Cheap, low power graphics card for TDM playing?

[lost_soul]

I just assembled my backup machine today (Geforce 6150, 8 GB DDR3, Phenom II 955) and I only used an old 400 watt PSU. Is there a cheap video card I can use that won't destroy this PSU and can play TDM reasonably well? I don't really care about other modern games because I have my main box with the GTX460, and besides most PC games these days are malware-laiden garbage anyway. This thing of course has PCI-e 16. It replaces the P4.

 

My buddy has a Geforce 9500GT. Maybe he'll sell it for $30 or so. I think that would solve my problem.

Edited September 30, 2011 by lost_soul

[nbohr1more]

Best bet:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500204

 

Nvidia Geforce GT430 1GB -- 96 stream processors 128bit

 

 

Lower cost alternate:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150525

 

ATI 4670 1GB -- 320 stream processors ! (they work different than nvidia's LOL) 128bit

 

(Note: currently the HD4xxx series is the only ATI\AMD series where you can easily disable Catalyst AI).

 

Some sites show that the 4670 does better than the 5570 which beat the GT430... so if you're willing to put-up with ATI's quirks it's a nice value...

[lost_soul]

That GT430 definitely looks like an option. It only says 300 watts required. Besides, even if I decide to upgrade the card later, it is always good to have an extra video card around for testing things.

 

I really wish ATI's linux support was better. They frequently have faster products for the price than NVidia.

[Trickster]

 

(Note: currently the HD4xxx series is the only ATI\AMD series where you can easily disable Catalyst AI).

 

Some sites show that the 4670 does better than the 5570 which beat the GT430... so if you're willing to put-up with ATI's quirks it's a nice value...

 

in fact, you can easily disable cat. AI in any ATI card by ATT.

Considering those cheap cards, i have HD5570 myself, pretty low performance in TDM. In "Score to settle" i got around 20 fps, in some parts of NHAT it falls below 10, so don't expect smooth gameplay. I suspect that the nVidia of your buddy will do better.

[Bikerdude]

Hey LS

 

That GT430 is nothing more than re-badged 9600GT both of which has 96 cores, but its all down to price. Your mates 9500GT only has 32 cores, a 1/3 of the other two. If you set the max TDP at 100W or lower, then you can also consider an old 8800GT that has 112 cores.

 

The GT430 is atm @£42, but you could save £18 and get a GT240@£26 which is slightly slower but has the same amount of cores.

[lost_soul]

Yeah, I figure it shouldn't take *too much*, because I played TDM on a laptop with 64 cores and it ran great at 1024x768.

[lost_soul]

Just because I'm a maniac, I tried TDM on the onboard graphics. They're a Geforce 7025 and not a 6150 by the way.

 

I was surprised when it made it into the game without crashing... and the picture wasn't corrupt or anything. it is actually *almost* playable. I get about 15 or so FPS... much faster than I thought it would be. It is pretty damn impressive actually that this came with the $55 board "for free" and doesn't require extra cooling. I'm sure it would do nicely for older games.

 

and it actually *is* playable at 640x480, though text is hard to read at such low resolution.

Edited October 1, 2011 by lost_soul

[Bikerdude]

coolies, you can propably improve the fps by tweaking all the 3D setting on the card aswell.

[RPGista]

It kills me that since I only have a laptop, even though it wasn't that bad a couple of years ago (GeForce 9400M G, Corel Duo 2ghz, 4GB RAM), some maps are almost unplayable, specially those city maps, which I love... Been having a hard time getting the most out of the missions with every effect turned off, washed out textures and in the minimun resolution. I wonder what I'm doing wrong? Maybe it's Vista eating up half my Ram in idle, or the antivirus + firewall (I did make Doom3 exe an exception on those, didn't see a difference), but most likely it is my lame CPU fault and the weak 3d card... Thing is, I can't put the damn thing on high performance mode because it will overheat and shut down, that's the only thing that really helps. Might have to open the laptop up and try cleaning the fans, has this ever happened to any of you guys?

Edited October 1, 2011 by RPGista

[nbohr1more]

You made sure that these cvars are set correctly in your DoomConfig.cfg ?

 

seta image_usePrecompressedTextures "1"

 

seta image_useNormalCompression "2"

 

seta image_useAllFormats "1"

 

seta image_useCompression "1"

 

seta image_preload "1"

Edited October 1, 2011 by nbohr1more

[lost_soul]

Yep. Sadly, I can't allocate more memory to the video than 256 MB out of the 8 gigs. I suspect the performance limitation is because of fill rate, not texture quality.

[Bikerdude]

Thing is, I can't put the damn thing on high performance mode because it will overheat and shut down, that's the only thing that really helps. Might have to open the laptop up and try cleaning the fans, has this ever happened to any of you guys?

 

I have come accross clogged up laptop fans all the time, before you open then thing up go buy a can of comressed air, stick the nossel right in the fans grills a give em a blast - You should see a load of crap/dust bunnies come out. But if your handy with a micro screwdriver and know what your doing then I would pull it apart and clean the fans properly/thoroughly.

[rich_is_bored]

If it's fill rate you can lower the resolution and FPS will improve.

[lost_soul]

What about this card? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162062

With rebates, it is only $60 and should handle TDM maxed out .

[nbohr1more]

Great card...

 

But it appears to run HOT according to customer feedback. And also seems to be power-hungry... 400W is the "minimum" meaning if you have a poor 400W supply with weak 12V rails your PSU might be at risk... Should handle the most punishing TDM missions "graphically" but even lower spec cards can do that too when paired with a CPU like yours.

 

See this recent ATI HD5670 (a weaker card) TDM benchmark result of over 220FPS:

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/10540-tdm-benchmark-demo/page__view__findpost__p__265166

[lost_soul]

Yeah, I don't have insane resolution requirements either... just 1280x1024

 

I'm surprised that a lot of old video cards still sell for quite a bit of money. I saw a Geforce 9800gt for $80! Always figured gamers would be selling their older cards for $40 so they can play the hottest new game.

[lost_soul]

Turns out this motherboard is only PCI-e 1.0 x16 compliant. Will that make a difference? I only intend to run one mainstream card on this cheaper system and from what I read it would only be a problem with high end cards or SLI setups. They say PCIe-2.0 cards will work fine in a 1.0 slot at x16.

 

Here is a GT240 with 96 cores. With the rebates, it is $30! Unfortunately I waited too long and the other card I looked at sold out. Should I get this?

Edited October 4, 2011 by lost_soul

[nbohr1more]

Yes, most PCIE 2.x cards will run on PCIE 1.x motherboards. Since game engines (by majority) frontload the data rather than perform lots of streaming (especially Doom3\TDM) the difference in specification would only affect load times.

[lost_soul]

Okay, I ended up ordering http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134135

 

Not too expensive with the rebate and it has a bit more grunt than that other card .

[nbohr1more]

Yes the GDDR5 is a nice touch

[lost_soul]

I got the card tonight. It plays great! I wasn't really expecting that when I saw the size of this little card though... "How is this tiny thing supposed to run the game like the GTX460?" lol

 

I tested missions that are known to bring machines to their knees like NHAT3 on 1280x1024 and it runs perfectly smooth. Now I just have to send in the rebate.

[7upMan]

Do you play with AA enabled? I'm just wondering how much reserve you have. I bought my HD6950/2GB specifically to have more headroom, as in many missions my HD5770/1GB had as little as 20 fps or less (of course, I only play with 4xSS-AA).

[lost_soul]

I usually just keep it at about 2x. I don't really notice much of a difference: even at high settings you can still see shimmering around edges of stairs and the like.