So, I have my own PC I'm playing STO on - my daughter, who is now starting to play, needs a video card. Her system itself is quite decent (brand new, in fact) aside from having an onboard video card.
I am looking at a decent budget video card, that will run STO on good settings. Doesn't have to be high, but decent none the less.
With so many options out there, I'm finding it hard to narrow my search down. I'm not concerned if it's nVidia or ATI, as long as it's decent.
These are all working upon the assumption that you have a Dell or HP cheapie box with a very poor power supply which either of these will work with providing you have at least a 400W PSU in the system. If you give more details, and your budget, we could probably give you more options.
Personally I've always been an Nvidia person, I just tend to find their cards and drivers more stable and reliable, although these days the difference with ATI is getting smaller and smaller.
For Nvidia mid-range price cards I'd say atm 8800gt or 9800gt are good buys. You can get one for about 70-90 dollars. The 9800 tend to have slightly less overheating problems, which for STO will be important as the game tends to make Nvidia cards run rather hot, so personally if you can spare the money I'd say go for a 9800.
I've just used new-egg because it's an easy site to compare cards on and they usually have fairly good offers. Just remember when ordering, especially from other sites, that even cards of the same type will vary depending on brand and exact make. So always pay attention to the additional specifications listed below:
The main things to look for are:
- core clock speed - this is only a rough performance measure, but I would aim for around 600mhz or higher
- memory 512mb or 1gb is preferred, 256mb is a on the low end (IMHO)
- memory interface, you'll want 256-bit if you can get it, hence the cards I linked above
- brand - for Nvidia cards I usually prefer ASUS or Zotac because I know they're good, for ATI I only know Sapphire as 'good'
ATI cards, especially the older series have a tendency to provide lower memory interfaces, usually 64-bit or 128-bit, while they include 512mb or 1gb of Video memory, half or more of which is wasted because the interface is too slow to properly utilize that much memory.
If you were looking for a cheaper card around the 50-60 dollar pricerange, you could try looking for perhaps an Nvidia 9600, 8600 or possibly a 9400. They should run STO at medium graphics well enough, but they're only worth it if you can get them cheaply, otherwise the other cards are a better deal overall.
Edit: very important thing I almost forgot - make sure you check that your Motherboard is compatible with a PCI-express card. Although I highly doubt it wouldn't be since you say it's new, you want to be safe rather than sorry.
Also the poster above makes a good point on the Power Supply Unit, you'll want a PSU of at least 500W (give or take and depending on brand) to run with a dedicated graphics card. If the PSU is of a non-reputable brand and/or much lower wattage than that you might need to upgrade that as well or you could be looking at problems with your system rebooting due to lack of power.
Comments
(recommended settings - 1280x1024 - dual-core 2.6ghz - 2gb RAM)
XFX HD-465X-YAF2 Radeon HD 4650 512MB - $54.99 to $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150393
http://www.frys.com/product/5721132?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/XFX+-+ATI+RADEON+HD+4650+1GB+DDR2+PCI+Express+Graphics+Card/9254585.p?id=1218069451494&skuId=9254585&st=4650&cp=1&lp=1
EVGA 512-P3-1240-LR GeForce GT 240 512MB - $99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130533
http://www.frys.com/product/6114079?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
These are all working upon the assumption that you have a Dell or HP cheapie box with a very poor power supply which either of these will work with providing you have at least a 400W PSU in the system. If you give more details, and your budget, we could probably give you more options.
For Nvidia mid-range price cards I'd say atm 8800gt or 9800gt are good buys. You can get one for about 70-90 dollars. The 9800 tend to have slightly less overheating problems, which for STO will be important as the game tends to make Nvidia cards run rather hot, so personally if you can spare the money I'd say go for a 9800.
Examples of both on newegg are:
the 8800: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130545&cm_re=8800-_-14-130-545-_-Product
the 9800: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121352&cm_re=9800gt-_-14-121-352-_-Product
Although I don't know as much about ATI cards, their high 4800 cards are pretty good - the only comparable mid-price card I could find though is this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102824
I've just used new-egg because it's an easy site to compare cards on and they usually have fairly good offers. Just remember when ordering, especially from other sites, that even cards of the same type will vary depending on brand and exact make. So always pay attention to the additional specifications listed below:
The main things to look for are:
- core clock speed - this is only a rough performance measure, but I would aim for around 600mhz or higher
- memory 512mb or 1gb is preferred, 256mb is a on the low end (IMHO)
- memory interface, you'll want 256-bit if you can get it, hence the cards I linked above
- brand - for Nvidia cards I usually prefer ASUS or Zotac because I know they're good, for ATI I only know Sapphire as 'good'
ATI cards, especially the older series have a tendency to provide lower memory interfaces, usually 64-bit or 128-bit, while they include 512mb or 1gb of Video memory, half or more of which is wasted because the interface is too slow to properly utilize that much memory.
If you were looking for a cheaper card around the 50-60 dollar pricerange, you could try looking for perhaps an Nvidia 9600, 8600 or possibly a 9400. They should run STO at medium graphics well enough, but they're only worth it if you can get them cheaply, otherwise the other cards are a better deal overall.
Edit: very important thing I almost forgot - make sure you check that your Motherboard is compatible with a PCI-express card. Although I highly doubt it wouldn't be since you say it's new, you want to be safe rather than sorry.
Also the poster above makes a good point on the Power Supply Unit, you'll want a PSU of at least 500W (give or take and depending on brand) to run with a dedicated graphics card. If the PSU is of a non-reputable brand and/or much lower wattage than that you might need to upgrade that as well or you could be looking at problems with your system rebooting due to lack of power.