Need help picking a new graphics card.. F.E.A.R

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Trying to decide on a new graphics card and online reviews aren't helping. I just picked up F.E.A.R and I definately need a new card to handle this monster but I'm lost on what to get.

Here's my system:
Intel® Pentium® D processor 925 with 2 processing cores
System Frontside Bus 800 MHz
2GB PC4200 DDR2 memory
Windows Vista Home Premium
PCI-Express

What I'm looking at:

ATI - RADEON X1950 PRO 256MB
ATI - RADEON X1650 Pro 512MB DDR
BFG - GeForce 7950 GT OC 256MB GDDR3
BFG - GeForce 8600 GTS OC 256MB
BFG - GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB (this is a sure pick but a bit out of my price range right now)

Can anyone give me a good idea as to which of these cards would be a good buy? I'm looking to stay with something thats DirectX-10 compliant for future games but I'll do what I have to do.

I've been looking real hard at the GeForce 8600 GTS OC but some reviews say that F.E.A.R eats it alive and some reviews say that the card handled the game great.

Can anyone help out here? Thanks in advance

SgtGang31
 
Hi,

I have been playing that using the ATI - RADEON X1650 Pro 512MB DDR..no problems at all..it works great with excellent graphics....i would personally recommend it and its not too expensive either...i dont think its direct 10 ready..maybe wrong...but i expect games needing that will be quite a way off yet
 
Only the Nvidia 8000 series and ATI's new HD 2000 series support DirectX 10 so that will eliminate everything else unless you change your mind on the DirectX issue.
 
I have played F.E.A.R. and the Expansion pack both on my AGP 7800 GS card and it worked really fine, without any problem. So If you just get 7950 GS for pci express, it should work fine.
 
Huh, I thought this thread looked familiar. I saw it earlier today in a different forum (won't name). That one turned into a bit of a flame war, glad to see we are more civilized here!

Here is the question of the hour to you Sgt: Is this a pre-built system (Dell, Sony, etc...) or a custom build. Either way you need to have enought juice coming from your power supply to power these hungry monsters. Prolly about 450 watts and 26+ amps on the 12 volt rail(s).

Of the cards you listed I beleive the 1950Pro to be the best value, especially since there are very few DX10 games out.
 
Thanks to everyone that chimed in on this. The feedback helped.

When all was said and done, I bit the bullet and spent the extra cash. I went down today and picked up the 8800GTS along with a new 500 watt power supply. I got a good deal on the whole thing and I have to say....WOW!

After throwing everything into the comp and running F.E.A.R up, I used the auto-detect mode of the game and it maxed everything out. The fps were awesome. The low end was around 48fps with the high end being around 136 fps.

You won't find anything out there to compare with the 8800 series. Plus, I figured why not spend the extra cash now and be able to play any DirectX-10 games that come out rather than upgrading again in 6 months.

Thanks again for the help!! Much appreciated!
 
Welcome to TechSpot Openboards :wave: ! Check out step 3 in my Guide below in my signature and tell us the # of amps on the +12V Rail in your Power Supply...then we can verify you a card :D !
 
I just saw this thread, but I would've recommended the 8800gts. Its a great buy, especially looking at the HD2900HD flop ATI has come out with.

Of course, the Radeon X1950Pro would have done the job almost just as well, but you would have to upgrade again later for newer games...
 
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