Ever since i had a computer i always had integrated graphics becuse i never had money or i just didnt play games and didnt care..now my freind is giving me a free dell e520..and it has Intel PentiumD 915 with Dual-Core Technology (2.80GHz, 800FSB) with 1gb of ram and i have dsl internet about 2mbps and i wanna get a graphics card..im not really into great gfx as in like smooth..im not saying i dont want it to look nice and not choppy..im more about fps..so whats a good gfx card and setting where if there was a full grid like 10-20 cars in front of me i wont lag..i dont wanna spend lots of money on gfx..just enought so i can actully play with having like 9fps..ok thanx

P.S My freind said i should get this Geforce 7900gs
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ ... aspx?Item=N82E16814130056

If you aren't a heavy gamer (LFS isn't very graphically dependent) I would get an 8500GT or 8600GT (depending on your price range) as they are great midrange cards that support DX10 as well as play back the new High Definition media with ease as that is one of the things the midrange 86xx series cards were designed for. They also game very well as my 8600GTS is comparable to at least the 7900GS in DX9 performance.

The 8500GT would be fine for LFS but if you plan on playing more graphically intense games, I would recommend the 8600GT. These cards are more energy efficient than the last generations cards and will put less strain on the Dell's power supply.

I got 8600GT... everything, full maxed out, no exception, high-res textures, 16x AA-AF, wathever the resolution doesnt matter, 19 AI's in front of me and i still get around 45fps, never below 30.

I cant tell the difference between 30 and 300 so it doesnt matter.

Recently being in the same boat as original post, always have had onboard graphics and no cash for upgrade, I recently did upgrade very cheaply. I just purchased a Sapphire X1950 for $50. I have an AMD Athalon XP 3500 and it has the ATI onboard chip that I was running full resolution of my CRT with some AA/AF, but LFS graphics dumbed down to net me 45-60 FPS on multiplayer. Putting the new card in without changing any options (remember, it is quite an old and very cheap card, far from an 8500GT) I was seeing 200+ FPS. I now run full graphics in LFS, high res texture downloads, 512 mb skins, no half texture compression in LFS, and 6x/8x aa/af on the card and see 80 FPS. LFS has never looked so awesome before. I couldn't imagine it looking even better than it does on my monitor limited 1154x768 resolution.

I was also flying FS9 with the onboard and had a choppy framerate that I limited to 20 FPS (would dip down into the teens at large airports). I disabled 3d clouds, had the view distance and cloud draw shut down quite a bit and ran the same gfx settings as LFS. Now I'm running all sliders in FS9 fully to the right, with 3d clouds set at around 50% or so, same gfx settings and see 75-85 FPS in FS9.

A dedicated graphics card makes more difference than I ever imagined.

Quote from The General Lee :

I cant tell the difference between 30 and 300 so it doesnt matter.

then you need to get your eyes tested

Quote from mrodgers :

.I just purchased a Sapphire X1950 for $50...(remember, it is quite an old and very cheap card, far from an 8500GT)

its a lot faster than the lame 8500GT which sucks worse than a 7600GS

8600GTS=128 bit interface=Get a 7900GT.

actually the X1950pro is still on of the best bargains out right now for pre-DX10 stuff. Congrats for the new-found success Nighthawk, LFS w/ good fps with max AA/AF is like a whole new game.

The 8500/8600 GT/GTS is nice if you:
plan to run your pc as a blu-ray, hddvd HTPC machine

It would be fine for LFS maxed out though.

Quote from Jakg :

its a lot faster than the lame 8500GT which sucks worse than a 7600GS

8600GTS=128 bit interface=Get a 7900GT.

Quote :

actually the X1950pro is still on of the best bargains out right now for pre-DX10 stuff.

Hmm, I didn't know that. I assumed the 8500xx was just the latest out going by model number only. I went strictly for price and what I could get for the cash on hand. I was aiming for a 7600GT or something and saw the X1950 with the rebate, I simply guessed it was a better card.

Quote :

LFS w/ good fps with max AA/AF is like a whole new game.

