good vid card for Warcraft 3...

[Brannon]

I am in the process of building my latest system on a little bit of a budget and I need to find a card that will run Warfcraft 3 well. My friends and I play large games and one thing that we have noticed is that larger games seem to lag more due to performance (duh!). Here are the (performance) parts I have so far:

Asus 7v8x w/ AMD XP 2100+
512mb PC2700
Western Digital 120gb SE (8mb Buffer)

The goal is to find a video card that will run the game well with out the choppy battles and also get the card for a decent price (hopefully under $150). Is this too much to ask for too little a price?

 

[BFG10K]

A Radeon 9500 Pro should do the trick although it does depend on what resolution you run the game at. If you want something like 1600 x 1200 or higher you'll need a 9700 Pro.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
A Radeon 9500 Pro should do the trick although it does depend on what resolution you run the game at. If you want something like 1600 x 1200 or higher you'll need a 9700 Pro.

Actually a GF4 will run WC3 at 1600x1200x32 with everything maxed out as long as you have a decent CPU, which he does. I ran 1600x1200x32 with a GF3 OC'd to Ti500 speeds with some stuttering in huge battles. No stuttering at all with a GF4 Ti4200 turbo past Ti4600 speeds, and the 9700pro I'm running now is just overkill. If you can find a 9500pro for $150 go for that, otherwise get a 128MB GF4.

Chiz

 

[EdipisReks]

lets remember that this is BFG we're talking about, and his definition of "running a game" is sometimes different than that of the rest of us .

 

[KingofFah]

lol, I would have said GF3ti500, but if you say it glitches, then get a ti4200 or 9500pro

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: KingofFah
lol, I would have said GF3ti500, but if you say it glitches, then get a ti4200 or 9500pro

No, there aren't "glitches" there's just a stutter when you scroll across the map that wasn't even noticeable to me until I got a Ti4200. In very large games (3 v 3 or 2 v 2 with lotsa magic), I'd notice dropped frames, but nothing unbearable. Could still micro easily, but once I got the Ti4200 there was no choppiness at all, even in the largest battles with tons of auras and spells. 9700pro doesn't add much to the mix, other than being able to run at the same frame rates with AF on. I personally don't like AA in WC3 as it tends to blur the units, but AF looks nice.

Chiz

 

[KingofFah]

Yeah, I use bad terminology. When I see a game stutter like what you described I call it glitching. If that is the case, then I would definitely say the ti500 if you are watching your pennies.

 

[pillage2001]

I'm running a 8500LE and it's smooth play all the way at 1024x768 with max settings. YOu might wanna increase the budget a little and get a 9500pro as indicated by others.