Graphics card to run Sacred 2?

[Unreal Warfare 0]

Having played Sacred 2 on Xbox 360 (and absolutely loving it) I found a complete copy of Sacred 2 Collectors Edition for PC in my local game store today for £9.99 so thought I'd pick it up.

 

Now currently my PC has no graphics card as my last one decided to just die overnight. The game is currently installed and will run on minimal settings.

 

So what (PCIE) graphics card would you guys reccomend for playing Sacred 2 on PC? The game reccomends an 8800 but I'm wondering if something more powerful (or modern) will be better as if possible I would like to install the enhanced graphics included with the collectors edition.

 

Basically I want to try and get as much out of the graphics as I can with what I've got.

 

Currently my PC is running:

 

AMD Phenom x3 8250e (1.9x3)

3gb RAM

Nvidia GeForce 8200 (on board)

Windows Vista (basic)

 

Please state a reccomended PSU wattage to run the card aswell. I currently just have a DVD drive and HDD in my PC.

 

Currently only card suggestions are helpful (I'm aware the CPU isn't the strongest etc, though it will run games like UT3 and R6V2 etc alongside a ATI X1950). I have limited funds and a replacement card is the only thing on the agenda for my PC, for now.

 

Thanks.

Edited November 26, 2010 by Unreal Warfare

[Dragon Brother 619]

Well, I have it run fairly comfortably on a ATI mobility 3650 on my laptop so I would say you could run it on anything thats comparable to or better than that.

[locolagarto 15]

I guess my recommendation is buy the best you can afford right now.

 

As far as affordable power. I would recommend this cards

 

Nvidia

 

Anything in the GTX 2XX series. I have a GTX260 and while the latest and greatest are in the GTX4XX series the price is still too high.

 

ATI

 

anything in the 4800, 4900, 5500 or 5600 series.

 

all of these cards can be found in the $75us - $100us range.

 

 

Any of these cards will run with a 500w or better power supply

[Unreal Warfare 0]

So in general a HD oriented card is my best option then?

 

Which will work in tandem with my AMD processor better? Nvidia or ATI?

 

And which cards are Sacred 2 optimised for?

 

Thanks.

Edited November 26, 2010 by Unreal Warfare

[wolfie2kX 528]

So in general a HD oriented card is my best option then?

 

Which will work in tandem with my AMD processor better? Nvidia or ATI?

 

And which cards are Sacred 2 optimised for?

 

Thanks.

 

it doesn't matter really as long as the card meets the minimum requirements at the very least. Getting a better card is even better.

 

AMD now owns ATI - but there's no guarantee it would work any better than if it had an Nvidia card.

 

Nvidia does have one thing that AMD/ATI cards don't as yet support - PHYSX. Not that it matters all that much - I have all that stuff turned off.

[Sniked111 0]

I have got ATI 4870 and all games work smoothly. A good universal card at low price.

Today I wanted to check out if PhysX gives any significant changes... Just look at all of these leaves in the air! But I have only 2-3 fps... You'd better buy a NVIDIA card.

Edited November 27, 2010 by Sniked111

[Xeneonic 0]

Nvidia does have one thing that AMD/ATI cards don't as yet support - PHYSX. Not that it matters all that much - I have all that stuff turned off.

I'll add a little technical information here in layman's terms.

 

A car engine uses resources to drive, at a certain threshold, the engine stops to make the car go faster (Maximum speed)

Air conditioning in a car eats up engine resources, the maximum speed drops (Depending on quality of air conditioning and the engine, can be quite significant)

 

 

A graphics card uses resources to accelerate 3D environments, at a certain threshold, the graphics card stops accelerating 3D environments (Maximum FPS achieved)

PhysX in the graphics card eats up resources, the maximum FPS drops (Depending on quality of graphics card, and the game's optimalization of using PhysX, or the amount, just like setting airconditioning to 15 celcius or 25)

 

 

Now this is a very rough explanation, but I'm sure it at least shed some light. It's the same with Sacred, you focus on both defense and offense at the same time, you know you'll never do as much damage than a full damage dealer, or receive little damage than a full tank.