Indeed it very much is! I could run 16 AF with the same FPS I had with the onboard, but the solid 80-100 fps is very nice. I just haven't been in the back of a 32 car grid yet to see how that is. My monitor does do 2048x1024 (or whatever the proportions are), but anything above my 1156x768 is at 60 Hz refresh other than widescreen modes. It's a 17 inch CRT, and like I said, I couldn't imagine what it would look like with better gfx.

most modern cards get very little performance drop with 16xAF.

8400GS/8500GT's are great cheap DX10 cards, but rubbish for gaming, the 8600GTS is roughly the same speed as what you have, but go to a high resolution or lots of AA and the 128 bit bus makes it lag behind.

I think all DX10 cards but the 8800's are complete jokes/dissapointments, tbh

Bigger number aint better, just tell that to the woman who watercooled her AMD 4200 and SLI's 2x 8500GT 512 Mb's :X

I can echo the opinion that the x1950pro is a great card, as I have one! It really does give a lot of bang for the buck. It should be a while before I need to change it, ie when DX10 becomes mainstream.

With my current games it copes admirably, and murders LFS without AA/AF.

Just out of interest, how do I set AA/AF with LFS, as I see no option for this in the game menu? My frame rate should be fine with them enabled, but no sign of it anywhere...

Do I need to set up the AA/AF using the card driver settings from the desktop instead, using the Catalyst Control Centre?

Many thanks.

Quote from Origamiboy :

I can echo the opinion that the x1950pro is a great card, as I have one! It really does give a lot of bang for the buck. It should be a while before I need to change it, ie when DX10 becomes mainstream.

With my current games it copes admirably, and murders LFS without AA/AF.

Just out of interest, how do I set AA/AF with LFS, as I see no option for this in the game menu? My frame rate should be fine with them enabled, but no sign of it anywhere...

Do I need to set up the AA/AF using the card driver settings from the desktop instead, using the Catalyst Control Centre?



Many thanks.

EDIT: DELETED . I was going to suggest you nHancer, but you have ATi card..nHancer supports only nVidia cards.

yes, LFS got no Option for AA/AF, so u need to set it in ur driver options

roger that, open up CCC in your bottom right toolbar menu, push all the sliders to max quality/biggest numbers/ check all the boxes and enjoy!

Jakg, the 8600GTS definitely isn't crap:

http://xbitlabs.com/articles/v ... orce8600gts_21.html#sect0

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2970&p=6

These are old benchmarks too (April) and the performance has improved a good amount since then.

Quote from Dennisjr13 :

Jakg, the 8600GTS definitely isn't crap:

http://xbitlabs.com/articles/v ... orce8600gts_21.html#sect0

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2970&p=6

These are old benchmarks too (April) and the performance has improved a good amount since then.

crap? harsh. It's a good card, better than mine (but not by much and worse than mine when you add AA due to the 128 bit bus) , but considering it sells for more than mine (7950GT) by about a tenner it makes it ok, as you get DX10 as well.

Spend an extra £30 and get a card DOUBLE the speed. Who wouldn't?

Quote from Jakg :

Spend an extra £30 and get a card DOUBLE the speed. Who wouldn't?

Someone who's Dell E521 power supply is only 315W (hint)

In terms of bang for the buck I think x1950 pro is still king. If you are also interested in video playback you should get a 8600 model. All the high end cards are a joke IMO and I won't consider getting one until the GPU manufacturers realize that power consumption and noise are important issues nowadays.

Quote from J.B. :

In terms of bang for the buck I think x1950 pro is still king. If you are also interested in video playback you should get a 8600 model. All the high end cards are a joke IMO and I won't consider getting one until the GPU manufacturers realize that power consumption and noise are important issues nowadays.

I wouldn't say they're a joke, mainly as I own one hehe, however power consumption is crazy I agree. It annoys me that there's no real power saving mode on graphics cards when idling, like there is with CPUs.

As for the noise, my 8800 is one of the quietest things in my case, although I've heard the ATIs are loud.

Either way, a 8800 isn't going in a Dell lol.

The 8800's are ok, but the HD2900XT uses a rediculous amount of power, and doubles up as a space heater!

MSI version of ATI X1950PRO has customer cooler which is much more quite that the one on 8800GTS or GTX.

Basically you will not hear you have that card in your case.