that? If not, what is the difference between the several dozen different versions of that one card?

I think I'll also need a new power supply, as my current one is only 300 watt. Can anyone recommend a 400 or 500 watt one that's like $50 or less but not a complete piece of crap?
>> No. 3412
>>3409
>>3410

Oh dear.

Your desktop has a Pentium 4 which is really quite old, with a game like TF2 it'll limit your framerate no matter what video card you get. Upgrading the card would help with other, more GPU intensive games but it won't do anything for hat fort. I've been in the P4 boat before and I can tell you from experience trying to upgrade that system to gaming capability isn't worth the cost :(
>> No. 3414
>>3412
But a Pentium 4 explicitly meets the recommended system requirements. Which is practically all that I'm trying to meet.
>> No. 3415
>>3414

Oh, seriously, NEVER believe the recommended system requirements. Those things are probably based on equations which assume your GPU/CPU are working at theoretical maximum efficiency, not real-world tests. Also, stuff like the "minimum" system requirements are something like what is needed for the game to run AT ALL, on minimum settings, probably lagging and glitching like a sonofabitch, but "working".

They do this to get the absolute maximum possible customers buying the game. Do you think they actually care whether or not you can run it satisfactorily? Of course not. Just wait until one of your friends gets the game and ask how it works on their setup. Let THEM be the guinea pig.

Can't wait that long. Maybe that's your problem.

Me? I stay about three years behind the bleeding edge of the tech world. I get the stuff practically for pennies, the stuff you paid thousands for back then.
>> No. 3416
>>3415
>Can't wait that long. Maybe that's your problem.
I'm trying to play a game that came out in 2007!
>> No. 3419
I'd still recommend against it as I think it's money poorly spent overall but if you really want to, I'll get some parts for you to think of when I'm not heading to bed. And like Candlejack said, the rec/req system specs are ideal, from what I hear TF2 can be hard on P4s but at the least, you can probably get playable FPS with some modding?

I'm gonna have to ask you to run this and tell me what your mainboard is. http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/pc-wizard.html

In the P4's heyday, most motherboards had an AGP slot that's harder to find cards for now that the standard is PCIe x16.
>> No. 3421
>>3419
>I'm gonna have to ask you to run this and tell me what your mainboard is. http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/pc-wizard.html

D915GSE

>In the P4's heyday, most motherboards had an AGP slot that's harder to find cards for now that the standard is PCIe x16.

The "highest" one (which is the one being used) is a PCEe x8. Which means I'll either need to find an x8 compatible card (which is very likely to be nearly as old as the one in the my laptop) or buy a converter (which doesn't seem like it's too likely to work anyway).

Shit, I guess you're right. I was planning to just live with the results then re-use the new graphics card and power supply for another computer I might get myself in the future, but this seems so unlikely to work at all that I might as well not bother.

I guess I should just stick to mods to try and increase framerate for my laptop.
>> No. 3423
>>3421
Also, would increasing the RAM on my laptop (from 3Gb to 4Gb) help with it playing any?
>> No. 3425
>>3421

Yeah, my P4 system actually had a similar motherboard.

>>3423

Probably not. The main problem is the onboard GPU which wasn't really made for gaming, if anything it's probably holding back your CPU and RAM.

Couple of threads you might wanna look at:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1149207
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1093560
>> No. 3429
>>3425
>Couple of threads you might wanna look at:
OK, I didn't need to go TF64 (I already had no phong), but that helped a lot. Especially taking the graphics mode down to 8.1, which I tried that before but I entered the code wrong (I forgot the hyphen you put in front of every command).
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