 

What you should know is, PhysX is poorly implementated. The visual effects are pretty astounding and a massive difference (Yes they are!), but the price at which the FPS drops is very significant. You would definitely NEED a NVidia card in the 4XX range to run Sacred 2 smoothly with PhysX on and anti aliasing at 8x and resolution 1920x1080 (Or even higher if you had that in mind?). If you drop physx, a card in the 2XX would be sufficient.

 

Also keep in mind, that, at least with patch 2.40 and 2.43, Sacred 2 client is much more unstable with PhysX ON (Crashes quite a lot). I don't know if that's changed in the expansion....

 

Remember that PhysX only works on NVidia cards, and it won't work on ATI cards for a long while to come. Also remember that PhysX work better in some games than others (And some games make use of it more than others, andsoforth)

 

And which cards are Sacred 2 optimised for?

 

Sacred 2 was sponsored by NVidia, they helped with the development and the PhysX part of it. AMD/ATI wasn't involved at all. However, I personally run a ATI card (The most powerful one currently) at 100 FPS in the most busy area's at highest settings, elite graphics, 1920x1080. Smooth as butter.

 

 

100 FPS is overkill, some people would say 30 is fine, I'd like to stick with 50 myself (To prevent any FPS drops that make it unplayable).

I also have a PC with a NVidia 8800 GT, in example, that card runs the very same settings above at only 15-23 FPS. With PhysX OFF. So if you want highest settings and playable at that, take a card in the medium 2XX rate for NVidia, or mid 4XXX-5XXX ATI cards.

 

Remember that the game may still crash from occassion, but that's not related to your graphics card, it's just Sacred 2 instability (Can take 1-2-3-4-5 hours before it crashes though)

[Unreal Warfare 0]

Thankyou!

[Knuckles 904]

Figured I'd give you my set-up just as a comparison

 

GTX285

1M Ram

1920x1080

Physx enabled

4x AA

All gfx settings maxed (Only weather is off - hard to take wiki pics in the rain)

 

I haven't looked to see what my FPS is but have never seen any issues with performance at all. Initially I was going to go dual GTX285 in SLI but so far have not seen the need to do so.

[Unreal Warfare 0]

Thanks to my wonderful wife I'm getting a nice custom built PC for christmas! Yay me (kind of I have to pay half of it hahaha)!

 

This is what I have in mind (shopped around a bit for UK online retailers and come across this custom setup I could get) as she's not fussed too much what I spend as long as I don't go stupidly overboard.

 

AMD Phenom II x6 1090T

ATI HD5770 x2 (Crossfired)

ASUS M4A77TD Pro Motherboard (Crossfire ready, AM3 socket)

OCZ 700W Stealth Extreme PSU

500GB HDD

4GB Corsair (1333mhz) DDR3 RAM (1 stick, get more next year)

Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

 

For £773.21

 

Bargain or do you think I could do better? Want to keep it lower than £800 (believe me I wanted to throw so much more on top but I can get the rest later).

 

Also will I be alright with stock cooling for now (until next year) or should I invest in some custom cooling?

[locolagarto 15]

Thanks to my wonderful wife I'm getting a nice custom built PC for christmas! Yay me (kind of I have to pay half of it hahaha)!

 

This is what I have in mind (shopped around a bit for UK online retailers and come across this custom setup I could get) as she's not fussed too much what I spend as long as I don't go stupidly overboard.

 

AMD Phenom II x6 1090T

ATI HD5770 x2 (Crossfired)

ASUS M4A77TD Pro Motherboard (Crossfire ready, AM3 socket)

OCZ 700W Stealth Extreme PSU

500GB HDD

4GB Corsair (1333mhz) DDR3 RAM (1 stick, get more next year)

Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

 

For £773.21

 

Bargain or do you think I could do better? Want to keep it lower than £800 (believe me I wanted to throw so much more on top but I can get the rest later).

