Hey guys, Quick question...

(I'll be honest, I didn't read the charter or rules for this section. I don't know much about the technical side of PC's, and i usually just start seeing wording and terminology that confuses me. So if this is the wrong place, or is a common question thats frowned upon in here, I apologize).

I posted in the Games and was told i'd probably be doing myself a favor to ask here.


http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055367279


In short, I'd like to pick up a copy of GTA: IV when it comes out on PC. I have literally no interest in gaming, but GTA vaguely intrigues me, so, i was wondering, could you guys tell me if my PC would be able to play it?

I know nobody knows the exact specifications that will be required for IV just yet, but im just looking for a vague idea.

If you don't think my PC would be able to run it, can you tell me what i'd need to get in order to play it, and how much i'd expect to play?



Thanks to anyone who can be of any help at all







(By 'Play it' i mean play it comfortably, as though it were on a console, with no skipping and jumping and so forth)

TerrorFirmer

You need to post your video card, that's the most important part - your processor and ram are more then sufficient though.

TerrorFirmer

Ok just looked it up, you have a Geforce 8500GT - unfortunately, if it supports GTAIV, I would imagine it would do so only at low settings at best. The 8500GT is a budget piece, and only marginally faster then the old 6600GT, which really scrapes the bottom of the barrel for new releases.

TerrorFirmer

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

You need to post your video card, that's the most important part - your processor and ram are more then sufficient though.

Any idea how i find out what card i have?


As i say, I'm not too familiar with this kinda thing..

TerrorFirmer

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Ok just looked it up, you have a Geforce 8500GT - unfortunately, if it supports GTAIV, I would imagine it would do so only at low settings at best. The 8500GT is a budget piece, and only marginally faster then the old 6600GT, which really scrapes the bottom of the barrel for new releases.

So can i ask, do you have any idea what I'd need to buy, and how much i'd end up paying?


I appreciate your help, by the way. thank you

TerrorFirmer

Can you open up the side of the case, and take a look at the ratings on the power supply? Or even better, take a picture and post it here - the PSU is probably sufficient enough to take a much better card without having to change the power supply, though a very high end card is probably out of the question. Cards are fairly cheap these days, a card that will run most games at high-ish settings can be hard for 80-90 euro. Example. Of course, the more you spend, the better card you can get, but if money is tight, then the 9600GSO plays most games at high settings at 'normal' resolution and is several times faster then an 8500GT (which, incidentally, will net you about 25-30 euro second hand to add to your budget).

But check out the PSU first.

Sqaull20

Whats your video card?

Everything else is more than fine.

Download gpu z to get info on your video card.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1153/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.2.7.html

If its a Nvidia 8600gt/ Ati HD3650 or above your good to play at medium/lower settings on a 19".Your going to need A HD4850/9800gtx to run mostly everything high settings.

Sqaull20

The game chugs alot when there is lots of stuff on screen on the PS3.Both xbox360 and ps3 have much better video cards than 8500gt, so your going to need to get a decent to play it good.

If thats the only game you are interested in, wait until the game is nearly out in November and get the best card you can get for under €100, probably 8800gt.

Not going ot lie, I'd be a bit weary about opening the PC itself, in fear of causing damage to it


Squall, can you understand this?

Sqaull20

Sqaull20 wrote: »

The game chugs alot when there is lots of stuff on screen on the PS3.Both xbox360 and ps3 have much better video cards than 8500gt, so your going to need to get a decent to play it good.

If thats the only game you are interested in, wait until the game is nearly out in November and get the best card you can get for under €100, probably 8800gt.

Are cards generally easy to obtain/install? I'd really rather not have a crappier version of the game than i should have



i did this test thingy for Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (i think that the full name) and i got this:








failing it obviously isn't a good thing, but does that highlight another problem i'd be likely to run into..?

Sqaull20

Your cpu is more than fine, that test is flawed.Its just going on clockspeed, not taking into account you have a Quad.

Only things that needs to be touched is the graphics card, its very easy to install.You first uninstall the video card driver, then open the case and take it out, then slot in the new one and connect the power cable to give it power.

Go with Terror's advice and sell your 8500gt on adverts, which should get 30 or 35, Ati have a new card coming out " HD4670 " which is suppose to be really fast for under €65.They are saying it will perform the same as 9600gt.Komplett have them instock, but they are always expensive.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=374861

Sqaull20

Sqaull20 wrote: »

Your cpu is more than fine, that test is flawed.Its just going on clockspeed, not taking into account you have a Quad.

Only things that needs to be touched is the graphics card, its very easy to install.You first uninstall the video card driver, then open the case and take it out, then slot in the new one and connect the power cable to give it power.

