a question for the PC gaming buffs

[jonny5]

ive finally decided to get left4dead for PC but i will need to get a graphics card

my current setup is:

XFX mobo w/ onboard geforce 8200(cant handle much.....stutters on 1080p video....)hybrid SLI ready
AMD Athlon64X2 4800+ 2.5ghz
2 gigs of ram(and the onboard graphics actually steals 256 mb)
650 watt power supply

now what i am trying to figure out is,with my current system, what is the lowest range i can go on the graphics card and still be able to run l4d at pretty much max settings @ 720p?

it has to be nvidia....

can anybody recommend any specific cards?

i just dont want to buy something beefier than i need and spending more than i need too....this will probably be the only PC game i play....until l4d2 comes out of course......i just like zombies

any help or tips would be appreciated

[Fudoh]

A GTS250 would be your choice. About 100-120 Euro here in Germany.

[jonny5]

A GTS250 would be your choice. About 100-120 Euro here in Germany.

thank you sir.....all i needed to hear....

[StarCreator]

If Left 4 Dead is all you're aiming for, you don't have to aim that high - I ran at a near-constant 60fps running at 1680x1050 on a 9600GT - and the 9600GT is a piece of crap.

If you're really looking to save a buck, the 8800GT will do you fine. But shop around and see what kind of prices you can get. Does Newegg ship to where you live?

[jonny5]

i can get the GTS250 OC for $150cad from tiger direct....im grabbing it on my way home from work

not a bad deal....and only about $40 more than what im seeing the 9600gt for

the GTS250 should be able to pound out outrun 2006 at max settings too.....

[Fudoh]

the GTS250 should be able to pound out outrun 2006 at max settings too.....

definitely. The only thing a GTS250 won't do is running those brandnew Ego-shooters at 1200p with full details, but overall it's currently a great graphics card if you consider the price.

[StarCreator]

How much RAM are on all the cards you're looking at?

I'd say go no lower than 512mb on the card, and the more, the better.

[jonny5]

im getting this:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... CatId=3670

not a bad price at all, and thats in canadian dollars

[jonny5]

so i went to the store and turns out the BFG card i was gonna get was online only....so i ended up getting an XFX GTS 250....same thing, just not overclocked out of the box...i just OC'd it to the specs of the other one once i installed everything....it actually matches my mobo

it was like $160cad....not that bad at all

first off, its fucking HUGE!!!! like the size of a VHS tape....it barely fit in my case..... i actually had to move some HDD's up higher to give it clearance.....and its about 1/2 a cm away from my wireless card....but it fit

thanx to the hybrid SLI on my mobo i was able to set it to use the onboard 8200 unless im running anything that needs the big guy....

so far it kicks the shit out of left4dead at 1080p max settings across the board.....same with outrun 2006.....jaw dropping.....im really not used to graphics this nice....

i got a wireless 360 pad too, so im having fun...my g/f was even playing outrun

huge thanx again fudoh....exactly what i needed!

[Udderdude]

I'm looking forward to seeing Outrun 2006 on the big screen. :O

[Ed Oscuro]

jonny5, the wireless is below the card, I hope? If you can move that one down...I'm not sure that's possible, but it may be worth looking into.

Now I'm curious to see a 250...the new cards are indeed quite big, they've been using bigger and bigger integrated cooling solutions lately (even the early GeForce units moved quickly to a large heatsink/fan instead of the little passive-style coolers on a 3DFx card. Bet it's smaller than the 4870x2, anyway.

[jonny5]

ya...thank god my mobo has 2 pci slots cuz i had to move the wireless card to the bottom cuz the GTS 250 takes up 2 slots....

worry not tho...the wireless card isnt impeding anything for the GPU...the fan for the 250 is well past the wireless card....

put it this way....if the 250 was 1/2 cm longer it wouldnt fit past my HDD rack ...and i have a pretty much standard mid-tower

i would definitely recommend this card to anyone who wants premium graphics without paying premium prices....

[StarCreator]

Do you even need to OC at all? You're not doing anything that should be remotely close to stressing it at default clocks. OCing, especially on NVIDIA's shoddy drivers and/or hardware, shouldn't be done just because you can - and even then, you probably shouldn't be doing it.

[jonny5]

only by 10mhz

[KBZ]

I have the bfg card. These things are pretty serious. You'll want to make sure that you have a strong enough psu.

And the beefier you go the more heat you'll get.

I had to learn this lesson the hard way. I had only a 120mm fan in the antec sonata III case and my gpu kept overheating during TF2 (max settings 1080p) causing the whole system to freeze.

Adding a 2nd fan helped but things still seem to spike up to 70degrees once in a while. My mistake was using a case that wasn't really meant to have the airflow that today's hardware requires. Now I have a case with the side off and 2x120mm fans at fullspeed (too loud!).

so be careful I guess =/

[jonny5]

well thus far after like 3 hours straight of left 4 dead @max settings 1080p the GPU temp is at about 60c, and drops back to around 42c in about 10 mins ....never noticed even the slightest frame rate drop, even when getting completely swarmed.....and when im not running graphic intensive stuff the system falls back on the onboard 8200

im running at default clock speeds....the OC'ing didnt make any difference really....

i have a 650 watt powersupply

my tower has a lot of vents and fans so im not worried about airflow....it stays quite cool inside

i will keep an eye on the GPU temps just in case tho....

thanx for the tips