 

Also will I be alright with stock cooling for now (until next year) or should I invest in some custom cooling?

 

 

I had a basic Case with 2 exit cooling fans and 1 input fan and a nice CPU fan and when I went dual GFX it overheated fast. I ended up going with an Antec Nine Hundred and two mid-tower Case and that really cooled things off well. Really well! So I spent $120us on a case but save all my gear from heat and the cost of custom cooling system. I run on the cool side of average temps with an overclocked set up and I am happy

 

so make sure that system has a good case and you should be good

[Unreal Warfare 0]

I had a basic Case with 2 exit cooling fans and 1 input fan and a nice CPU fan and when I went dual GFX it overheated fast. I ended up going with an Antec Nine Hundred and two mid-tower Case and that really cooled things off well. Really well! So I spent $120us on a case but save all my gear from heat and the cost of custom cooling system. I run on the cool side of average temps with an overclocked set up and I am happy

 

so make sure that system has a good case and you should be good

 

This one?

 

 

I won't be overclocking for a while, not until the setup is paid for, out of warranty, etc. Just going to run it stock for now which should be more than enough for the time being.

 

Also do you think going 6 core is overkill? Should I go for quad core (AMD 970 Black Edition 4x3.5ghz) instead and reduce the price somewhat to supplement the cost of a case?

Edited December 5, 2010 by Unreal Warfare

[Dragon Brother 619]

I had a basic Case with 2 exit cooling fans and 1 input fan and a nice CPU fan and when I went dual GFX it overheated fast. I ended up going with an Antec Nine Hundred and two mid-tower Case and that really cooled things off well. Really well! So I spent $120us on a case but save all my gear from heat and the cost of custom cooling system. I run on the cool side of average temps with an overclocked set up and I am happy

 

so make sure that system has a good case and you should be good

 

This one?

 

 

I won't be overclocking for a while, not until the setup is paid for, out of warranty, etc. Just going to run it stock for now which should be more than enough for the time being.

 

Also do you think going 6 core is overkill? Should I go for quad core (AMD 970 Black Edition 4x3.5ghz) instead and reduce the price somewhat to supplement the cost of a case?

For gaming, a quad core will be easily enough and theres probably no need to go as high as the 970. If you can find a 955 BE you can easily overclock it to the 970's level as a minimum and save a little money. Also, you are better of buying one better graphics card that costs more than two not as good. One of the new gen AMD cards like the 6850/6870 perform amazingly well and are really cheap at the moment, plus if you ever buy a second one for crossfire later they scale much better than previous generation ATI/AMD cards.

 

Lowering the processor to the quadcore will up the budget for the graphics card which is what will have the most effect on your gaming experience and allow you to get the most for your money.

 

Hope it helps

[Unreal Warfare 0]

For gaming, a quad core will be easily enough and theres probably no need to go as high as the 970. If you can find a 955 BE you can easily overclock it to the 970's level as a minimum and save a little money. Also, you are better of buying one better graphics card that costs more than two not as good. One of the new gen AMD cards like the 6850/6870 perform amazingly well and are really cheap at the moment, plus if you ever buy a second one for crossfire later they scale much better than previous generation ATI/AMD cards.

 

Lowering the processor to the quadcore will up the budget for the graphics card which is what will have the most effect on your gaming experience and allow you to get the most for your money.

 

Hope it helps

 

 

Yeah that sounds like a decent idea. I have emailed the company I got the last quote from to see if I can retain the Crossfire board and just have one better GPU in the setup, aswell as remove the DVD drive from the system aswell (seems I have one already). Currently I have the cost at around £746.38 going down to the 955BE quad core (including the dual HD5770s). I want to keep it around the same price though if not cheaper (£800 is my limit).