Go with Terror's advice and sell your 8500gt on adverts, which should get 30 or 35, Ati have a new card coming out " HD4670 " which is suppose to be really fast for under €65.They are saying it will perform the same as 9600gt.Komplett have them instock, but they are always expensive.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=374861

I shall look into that,

But before i leave you alone, i have one final question for you:


If i just stick with what i have (I'd like to avoid the hassle of switching stuff around and so forth as im pretty clueless about this kinda stuff, although i will do it if i have to obviously).. Id i keep my current set up, In your opinion, will it make a big difference to the game as a whole? I'm assuming this being a 'Video' card, it just affects the graphics? will it make much difference if i decide to not bother with it? Is it worth my while buying the game first, seeing what i think and then seeing if its worth the hassle of changing? or if i buy with my current set up and i likely to go blind looking at a bunch of pixelated blocks?


Again, Thank you very much for your help. Truly excellent.

Sqaull20

You could play the game on low settings, it may run ok @ 800 x 600 with everything set to low, but it will look horribile

Sqaull20

Sqaull20 wrote: »

You could play the game on low settings, it may run ok @ 800 x 600 with everything set to low, but it will look horribile

New video card it is then :mad:


Dammit



Well.. I appreciate all your help. Thanks guys. I shall mope around now with that on my mind. I just know its gonna be hassle

MooseJam

I'd buy an 8800GT which are a brilliant card and can be got on Komplett for 109 euro now, they have a few models pick the cheapest one if you do

PogMoThoin

MooseJam wrote: »

I'd buy an 8800GT which are a brilliant card and can be got on Komplett for 109 euro now, they have a few models pick the cheapest one if you do

Or keep an eye on www.adverts.ie for a second hand one. I got one for €80

Sqaull20

8800gt is of course the way to go, super card for its price, but as Terror pointed out your pc's power supply might not the power for that card.

Keep an eye out for the HD4670 it fits the bill as a good all-rounder, with low power requirements, excellent performance for high-ish resolution gaming, HD capability with sound via HDMI and not expensive.The card is rated at 70W TDP and doesnt need a 6 pin power connector, meaning you can slot one card out and the other in and your good to go.It will be only a bit over €60 too with performance near 9600gt/ above HD3850.

GTA 4 biggest problem on the ps3 besides the dodgy frame rate, was Anti Aliasing with those annoying jagged edges, HD4000 chips give brillant FSAA perfromance with little performance hit.I dont know exactly how GTA 4 will perform on the pc, but going by other console ports I would say you could play at medium settings with 4 x AA @ 1280 x 1024 perfectly with your system and HD4670, that would be a big improvment over the PS3 1280 x 630 with dodgy AA.

I opened the PC, took some pictures, closed it again. Here are the pics i took. I don't know if i took pics of the right thing or whatever, but if these are of no use, I'd be happy to take some more.
























(I realise they aren't the best, but i couldnt get decent lighting on them )

Gadgetman496

Your power supply is only 300W & it could do with being increased if you buy a hungry G card.

The noise you're hearing most likely a cable touching the fan or a hard drive noise(God forbid)

Check to make sure all the data cables are connected securely on the hard drive & at the Mobo end. Make sure too that none of the extension cards were unseated while you were investigating.


-

gadgetman496

gadgetman496 wrote: »

Your power supply is only 300W & it could do with being increased if you buy a hungry G card.

The noise you're hearing most likely a cable touching the fan or a hard drive noise(God forbid)

Check to make sure all the data cables are connected securely on the hard drive & at the Mobo end. Make sure too that none of the extension cards were unseated while you were investigating.


-

I actually figured out what it was. Yeah, wire hitting the fan. I thought thats what it would be but just wasn't 100% sure.


So would i still be able to go for that graphics card?

Gadgetman496

These are the Specs for the 4670 suggested earlier & seeing as you don't appear to need extra power for it you might be fine.

Although, 300W is low by today's standards.

Specifications for the HD 4670 :

* 750 MHz core speed
* 1000 MHz memory speed
* 512/1024 MB of DDR2 or GDDR3 memory
* 32 GB/s memory bandwidth
* 320 Stream Processors
* 480 GFLOPs of shader compute power
* 16 TMUs
* UVD2 Video Processing Engine
* 70 W TDP, 55nm Silicon Fab. Process


-

So i take it my PC can't power the 8800gt that was mentioned earlier (typical )


If i go for the HD 4670, in your honest opinion, how good looking is the game likely to be? I dont want to get an additional card and have the hassle of selling the other one and so forth if im going from crap to crap.

In the event that it would be useless, is it possible/expensive to get an better than 300W?

Sqaull20

4670 is barely below the 9600GT which is more expensive and wont require a new psu.

A good psu will cost €50

http://www.memoryc.com/pccomponents/powersupplies/ocz500wstealthxstreamuk.html

Sqaull20

Sqaull20 wrote: »

4670 is barely below the 9600GT which is more expensive and wont require a new psu.

A good psu will cost €50

http://www.memoryc.com/pccomponents/powersupplies/ocz500wstealthxstreamuk.html

How do you mean its 'barely below' the 9600GT?


The only name i've really become familiar with is the 8800GT that has been mentioned a few times. But thats seemingly out of the question at the moment.


OK, If i play GTA IV on the 360 for a few hours, then i switch over and play it on my PC with the 4670, how am i likely to react? Will there be a minor difference? a small but noticeable difference? a huge difference?



