Bioshock issues
 

I have an older system, and my gal got me Bioshock game...well it was not up to snuff it seems.

I ran the system tester from this site:

srtest dot com

and it gave me for the min settings a failing grade for my vid card which I knew already from the fact that there was so much not showing in the game, that it was unplayable to me.

My system stats are as follows:

XP PRO WITH ALL SERVICE UPDATES
ASUS P4P800-E
2 GIGS RAM
P4 2.80 GHZ
ATI X800XL VID 256MG
AUDIGY VALUE SONDCARD
200 GIG HARD DRIVE

my question is this....I found this card that might fix the issue of my old card getting this report from the SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS LAB:


Video RAM: Required - 128 MB , You have - 256.0 MB
Video Card 3D Acceleration: Required - Yes , You have - Yes
Video HW Transform & Lighting: Required - Yes , You have - Yes
Vertex Shader Ver.: Required - 3.0 , You have - 2.0
Pixel Shader Ver.: Required - 3.0 , You have - 2.0

will this card listed fix my issues? or should I just give up and wait till I can get a pci system.?

HIS Hightech H195PRQT512DDAN-R-V2 Radeon X1950PRO 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 AGP 8X HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail.


sells for 219 or so..this is on newegg dot com

what you all think?

My old system did pretty well wtih the Fear game and anything else I tossed at it so far...I'm a bit disapointed but know that as time goes on, any sytem will become antiquated....:(

thanks

Michael

the AGP upgrade is a temporary "patch", but in my humble opinion you can do better to switch to PCI Express, for starters, the PCI Express X1950Pro costs $100 if you search around a bit, that leaves you $100 for CPU&Motherboard, a Core Duo can be had for $60 something (E2140) and motherboard which supports DDR1/DDR2 for $40 (Asrock series), but maybe an upgrade to DDR2 (2x1gb PC2-6400 kit) isn't a bad idea either, as the Asrock AGP/PCI/DDR/DDR2 motherboard has limited PCI Express bandwidth.

the X1950 Pro will give you Vertex/Pixel shader 3.0 support, but at a high cost, and the moment you order it, can you be quite sure that you'll never be able to sell it afterwards for even half the price, seeing as it's an AGP videocard.

I fully agree with jmke here, upgrading to the X1950Pro AGP is just a temporary patch.

Prices at newegg:
E2160 = 76$
Asrock S775 mobo = 65$ or 53$ if you plan to buy new DDR2 ram
ATI HD 2600XT (good choice for bioshock) = 109$ or NV 8600GT 109$

You will need to overclock the processor a bit to achieve optimal performance. It runs by default at 1.6Ghz, which is low, but it can run at 2.5Ghz without a hitch. If you are not into overclocking, you best choose a better one from the E6x50 series.

In general, the ATI 2600XT is a little bit slower than the 8600GT, but it is better for bioshock.

$124 for X1950 Pro PCIe, will beat both ATI HD 2600XT/8600GT with a nice margin in performance

The X1950Pro beats the 8600GT/2600XT in some games, but definitely not all. Eg if you buy a new videocard to play bioshock, your better of with the 2600XT.

Synthetic benchmarks
Unreal Engine 3 (Rainbow Six:LV, bioshock)

Ok, so say I wanted a bit better cpu so that I'm not gimping myself with only being able to barely play bioshock and any other games coming down the pike, till I can afford a better rig....

what do you folks suggest? Im way out of the loop with the dual cores and what not.

for games it's GPU you need first, CPU is fast enough, but S478 is dated, so you'll need to upgrade mobo/cpu/vga/mem all the other semi upgrades are just "patches"

Well gonna try to get friends and family to boost the cost of a semi new system, as its my bday on the 16th of sept....:)

So any idea's? guess I'll start doing research, though it would be nice to have a few pointers on a mobo that is good compared to the crap I've already looked at....I know that its all about upgrading as you go, but all good systems start off with a strong base....

Thanks for the help that you've provided so far....given me some ideas I'd never have thought of...:)

Gigabyte P35 or similar priced $100 Intel P35 based DDR2 motherboard
E2160 with a 50% OC runs nicely, otherwise, if not into OC, E6420 or similar

X1950 Pro beats 8600GT/2600XT with nice margin in BioShock!
http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2007/..._performance/9