 

Computer Case Antec Nine Hundred Gamers Case - Black

CPU AMD Phenom II X4 955 (4 x 3.2 GHz) AM3 8MB - Black Edition

CPU Heatsink AMD Heatsink & Fan

Memory Corsair 4GB XMS3 PC3-10666 1333MHz (1x4GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR3)

Graphics Card 2 x ATI Radeon HD 5770 - 1 GB - DVI/VGA/HDMI (ASUS) CrossFireX Setup

Motherboard Asus M4A77TD Pro (AMD 770) AM3

Sound Card Motherboard Integrated 5.1 Sound

Networking Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)

USB Ports 4 x USB 2.0 Ports

Power Supply OCZ 700W Stealth XStream - Low Noise

Case Wiring Professional Standard

Hard Drive #1 250 GB SATA-II 8MB (FREE UPGRADE TO 500GB BEFORE 11:59 PM ON 14-12-10)

Optical Drive #1 Sony (DDU1675A) 16x DVD-ROM Silver (IDE)

Operating System #1 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 BIT (Genuine DVD & COA Included)

Backup Software Windows Backup

Free Gift FREE - 6 Port Surge Protection

 

They do have HD6950/6870's which is what I think I'll look at investing in if the price is right. If not though I think I'll stick with the dual HD5770's (I read a Crossfire review of them and they performed fairly well and are at least DX11 & HDMI) simply because it does get me started on a Crossfire setup (which is what I'm mainly after). Everywhere else I've looked hasn't really offered comparable prices in terms of what I'm after. Where they have offered Crossfire it's been more expensive by at least £100, sometimes with only one GPU. I can always upgrade the GPU's later down the line right (like next Christmas haha)?

Edited December 5, 2010 by Unreal Warfare

[Dragon Brother 619]

They do have HD6950/6870's which is what I think I'll look at investing in if the price is right. If not though I think I'll stick with the dual HD5770's (I read a Crossfire review of them and they performed fairly well and are at least DX11 & HDMI) simply because it does get me started on a Crossfire setup (which is what I'm mainly after). Everywhere else I've looked hasn't really offered comparable prices in terms of what I'm after. Where they have offered Crossfire it's been more expensive by at least £100, sometimes with only one GPU. I can always upgrade the GPU's later down the line right (like next Christmas haha)?

 

6950 or 6850...? I thought the 6950 wasnt out yet. But, I really recomment getting 1 better card, like the 6850/6870. Firstly, there will be little difference between the 2 5770s and the other cards. 6850 will be a bit worse, and 6870 about even with, however, 1 as good card now means, like you said, when you have some more cash next xmas you can just pop in another one and get much better performance. In fact, 2x6850 is better than nvidias current flagship the GTX 580. Pretty decent

[Unreal Warfare 0]

6950 or 6850...? I thought the 6950 wasnt out yet. But, I really recomment getting 1 better card, like the 6850/6870. Firstly, there will be little difference between the 2 5770s and the other cards. 6850 will be a bit worse, and 6870 about even with, however, 1 as good card now means, like you said, when you have some more cash next xmas you can just pop in another one and get much better performance. In fact, 2x6850 is better than nvidias current flagship the GTX 580. Pretty decent

 

Typo sorry. Meant 6850!

 

I do understand your point, and do agree with it, but will go with what I can get for now (my wifes buying it on Wednesday before she goes away to China, so not much time left to shop around! Lol). Still waiting for a reply seems it's the weekend so I'll see what they say about it hopefully tomorrow.

 

If you have any reccommendations for online retailers in the UK I can check out to compare more prices please do share.

 

Thanks for your time and advice. Much appreciated!

[Dragon Brother 619]

If you can hold out and only buy one better card for now then I recommend it, however I completely understand wanting the best you can get now. Online UK stores...I dont know to be honest, in Australia we have certain websites that allow you to search for a product and it will give you a list of sites in order of lowest price to highest...if you can find anything like that it may be useful.

[Unreal Warfare 0]

I'm not allowed to remove the DVD drive from the setup (apparently it complicates testing) but was told I could opt for one GPU on a Crossfire board.

 

So below is all of my quotes so far, including the Dual GPU Crossfire setup, cheapest to most expensive.

