The Wasteland shouldn't look THIS bad...

November 2, 2008 7:03 PM

Mid-range graphics card recommendations.

I just picked up Fallout 3 and my once-passable gaming PC with its Radeon X850 XT has finally met its match. I really can’t play the game without bumping down the resolution and all of the settings and that’s just not acceptable so I would like to pick up a mid-range graphics card that will let me crank up the graphics as much as I can.

Trouble is, I built this thing over two years ago and I’m very out of touch with the graphics cards of today. The rest of my computer is fine: AMD X2 3800+, 2 gigs of decent RAM, and almost a TB of space on two SATA drives.

Fallout 3 is the most graphically-intense game I’m playing right now. I would like to try Far Cry 2 and possibly CoD 4 at some point but those aren’t high priority games. The only other new game I might be buying soon is Left 4 Dead but I could probably run that just fine with my current rig so it’s not a concern.

I’m not looking to spend more than $200. I used to only buy ATI-branded cards but now I just want the most bang for my buck. Any recommendations?

posted by Diskeater to Technology (8 answers total)

You want ATI. You have a budget. Go buy the most expensive card you can afford. Its pretty simple when you have it narrowed down like that.

There is a diminishing return on investment however where a $50->$100 card is a bigger difference than a $100-$150 card, but im sure you know that.

Tomshardware://Crysis

Tomshardware://Assasins Creed

The ATI 4870 or 4870 X2 seems like what you want.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOhhhh... My bad. You said you dont care which vendor! Well in that case... Simply look @ tomshwardware, and price each card. I doubt (?) you want SLI... so the ATI X2 might be your best bet still... even the Nvidia 260 is pricier than the ATI series, and slower.
posted by SirStan at 7:31 PM on November 2, 2008

Best answer: Tom's Hardware picked the Radeon HD 4850 at around $170 in their October lineup.
posted by junesix at 7:38 PM on November 2, 2008

Best answer: Radeon 4850 or 4870. That's a no brainer.
posted by doowod at 7:46 PM on November 2, 2008

And by no brainer, I mean this.
posted by doowod at 7:48 PM on November 2, 2008

Response by poster: Done and done. Picked up the Radeon 4850 @ Newegg for about $129 after a MIR. Not too bad.
posted by Diskeater at 9:10 PM on November 2, 2008

GOOD GOOD CALL! thats what I'm running, and i love it.
posted by NormandyJack at 7:02 AM on November 3, 2008

Enjoy Fallout 3, it is fantastic (once you get past the phase of the game immediately after leaving the vault and the several hour long adjustment period afterwards wherein you figure out how you want to develop your character and play the game ).
posted by BobbyDigital at 12:56 PM on November 3, 2008

Also I have an Nvidia 8800 GT, I know you were looking at ATI cards, and this is moot because I see you went with a Radeon. But for anyone else looking I am very very happy with Nvida for this generation.
posted by BobbyDigital at 12:59 PM on November 3, 2008