[Locutus of Borg]

I'm thinking anywhere between $125 and $200, depending on the features of the card.

Right now I have an ATI Radeon 2400 HD, and I'm getting sick and tired of it lagging u games like Mass Effect, and even FSO. Basically I'm looking for a card which can run a game like Mass Effect pretty smoothly (mine can't even run it smooth on low settings, lol) that doesn't require a whole lot of power.

thoughts guys?

[Ghostavo]

I'd wait just a bit for the next generation of cards since they seem to be just around the corner. If you are not in a hurry that is.

If you are, I might want to check the HD 4890.

[Locutus of Borg]

How long? lol

I am not really in a rush, but I'm really anxious to improve this machine. It's clear in all other forms of functionality visa vi games, except for video card.

I don't really like ATI, and since nVidia seems to be the market standard these days...what about those?

[General Battuta]

Well, the HD 4870 was an awesome deal and eats Mass Effect alive (Crysis too, with a good comp!), but if you want to avoid ATI...

[CP5670]

Mass Effect is just a badly programmed game. The graphics are generally mediocre but the framerate still drops a lot in some areas for no reason, even on good hardware.

The 4890 is still the best choice for anything under $200. The 275 competes with it but is $20-$30 more.

I'd wait just a bit for the next generation of cards since they seem to be just around the corner. If you are not in a hurry that is.

The 5870 came out a few days ago, but that and the 5850 are out of his price range. The Nvidia stuff is still a few months away.

[Locutus of Borg]

I can't play Homeworld 2 with 5 computers without the computer lagging.

I can't play FSO and look at asteroids, and everything on high settings runs well enough to be playable, but isn't exactly smooth.

Not to mention, I like to play an old idtech3 game (Elite Force) and I sometimes get low framerates on complex maps.

If you guys think ATI 4870 is best?

[General Battuta]

Well, the 4890 sounds great, but what are your computer's other specs?

A new video card will only do so much.

[Locutus of Borg]

Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
4GB Ram
HP Media Tower

... (sorry if that's not what you wanteD)

I have a 3.5 on the Windows Experience Index. If you exclude the gaming and gaming graphics slots though, I'd have a 5.1

[General Battuta]

Processor?

[Locutus of Borg]

INTEL Core 2 CPU
6400 @ 2.31 ghz

[Spicious]

If you don't mind waiting something from the 5700 series might be a better option for your price range.

[Locutus of Borg]

When?

[Spicious]

They're supposed to be getting released in a month or so.

[Fury]

I don't really like ATI, and since nVidia seems to be the market standard these days...what about those?

ATI has better performance/price ratio at the moment in nearly all of their lineups.

Unlike what others have told you, I don't think it is necessary for you to wait for new DX11 cards since you want a cheap upgrade. I personally recommend ATI 4890 series and you will soon find lots of them for sale in auctions like ebay now that 5-series is coming. Even if you can't wait that long, ATI 4850 and 4870 still offer great performance for their price. 4870 should be just about in your price range now, so go look for those.

Even if you wait for 5-series of cards, lower-end cards will probably take months to appear and are initially really hard to get since most are going to OEM's (especially now that Christmas is close) and those who preordered.

[General Battuta]

I concur, spring for the 4870 or 4890, unless you want to hold out for something new.

[Splinter]

I have the 4870 1Gb and I am very pleased.... I play everything from Crysis to Prototype to Call of Juarez to Supreme Commander all on full resolution (for my 22 it's 1680x1050) and highest detail very smoothly. (on a couple of the heaviest games I maybe kick down the AA 1 or 2 slots.) And if the 4890 is any better and is still under $200 (I saw a couple of 4890s on newegg for under 200) you will not be disappointed by either choice.

[Locutus of Borg]

When will this 4890 be released, or reduced in price?

[Tomo]

Has ATI really fixed the "OpenGL? What's that then? We only do DirectX here!" problem?

In my experience, more than 75% of the graphics-related support calls I've dealt with were caused by ATI drivers failing to do OpenGL properly. (The remainder were Intel graphics chipsets.)

So personally, I'd never consider an ATI card for OpenGL-based graphics. I gather that they are very good for DirectX though.

[Fury]

Huh? Several major game engines are coded on OpenGL, such as id Tech 3 and id Tech 4. Many commercial professional applications also use OpenGL. ATI has as much reason to keep their OpenGL drivers in shape as does NVIDIA.

However, it's true that some time ago ATIs OpenGL support was below average. And problems are often encountered on low-end cards, which is nothing new as they had problems with DirectX features too. This was when a low-end card of same series didn't support same DirectX feature set as mid-range and high-end cards and were in all intents and purposes previous generation cards.

There shouldn't be any OpenGL problems since 2k series. Not sure about older. My 4870 works flawlessly with OpenGL.

[Locutus of Borg]

My HD 2400 works well with idtech3