 

Computer Case Antec Nine Hundred Gamers Case - Black

CPU AMD Phenom II X4 955 (4 x 3.2 GHz) AM3 8MB - Black Edition

CPU Heatsink AMD Heatsink & Fan

Memory Corsair 4GB XMS3 PC3-10666 1333MHz (1x4GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR3)

Graphics Card 2 x ATI Radeon HD 5770 - 1 GB - DVI/VGA/HDMI (ASUS) CrossFireX Setup

Motherboard Asus M4A77TD Pro (AMD 770) AM3

Sound Card Motherboard Integrated 5.1 Sound

Networking Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)

USB Ports 4 x USB 2.0 Ports

Power Supply OCZ 700W Stealth XStream - Low Noise

Case Wiring Professional Standard

Hard Drive #1 250 GB SATA-II 8MB (FREE UPGRADE TO 500GB BEFORE 11:59 PM ON 14-12-10)

Optical Drive #1 Sony (DDU1675A) 16x DVD-ROM Silver (IDE)

Operating System #1 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 BIT (Genuine DVD & COA Included)

Backup Software Windows Backup

Free Gift FREE - 6 Port Surge Protection

 

£746.38

 

Computer Case Antec Nine Hundred Gamers Case - Black

CPU AMD Phenom II X4 955 (4 x 3.2 GHz) AM3 8MB - Black Edition

CPU Heatsink AMD Heatsink & Fan

Memory Corsair 4GB XMS3 PC3-10666 1333MHz (1x4GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR3)

Graphics Card ATI Radeon HD 6850 OC - 1 GB - DVI/VGA/HDMI/DP (Asus)

Motherboard Asus M4A77TD Pro (AMD 770) AM3

Sound Card Motherboard Integrated 5.1 Sound

Networking Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)

USB Ports 4 x USB 2.0 Ports

Power Supply OCZ 700W Stealth XStream - Low Noise

Case Wiring Professional Standard

Hard Drive #1 250 GB SATA-II 8MB (FREE UPGRADE TO 500GB BEFORE 11:59 PM ON 14-12-10)

Optical Drive #1 Sony (DDU1675A) 16x DVD-ROM Silver (IDE)

Operating System #1 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 BIT (Genuine DVD & COA Included)

Backup Software Windows Backup

Free Gift FREE - 6 Port Surge Protection

 

£752.24

 

Computer Case Antec Nine Hundred Gamers Case - Black

CPU AMD Phenom II X4 955 (4 x 3.2 GHz) AM3 8MB - Black Edition

CPU Heatsink AMD Heatsink & Fan

Memory Corsair 4GB XMS3 PC3-10666 1333MHz (1x4GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR3)

Graphics Card ATI Radeon HD 6870 - 1 GB - DVI/VGA/HDMI/mDP (Sapphire)

Motherboard Asus M4A77TD Pro (AMD 770) AM3

Sound Card Motherboard Integrated 5.1 Sound

Networking Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)

USB Ports 4 x USB 2.0 Ports

Power Supply OCZ 700W Stealth XStream - Low Noise

Case Wiring Professional Standard

Hard Drive #1 250 GB SATA-II 8MB (FREE UPGRADE TO 500GB BEFORE 11:59 PM ON 14-12-10)

Optical Drive #1 Sony (DDU1675A) 16x DVD-ROM Silver (IDE)

Operating System #1 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 BIT (Genuine DVD & COA Included)

Backup Software Windows Backup

Free Gift FREE - 6 Port Surge Protection

 

£812.10

Edited December 6, 2010 by Unreal Warfare

[Dragon Brother 619]

The build with 1 6850 is more expensive than 2 5770's:) A quick google of prices for one uk website suggest buying them separately a 5770 costs ~100 euro and a 6850 costs 150 euro. So 2 5770s would be ~200 euro...ergo 1 6850 is cheaper, even a 6870 costs less than that...

 

Look:

5770 prices

6850 prices

6870 prices

[Unreal Warfare 0]

The build with 1 6850 is more expensive than 2 5770's:)

 

I know. This is why I feel like banging my head on a wall. (ouch)