Recommend good HD & PCSX2 playable GFX card

[andrewwan1980]

According to NGEmu - PCSX2 overview it states

Recommended:
4 - 5 Ghz machine
1024MB RAM
X1800 / Geforce 7800 GT

Is this still the case? I don't want to splash a fortune just to play FFX or Pump-It-Up. Just enough to get them playable is fine, even on low graphics settings.

My Dell Inspiron 531 PC comes with cut-down built-in Nvidia GeForce 6150 LE which runs PCSX2 games in slide-show. At the time of purchase, Dell gave me GFX upgrade options of:

128MB ATI® Radeon™ HD 2400 Pro graphics card
256MB ATI® Radeon™ HD 2600 XT graphics card

Now, I could just buy the specified cards above for easy installation. But am I right I can actually buy any PCI-E card and it should work in my Dell? I would like a good card, not expensive, and can make my PCSX2 playable in FFX and does HD also.

Which card would you recommend?

[emwearz]

How much do you want to spend? Give us a price range.

EDIT: Just read that the Dell Inspiron 531 has a 300watt PSU, I would not suggest anything above a 8600GTS, which is cheap and will improve all aspects of gaming on your PC.

[spike1977]

Try this: Intel E8200 + 4gbyte RAM (turn off swap file in windows) Vista x64 and Geforce 8800gts. Run perfectly

[chiadog]

Which processor do you have? Even if you upgrade the videocard, you may not get enjoyable speed with a slow processor.

[andrewwan1980]

Originally Posted by emwearz

How much do you want to spend? Give us a price range.

EDIT: Just read that the Dell Inspiron 531 has a 300watt PSU, I would not suggest anything above a 8600GTS, which is cheap and will improve all aspects of gaming on your PC.

Around £60inc.VAT. Am not into big gaming, just enough to run HD and PCSX2 FFX playable (even on lowest GFX settings) with 30-60fps.

Where did you read the Dell Inspiron 531 specs from? 300W PSU? I guess I can always upgrade the PSU.. but like I said I am short on cash and can't...

Originally Posted by spike1977

Try this: Intel E8200 + 4gbyte RAM (turn off swap file in windows) Vista x64 and Geforce 8800gts. Run perfectly

You recommended a entire system? I don't have cash and probably can only afford a GFX card upgrade.

Originally Posted by chiadog

Which processor do you have? Even if you upgrade the videocard, you may not get enjoyable speed with a slow processor.

Dell Inspiron 531
AMD® Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4000+
Built-in GFX card (Nvidia 6150 LE something)

[Fadingz]

Do you still have warranty with your Dell?
because updating it will just void the warranty.

[Mr. Killjoy]

Well, buying prebuilt computers never been a good idea in terms of customization.
Build your next PC yourself

Anyways, FFX runs almost always fullspeed with a 2.4ghz Core2, though 3ghz is better to avoid occsionnal speed drops in heave areas. FFX-2 requires slightly more (slow FMVs aside). I dunno for the other game though. As a GFX card, you'd need at least upper-midrange, but obviously, even lower-highrange would be better (just to be sure)

[andrewwan1980]

Originally Posted by Fadingz

Do you still have warranty with your Dell?
because updating it will just void the warranty.

Probably if upgrading the PSU, but upgrading the GFX card is okay. Dell has these massive easy-to-turn screws to open the main case. And the insides is really nice and tidy and clean. And color coded... like the old PB days..

[Fadingz]

no I mean that you need the exact same PC configuration for the warranty to be valid.
Changing any part of the PC = changing the pc
GPU/CPU are no different from PSU
and Dell's PC don't have nice cooling for any decent OC I believe :/

[skoreanime]

I'm pretty sure there's a sticker somewhere saying removing it will void your warranty. Had one sticking over an AGP slot in one of my parents pre-built. But I'd phone them and make damn sure first...

[aszucs]

An Nvidia GeForce 6600gt [maybe more than] enought for ffx, and should be very cheap. But for £60 you may find 7600gt or 8600gt too. [i'm not sure about the prices in england]

I don't know much about ati cards... but radeon 2600 would surely good as i found here a topic: FPS in FFX
and 'Dolizoss' wrote:
"Is there a way to lower the FPS limit? (I mean under 30)
Even with anti-aliasing 4x and blinnear filtering(I am using PCSX2 ver 0.9.2)
FPS is about 60. It's nearly impossible to make Tidus overdrives or play blitzball with that speed.
Intel Genuine Core 2 Duo 2,8 GHz
RAM 1GB 800MHz(tommorow it will be 2 GHz 1600MHz)
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO 512MB "

[Fadingz]

Nevertheless, you probably don't want to upgrade for FFX or a few PS2 games only; it is not worthy.

You need to find out what you do the most on your comp and find the GPU that best fits the purpose.
If you are a gamer, most likely a yes, then check it's performance on your other PC games as well.


[NOTE: make sure that you will still ahve the warranty, or you'll end up paying Dell extra money for nothing]

[Time Master]

Originally Posted by Mr. Killjoy

Well, buying prebuilt computers never been a good idea in terms of customization.
Build your next PC yourself

Anyways, FFX runs almost always fullspeed with a 2.4ghz Core2, though 3ghz is better to avoid occsionnal speed drops in heave areas. FFX-2 requires slightly more (slow FMVs aside). I dunno for the other game though. As a GFX card, you'd need at least upper-midrange, but obviously, even lower-highrange would be better (just to be sure)

Well I have a core2 at 2.66ghz and I even have to limit frames on FFX using a resolution of 1280x1024... xD

I think a 2.4 - 2.6ghz core2 is enough to run most games at high speeds. The only game I found I can run at full speed is Kingdom Hearts, for some reasons I have random slowdowns on some areas... but anyways I can fix that using native resolution

[Mr. Killjoy]

"Well I have a core2 at 2.66ghz and I even have to limit frames on FFX using a resolution of 1280x1024... xD"

With a core2 at this speed and a good gfx card, yeah, you must use a limiter, but there are still some places where you have about 50fps (on an ntsc version), even at 3ghz. Though it's true that it's only occasionnal slowdowns. What not true is that it's enough for most games, there are many many ones that need much more power. FFX games are just better optimized since they're the most tested/played

[Fadingz]

Originally Posted by Time Master

Well I have a core2 at 2.66ghz and I even have to limit frames on FFX using a resolution of 1280x1024... xD

I think a 2.4 - 2.6ghz core2 is enough to run most games at high speeds. The only game I found I can run at full speed is Kingdom Hearts, for some reasons I have random slowdowns on some areas... but anyways I can fix that using native resolution

Resolution has almost nothing to do with CPU
It's your GPU XD