FF XI and graphics card + some other things.

[heartslaught]

Okay, I just recently finished building my barebones pc and transfer everything from the old computer to the new including my Geforce 7800 GTX.

When I fired up FF XI though, seems the graphics card (due to age and me forgetting to clean it, and that it was seeming to already be dying) was slowing FF XI down to a crawl and then went BOOM, so the graphics card is gone.

My question is for when I can afford it: what's a good FF XI graphics card that won't break my bank and how to optimize my Geforce 7050 chipset on the motherboard to get maximum performance.

I'll post system specs if necessary.

[Neb]

Specs please FFXI is not that graphics card intensive it mostly processer as you will read in every other post about this topic. Having your spec will allow us to help you best picking a new GC for your rig.

P.S how much do you want to spend?

[Olo401]

Will need specs on the motherboard to recommend a card that will fit correctly. BTW I hope you didn't put an AGP card into a PCI-E 16x slot..

[heartslaught]

Nah, it was a 16x pci express card, my old tower, I got for the purpose of the PCI-express slot. Let me see if I can spec the tower really quick in a simple manner... so you guys know EXACTLY what's in it.

Processor(s)
Number of processors 1
Number of cores 2 per processor
Number of threads 2 per processor
Name Intel Pentium E5200
Code Name Wolfdale
Specification Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5200 @ 2.50GHz
Package Socket 775 LGA
Family/Model/Stepping 6.7.6
Extended Family/Model 6.17
Core Stepping M0
Technology 45 nm
Core Speed 2500.0 MHz
Multiplier x Bus speed 12.5 x 200.0 MHz
Rated Bus speed 800.0 MHz
Stock frequency 2500 MHz
Instruction sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T
L1 Data cache (per processor) 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache (per processor) 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache (per processor) 2048 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
Chipset & Memory
Northbridge NVIDIA GeForce 7050 rev. A2
Southbridge NVIDIA nForce 610i rev. A2
Memory Type DDR2
Memory Size 2048 MBytes
Memory Frequency 333.3 MHz (3:5)
CAS# Latency (tCL) 5.0 clocks
RAS# to CAS# (tRCD) 4 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 4 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) 14 clocks
Bank Cycle Time (tRC) 20 clocks
Command Rate (CR) 2T
System
System Manufacturer MSI
System Name MS-7518
System S/N To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Mainboard Vendor MSI
Mainboard Model MS-7518
BIOS Vendor American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Version V2.2
BIOS Date 07/10/2008
Memory SPD
Module 1 DDR2, PC2-5300 (333 MHz), 2048 MBytes, Micron Technology
Software
Windows Version Microsoft Windows XP x64 Professional Service Pack 1 (Build 3790)
DirectX Version 9.0c

I think that's everything you guys should need.

[Olo401]

Ah ok let's see here.. a good card that won't break the bank....

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100225L Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - $90, free shipping

As to optimizing your system.. you're already about there. The 7050/610i is an older pairing - it won't support SLI, and you're capped at 667 on the front side. I did notice from the spec list you posted that you only have one 2GB DIMM installed. Getting a matching second DIMM so you can run dual-channel will go a long way, and your system can handle it since you have XP 64-bit installed.

[heartslaught]

Definitely one to look at, and I won't have to deal with the Nvidia card problems I've had in the past. Admittedly, I'm probably going to see if I can find this card cheaper in general (you'd surprised what a bit of haggling can do in some cases) but I like this. Thank man.

[Olo401]

Hey look on Ebay for sure.. Basically what you want to look for is a card that's PCI-E 2.0 16x, 512MB of video memory, and most important at least a 256-bit memory interface. It's a lot to remember, but to make it easier you'd be looking for these models:

ATI-based cards: Radeon HD 3850, 3870, 4830, 4850, 4870
Nvidia-based cards: GeForce 8800, 9800, GTx 2xx series (maybe 7800 I'm not sure)