Not another video card question!

[Ghettofab75]

Yea, yea, same old thing, newbie looking for video card suggestions.

Current specs: HP desktop, AMD Phenom II x4, 8gb ram and a 1T hard drive, windows 7. Computer was purchased about 1.5yrs ago and was a huge step up over my last computer that was 10yrs old or so and running windows 98.

I am not the most knowledgeable on computer stuff, I know the basics, but thats why I'm defering to you all for suggestions.

My current video card is an ATI Radeon 4350 HD that came with the computer. With TSX on I get FPS well below 14 with everything set to low. The game is basicly unplayable and even with TSX off I feel I'm missing a lot detail and scenery and the game is just not enjoyable. If I could get the enjoyment level up I'd play the game more and I think I'd be motivated to try to develop some assets for the game that are clearly needed.

From the research I have been doing it sounds like a crap shoot as to whether or not a video card will help out in railworks. Thats why I'm leary about shelling out $200-$300 for some of these cards. I feel like a card in the $100-$150 range should be a significant improvement over my current card, without killing my wallet if it doesn't make much of an improvement. Am I on the right track, or just crazy? Any good places to learn about different video cards and how to compare them? I know its hard to simply recommend a card for someone espicially with this game, but any pointers or direction would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Kevo

[imnew]

Kevo,

Not sure if this helps, but i recently made a comparison thread with Griphos.. Im running EVGA GTX 570 superclocked, and he was running GTX 275. Graphic cards for RW is a "tricky" choice.. Ive seen users with very recent hardware updates, high end equipment, confirming that FPS increase was not good enough. TSX engine looks amazing, but behaves very strange

I upgraded from a GTX 275 to the GTX 570, FPS increased on average 8-15 fps, i was happy... I`m still getting the dreadful 14fps at some locations on my own route project, cant understand why this is ... Railworks HQ is working on a technical update that hopefully will resolve some of the fps problems, no date as of yet.

Check this thread i made with Griphos

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=4178

[arizonachris]

I got a decent (for RW anyways) boost in performance by upgrading my old motherboard/ RAM/ CPU for a new socket AM3 board/ AM3 CPU (Phenom II 970) and 8Gb of DDR3 RAM. I kept my old EVGA GTX470 Superclocked video card. But, even with some better frame rates on some routes, I still get frames below 14 at times. So it's still quite a mixed bag.

Bottom line for me was, I needed to upgrade just in general. I didn't do it just for RW, neither should you. BUT, with all that said, you could use a better card just for all around gaming. That 4350 is two generations old and a low end card. RW seems to favor Nvidia cards. Get one with at least 1Gb of VRAM. And as high end as you can afford. Also keep in mind, HP computers sometimes don't take kindly to hardware upgrades. The power supply is usually just adequate for the components you have now. Put in a card that draws more power and you could have problems.

If you do decide on a new card, just post back here. Someone will be around to help out.

[buzz456]

Check out the GT520. You can get it with 2gig for under a hundred dollars and it runs just fine on my Gateway with stock 400 watt power supply.
Buzz

[Ghettofab75]

Ok, thanks for the suggestions.

I'll have to check out my powersupply to see how many watts that thing puts out. I guess its back to doing more research. It may be a while as I'm in no rush, but when I do upgrade I'll update this thread and let you all know.

Thanks,
Kevo