Best Card for RTW

[The Sword of Cao Cao]

Well I've found out that my grahpics card is the reason I cant fight any battles in Rome. I'm a 14 year old dude in Florida, who may possibly be getting a job at a grocery store. And I need a new damn card. So whats the best card fro Rome, like no CTD's or anything like that, and smooth gameplay, but also whats something that will at least be under $200? Preferably under $100.

[Murmandamus]

Nvidia 5600/5700 or ATI 9600 should do the job. Not sure about US prices but they should be < $100. $125 for the 5700. I'm sure someone on here with those cards can let us know how they perform.

The older ATI cards like the 9200 sound like they have compatability problems with the game and avoid the 5200's if you can. They're cheap, but a tarted up GF2 is still a GF2 :)

[Lord Angelus]

Again i'm not sure about US dollar prices but for that price bracket i'd be looking at a 9600 Pro.Dont bother with the 256 meg variants as it's more or less a gimmick on that card.
It also may be worth checking out the prices of the 9800/9800 Pro as they have dropped recently with the new flagship cards arriving.

Good Luck

[Lord Angelus]

A bit of food for thought here:

9800 Pro or maybe the vanilla 9800 which will save you a bit more.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-281&depa=0


9600XT or 9600Pro - next to no difference between them.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-326&depa=0


For these prices stay away from the Nvidia FX line (5200,5600) although the 5700 is a decent card as mentioned above.

Good Luck....

[Lemur]

I'm running Rome smoothly at 1600X1200, and I've got 2002's hot card, the Radeon 9700 pro. Currently selling for $158 on pricewatch. That's none too shabby for a two-year-old card and a brand-new game.

I read that Nvidia's got a ~$100 card coming in a week or so that's nothing short of phenomenal. But I doubt if you're willing to wait a week, eh? Too much conquering and bloodletting lost if you putter about.

Good luck! Remember, tell your significant other that you need the computer parts for, uh, work, yeah, that's what it's for, really, honey ...

[Lord Angelus]

Yeah the 9700 Pro is a great card and will run this with ease i imagine.I didnt suggest it as you never see them here now in the UK.If you can get one then it will be a good buy for that price....

[nixis00]

Dude,
Check out the best u can get on a ATI 9800pro, u should find also a few hints here on how to oc to XT forums.extremeoverclocking.com ... don't forget to get some proper cooling www.zalmanusa.com

This is a very pretty setup, u can run smoothly @ 1024x768x32 with high settings. Quite a good deal.

[Spuddicus]

I'm running a 5700 Ultra and it does quite well. Bogs down when I set unit size to huge, but on an old first-generation P4 that's to be expected.

[Spartiate]

I have one of those 9700pro ati cards sitting on a shelf in my room.It gave me some problems with display so i took it back out and bought a new card.The shop i bought the 9700 from had closed down before i had installed and discovered the problem.Graphics cards are very expensive in Ireland unfortunately.

[USMCNJ]

Don't get the 9800 just yet!
I have one and the game won't run. I have to run it throught the video card that is build into my mother board.
If you check totalwar.com you will see that other people have problems with this card as well.
THe problem is a major one. THe battles crash with in 2 min of play.

[ToranagaSama]

The 9700 pro is probably the most economical card you can buy. It's DX9 capable, has 256 bit thruput, and 8 pipelines the same as a 9800 pro and more than the 5700 ultra. You can find one *used* on Ebay or go to pricewatch and check the *new* prices. You should find one in the US$100-150 range. If you search hard and use patience you could probably find a 9800 pro in the same price range.

I have this card and ran the demo at 1600x1200 with all the settings on, and the game was toooo fast.

Here's a Chart that gives the basic comparision of all, but the very latest cards:

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html

Luck!

[Lemur]

Let me reiterate -- I'm running the full game on a Radeon 9700 pro at 1600 x 1200, and I'm experiencing no noticeable slowdowns, um, ever. (For reference, the rest of the box is a Barton-core Athlon XP 2500 overclocked to a 3000, a gig or RAM and a Wester Digital HD, an Asus mobo, and a Windows 2000 OS of dubious origin.)

Until Nvidia hits the streets with their $100 wunderkard, I think the 9700 pro is a fine, fine RTW contender.

You just have to make sure that the rest of your system isn't starving the card. RAM is cheap, and so are hard drives. Why skimp? And remember, it's for work. No, really.

[cstuart]

Go to Newegg.com and look at the list of video cards available. i got a FX5200 for $55.00 dollars and it got to my house in georgia in three days. i am now playing RTW and Star Wars Battlefronts with no problems what so ever. its a great card for the money!

[ah_dut]

Cstuart, me and my fellow err.... ge... sorry people from the apoth all seem to agree that the 5200 sucks... sorry but iirc it's just a really buffed up geforce 2 . that is not a good thing, a 5500 at least is the min for a properly dx9 playable (in decent fps) nvidia card.