MovieChat Forums > Quake 4 (2005) Discussion > PC users: Graphics card question.

PC users: Graphics card question.

posted 18 years ago by Snake-666
14 replies | jump to latest

Currently, my machine (Pentium IV 2.6Ghz, 1GB RAM) has a 256mb Radeon 9600 card in it which works for most games but produces stalled images on Doom 3 during action sequences. Therefore, I'm looking to purchase a new graphics card in the near-future (shortly after Xmas) so that I can get better quality graphics on Doom 3 and play Quake IV too (I played Q4 last night on a friends Xbox360 and loved it!).

Anyway, obviously just after Xmas I'm hardly going to be flush with cash, so I've had a look around and have found an ATI 256mb Radeon X700 card within my price range. Therefore, my question is whether this card is good enough to run Quake IV well? I've noticed there is also a Pro version of the same card. Is it worth holding out/shopping around/spending the extra on the Pro version?

What is your fascination with my forbidden closet of mystery?

[–] Vostigo 18 years ago

Well me I'm using a Nvidia card it is the 5500 geforce fx card and it runs quake 4 good if you have this config http://files.filefront.com/quake4config/;4273315;;/fileinfo.html it works real well before I could barely run the game in low quality but it allowed me to run in high quality with pretty good framerate and only slowed down in huge scenes hope it helps you and saves you money at the moment and if you get Quake IV buy the special edition as it comes with the Quake II games

I Am God Emperor Leto II
http://uggw.proboards56.com/

[–] Snake-666 18 years ago

Thanks for your response and my apologies for taking so long to get back to you.

I was forced into upgrading my computer a few weeks ago due to a motherboard blowout so I've now got an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ CPU and PCI-Express ATI Radeon X1800XT which is able to run Doom 3 in high quality at 1280x1024 resolution so I would imagine it will be able to handle a similar resolution with Quake IV given they both use the same engine.

I actually own Quake II and Quake II: The Reckoning and I know that copies of Ground Zero go relatively cheaply on eBay so I'll probably just pick up the standard edition when I get round to it.

Tilt-a-whirly sprayin' blood all over the neighborhood!

[–] plo_koon1 18 years ago

I got myself a 256mb GeForce 6800GT and it runs all those games like a dream, although i have Quake 4 for the Xbox 360, i played the demo of it from a games mag and it ran everything smoothly with no problems. I'm and nvidia boy at heart and i will always recommend those cards over ATI any day.

"Don't know these folks, don't much care to" Jayne
"Their whores" Mal
"I'm in" Jayne

[–] haladar 18 years ago

I have a geForce 6800 Ultra and it runs everything great. I had a Radeon 9800 Pro which was also good, though I usually ran DooM 3 at 800x600 to stop the slight hitching it had.

I find ATI and nVidia both produce great products, and their competition with one another only will make for better products in the future. The only thing that made me get the 6800 Ultra over the X850XT was shader model 3.0

Sanity is the playground of the unimaginative.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] powerman611 18 years ago

I have a Radeon 9800XT 256MB AGP 8X, which I bought used on Ebay for $150, and only after I put in a 1GB of RAM did everything start working well. 800x600,1024x768 works well on high quality. You need alot of memory for these Doom3 engine games.

[–] rbhardware_05 18 years ago

Ive got an Nvidia GeForce 5200 FX series card, with 256mb of memory, with a Sempron 2500+ Processor (currently running at 1.8 Gig), 256 mb RAM and an onboard soundcard. And Quake 4 runs remarkably well on my PC. I have the game set to medium detail, 2x anti aliasing, shadow effects, and the like. I put it all 2 my video card. So threadstarter, I recommend getting an Nvidia card, not a Radeon, as most games seem to run better on Nvidia these days.

[–] maninred13 18 years ago

i have Intel Pentium 4 3.4 GHZ , 1 GB RAM, and Radeon X1600 512 MG Graphic Card, I got Quake 4 and its good if you put the quality as ok, but if you put it High i dont no what happens but the loading times is LONGG and there is a few pauses ,my pc costed 2 thousand dollars and i have a problem with quake 4, sometimes my pc just quits it after 1 or 2 hours... strange for a good pc and i reinstalled windows again but still same problem. but otherwise you need a good graphic card to run it.

[–] powerman611 18 years ago

I tried to run doom 3 with 256MB GeForce 5200 FX(like yours), Athlon XP 2400+,512MB, and it was awful. On the low setting it would appear OK, but when a monster appeared it would strobe, on the high setting it would barely move. That's why I bought the Radeon 9800XT. It's realitively cheap and works well on most games inlcuding Need for Speed(all), Quake 4, FEAR, UNrealTournament 2004, Halflife 2. It's a great card, you can get it for about $100 on Ebay now.

[–] rbhardware_05 18 years ago

'I tried to run doom 3 with 256MB GeForce 5200 FX(like yours), Athlon XP 2400+,512MB, and it was awful. On the low setting it would appear OK, but when a monster appeared it would strobe, on the high setting it would barely move. That's why I bought the Radeon 9800XT. It's realitively cheap and works well on most games inlcuding Need for Speed(all), Quake 4, FEAR, UNrealTournament 2004, Halflife 2. It's a great card, you can get it for about $100 on Ebay now.'

Thats odd, Doom 3 run remarkably well on my pc, and with less processor power too. What video card drivers did you have?

hey Eddie... *beep* you Eddie! Suck my d!ck!! - Eddie Murphy, Raw

[–] powerman611 18 years ago

I don't recall which drivers I had, but I've tried the ones that came with the card, the ones from Windows Update, and the ones available on the Nvidia site. Neither configuration beared fruit. The game ran like crap. I wanted to build a new system altogether, but a buddy of mine had a Radeon 9800XT on his which ran everything perfectly, so I followed suit. Instead of spending over a thousand bux on a new motherboard with CPU and a PCI-E card I spent only $250 for the Radeon AGP card and another gig of ram.

I also want to add that those budget ECS boards are crap. Asus is the best!

[–] rbhardware_05 18 years ago

What motherboard have you got, if your video card isnt compatible with it, it can cause problems.

hey Eddie... *beep* you Eddie! Suck my d!ck!! - Eddie Murphy, Raw

[–] powerman611 18 years ago

they're all compatible as long as you have an AGP slot. I had a crapy ECS a few years back on which games ran like crap. Doom 3 barely ran, and low detail, tehn I got the ASUS and eerything ran better. After a few months ai bought the radeon, and everything ran perfectly. budget boards are crap!

[–] rbhardware_05 18 years ago

Thtas weird that Doom 3 would run bad for you, it works fine on high detail for me.

hey Eddie... *beep* you Eddie! Suck my d!ck!! - Eddie Murphy, Raw