What GFX Card Will Play Battlefield 2

so I am building a new 3.2Ghz rig to play games, and my 'benchmark' is whether it will play Battlefield 2 at high res, but I am on a budget build and dont wanna spend tons on an AGP gfx card. Now the game recommends NVIDIA GeForce 5700-5950 series, and 6200-6800 series or ATI Radeon 8500-9800 and X300-850 series. So far so good. I find a decent and affordable Sapphire Radeon 9550 256MB DDR VGA TVO DVI-I AGP Graphics Card, I traditionally use ATI Radeon cards, which looks great but gets panned by everyone. So my question is, what gfx card would you use, NVIDIA or ATI? I really dunno as I dont generally build gaming systems per se.

 

If building a new computer i have to recommend going with PCI-E cards rather then AGP.

Also this ATI card is under 100$ and pretty good rated

Link

But if your determinded to stick with AGP (I pretty much consider it a dying format)

This card has good reviews and is also under 100$

Link

I perfer ATI mostly because Nvidia has screwed me over more

*Edit* well ok its pretty much the same card, just different format

*another edit* Both of these cards will last awhile and support newer games

 

I had a Radeon 9800 and had to play BF2 with everything on low except Geometry, Terrain and Effects which were medium.

Any higher and my AMD 64-bit 3700+, 2GB PC would jerk like a bitch.

 

yeah i also recommend staying away from 9800's, i had 2 of them and their fans seized up within a year, and i didnt even overclock them

 

Yeah thats the strange thing with 9550, it should be fine but reviews seem to agree that it cant run Bf on high res. Cant see why this is though. In the system I run Bf and COD2 on, there is an ATI Radeon 9500 which runs both no hassle even though its only a 1.8ghz system, although BF of course only runs in low everything.

PCI - Yeah I suppose I should. I have never used PCI or PCI-E so know nothing about it and just stick to AGP out of habit. Also this is a cube system so I was trying to keep the pci slots relatively clear.

 

Well PCI-E is becoming if not already the dominate format

PCI-E at Wikipedia

 

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srl

is a handy link

select the game, instal the ActiveX, let it do its thing.

Then click on the 'recommended tab'


AGP still has some life in it yet

 

Good link Shane. Yeah I am not rushing to upgrade to PCI either, I also reckon AGP has a wee while to go yet.

So I reckon the AGP options are as follows:

Gecube X1050 128MB DDR DVI VGA TVO AGP
Sapphire Radeon 9550 256MB DDR VGA TVO DVI-I
Gecube X1550 256MB DDR2 128bit DVI AGP

Although I must admit there appears to be a bigger range of PCI cards about so I may yet go that route.

 

the technology route is as follows
PCI - AGP - PCI-E

PCI is a step backwards from AGP

I only have experience with NVIDIA so I cannot comment on ATI

I have a NVIDIA 7600 GS (AGP) and it runs the latest game that I have
DOW Dark Crusade with no problems at all

If I had to do it again I would try to get hold of a 6800 Ultra

another handy link - Graphics card comparisons
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html

and this one is the older charts
http://www.tomshardware.com/site/vgacharts/index.html

 

great sites, got them bookmarked. Heres a benchmark test for BF 2 but no-where near as comprehensive http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2005/06/24/battlefield_2_review/4 Sorry meant PCI-E just could not bother to type it all, the dash is like so far up the keyboard .

Got it narrowed down to this: http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=112758 [still]
or this: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/128185

gonna go fight on a COD server for a bit while I think about it.

 

neither of those cards will hold up to BF2 very well at all, only 4 pixel pipes on them, as well as a 128-bit memory interface. Id look at nothing less than a 6600GT/6800XTreme Edition (XFX makes the only decent 6800xt) or x800/x1650. also make sure that you have 2 gigs of RAM to run it smoothly, BF2 is a total memory hog.

With the rig in my sig i can run it at full settings with 4x AA (everything full except for texture which is on medium, most likely due to me only having a gig or RAM)

 

This is an amazingly good call. Will let you know which of these cards i go with. i am thinking the ATI x800

 

Okay I reckon a HIS X1650Pro Fan 256MB gfx card will do me. Any final thoughts before I take the plunge? http://www.hisdigital.com/html/product_ov.php?id=258&view=yes

 

take a look at these charts and see if it meets your expectations: http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html

its a bit slower than an x800 though not TOO much. it can run BF2142 just fine at max settings with no AA or AF

 

I will have an ATi X800XL for sale tomorrow (hopefully) after I get my new system up and running. AGP 8x BTW.

 

Thanks y'all. i got one of these in the end http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/126852 a HIS X1650Pro IceQ 256MB. now if I can just get it in the case...