RTW frame rates with various graphics cards

**BeeSting** · 02-17-2005, 01:54

Originally Posted by professorspatula

I want a new graphics card after seeing that comparison chart. Do you think if I'm really good and do what is asked of me without question, that the senate will reward me with a new Geforce 6800 GT? The senate can then keep the First Cohorts and silly office titles for themselves.

**Red Harvest** · 02-17-2005, 03:30

I'm surprised by how well the 9800 Pro does compared to the new generation and for just over half the cost. With my XP 2400+/266 FSB system, the 6800 GT would be unlikely to help much, because the 9800 Pro is not the bottleneck.

**Uesugi Kenshin** · 02-17-2005, 04:15

They don't show my 9600 PRO, boo hoo.....

RTW is more processor and RAM dependant than anything else so getting a really good processor and good RAM is more important that getting a 6800 ULTRA.

**Byzantine Prince** · 02-17-2005, 04:22

How much of that is dependent on teh CPU though? I have a 1.2 Ghz CPU and i doubt it would make much difference if I updated my 7500 Radeon. It would still lag somewhat.

**Uesugi Kenshin** · 02-17-2005, 05:00

I have not seen any tests, but the number of AI routines and such that t has to run through is far more stressfull than the graphics. Plus the RAM gets eaten up really fast. If you want to have really big armies I would reccomend a gig at least. My 2.8, 9600 PRO and gig of cas latency 3 RAM in 4 256 sticks works quite well until you hit 6k troops and if you are just looking at the ground the frame rate stays the same...

**Red Harvest** · 02-17-2005, 05:02

You would still get a big improvement over a 7500 I imagine. The "sweet spot" would probably be a lot lower than a 9800 Pro. With that speed of CPU an 8500 or 9000 level should give a noticeble boost. And a 9600 would probably tap out its potential.

The 7500 was a 2 pixel pipeline chip, the 8500/9000 is a 4, and the 9800 is an 8. I had (still have in a box) an older Radeon that was an early rev of the 7500 chip from what I can tell, it overclocked like a banshee to just shy of 7500 speeds. It was a good card in its day, but the 8500 was a major step up with a 1.4 GHz machine.

The big improvement though with something like the 9600 level of card is that you start getting decent shader support. The 7500 is a DX7 architecture and is not doing the shaders in hardware. The 8500 was DX8 and shares some features swith the 9000, so they are both limited in DX9 shader support.

**Quillan** · 02-17-2005, 17:32

I just got my 9800 Pro back from warranty service, so I am happy. It's an excellent card, still, 2 years+ after its debut. While it was away, I had my older Geforce 4 ti4200 in the computer, and it couldn't handle RTW. I'd get random lockups fairly quickly.

**hellenes** · 02-17-2005, 18:46

There is no idication of troop numbers, settings etc...
With normal 240x20=4800x8=38400 soldiers what graphics card can handle it?
Modded (with a troop number editor) 500x20=10000x8=80000

Hellenes

**Zatoichi** · 02-17-2005, 19:02

I saw a marked improvement in frame rate when I went from 512 to 1024 Mb RAM using my Radeon 9800 PRO. I could also use huge unit size without the larger battles getting too choppy. People who know more about this stuff than me have reccomended increasing RAM as a cheaper way of improving your RTW playing experience, so who am I to argue? It worked for me, anyway.