This is gonna be the most expensive game i ever play


Also, does anyone know of a decent online store where i can gather the parts required?

Someone mentioned Play.com. Are they reliable?




Also, one more question, in the video posted of a guy showing a HOW TO on changing the graphics cards, his seemed to differ from mine, theres a wire running from my card:





Will that cause problems?



Again, thank you all, i appreciate it

PogMoThoin

Deleted User wrote: »

OK, If i play GTA IV on the 360 for a few hours, then i switch over and play it on my PC with the 4670, how am i likely to react? Will there be a minor difference? a small but noticeable difference? a huge difference?

You can't compare a 360 with a tv and a pc with a monitor, a pc supports a much higher resolution. 360 only supports 720p which is 1280x720. A pc can support much higher than Full HD (1080p) which is 1920x1080. In fact I game at 1290x1200 which is even higher than that. Even on a 17' monitor the resolution of a 360 (1280x720) looks absolute crap, bigger monitor would look even worse. Wiki

Sqaull20

Deleted User wrote: »

How do you mean its 'barely below' the 9600GT?


The only name i've really become familiar with is the 8800GT that has been mentioned a few times. But thats seemingly out of the question at the moment.

8800gt would be about 15% faster than a 9600gt, in some games they are evenly matched others the 8800gt would be a bit quicker.The 4670 going by previews will be about 5 - 10% slower than 9600gt, but it doesnt require a good power supply and its only going to be €60 or so.

This is gonna be the most expensive game i ever play

Not really, you can sell your 8500gt on adverts/ebay for about €30 and your new card will cost about €70 delivered.

Also, does anyone know of a decent online store where i can gather the parts required?

Someone mentioned Play.com. Are they reliable?

Play.com are great for games,dvds,cd's etc but they dont ship hardware to Ireland, dabs.ie and komplett.ie are the most popular, but pixmania and elera are good too.

Also, one more question, in the video posted of a guy showing a HOW TO on changing the graphics cards, his seemed to differ from mine, theres a wire running from my card:

Will that cause problems?

It is likely to be an SLI connector, for connecting two cards together. Since you have only one card, you might not even need to have it plugged in.As with all low end cards, it does not need any extra power. It will get all the power it needs from the motherboard.

jonny72

Also, to take away the fear, go to youtube and look for some videos on how to install a graphics card, you'll find out its actually dead simple.. plus PC's are a lot tougher than you think.

Be very careful when it comes to graphics cards, there are many lemons out there with fancy packaging. Also if someone on here recommends you get say a 9600GT make sure you get a 9600GT and not a 9500GT because there will be a world of difference between the two..

Basically you have a nice PC with a bad graphics card, spend about 100 euros and you'll be able to play any game out there.

The hilarious thing is, if you walked into a normal highstreet shop and asked for a graphics card to play GTA they would've most likely sold you an 8500GT for close to 100 euros.

jonny72

jonny72 wrote: »

Basically you have a nice PC with a bad graphics card, spend about 100 euros and you'll be able to play any game out there.

Yeah but now i think my 300W is causing issues.

PgMoThoin wrote:

You can't compare a 360 with a tv and a pc with a monitor, a pc supports a much higher resolution. 360 only supports 720p which is 1280x720. A pc can support much higher than Full HD (1080p) which is 1920x1080. In fact I game at 1290x1200 which is even higher than that. Even on a 17' monitor the resolution of a 360 (1280x720) looks absolute crap, bigger monitor would look even worse. Wiki

I actually just meant in relation to my own PC. And the talk of I understand that PC's in general have much better graphics, but i meant in my current situation. But "360 only supports 720p which is 1280x720" just confuses me anyway





Anyway, OK... I'm still mildly confused. So let me phrase this question in a much more straightforward way:


If you guys were in my position, what would you do to go about playing the game properly (without using too many technical terms)?

PogMoThoin

What size is your monitor? I mean what resolution are you expecting to game at?

PogMoThoin

PogMoThoin wrote: »

What size is your monitor? I mean what resolution are you expecting to game at?

See the whole resolution thing confuses me. I don't know what the difference is between different resolutions etc. (i assume a bigger number would be better). I'm just not a very technical person. I can use a PC, TV, 360, etc. but I don't know much about them.

My monitor is 19" I do believe. This any help:

PogMoThoin

Ok, 1440x900 isn't a very high resolution in todays terms. The higher the resolution, the more powerful the graphics card required to run the game at a good rate. If you said 22' monitor at 1680x1200 then you'd need a much more powerful card.

Having a 300W Psu is the limiting factor, Opt for the 4670 as it won't require you to change Psu. This should play the game well at that resolution (although the games not actually released yet on pc so there's no way of actually knowing).

The game will look much better on your pc as the resolution will be 1440x900 (think of this as the number of dots on the screen), compare that to the 1280x720 that is the max of your Xbox360. Using the keyboard will take getting used to tho, much better for shooting, but harder for driving.

Good luck,

Pog