Unreal Tournament on PC

[Nitro89]

my mate just got unreal tournament on his brand new Packard Bell Gaming PC,
- Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz, 2394 MHz
- GeForce 8400 GS 256mb
- 3GB RAM
- Windows Vista Premium

but the game graphics are not as good as its supposed to be, it has trouble on high settings and doesn't look as good as it should do especially for a PC built for gaming, is this due to the graphics card or RAM?

[cd090580]

Answer is here: Windows Vista Premium

[Nitro89]

Vista ain't even that bad

[cd090580]

But it's really bad for old games

[SIRCOOKS]

Answer is here: Windows Vista Premium

[aedipuss]

the 8400 is pretty bottom of the barrel for vista gaming. they are about a $25.00 vid card. an 8800 would be nice or at least an 8600gt as it's got about 8 times the processing power of a 8400.

[poisondeathray]

Is it UT1 (the original)? or UT3?

You should be able to play UT1 with that graphics card, but you will have to turn down the settings/eye candy/resolution for UT3

[Nitro89]

its UT3. ive found a way top make it look really nice without much lag, basically ive stuck it on a lower resolution but upped the graphics. ive had to experiment and messed around with it a bit though. his processor power helped. what would be an affordable yet decent graphics card? ive know the 8800 ultra is the best atm, but i dont wanna splash that kinda cash on a graphics card tbh.

[poisondeathray]

What is your price range?

[Nitro89]

hmm around £150 ($300 exchange rate). i was looking at ebuyer as they seem to be fairly cheap.

for the card, i basically wanna run the game on really high settings and a high resolution. ofcourse im no expert on graphics cards.

[poisondeathray]

There are 100's of review sites out there for video cards, you might want to check a few out to make an informed decision.

I'm going to assume you have a free pci-e slot open

In your price range ($250-300), for a new card, I would get the Nvidia 8800GT 512MB version. There are many variants, some factory overclocked (more costly), and about 50 different companies that rebrand them from Nvidia's reference design.

Keep in mind, for some games like Crysis, you won't be able to play >1600x1200 with decent frame rates even with 3x8800 Ultra SLI. If you can wait, it might be a good idea to check out what the next generation of cards brings performance wise (and price drops to the current crop)

The other option is to look on e-bay for cards. People are unloading their cards for cheap in anticipation of the next generation cards (Nvidia is supposed to release 9XXX series soon, and have already released 9600GT a few days ago)

Good luck

[Nitro89]

yeah i saw there where loads of different versions of the 8800 cards. its more or double the power of my card atm from what i saw. they just about hit my price margins as well. thanks.

[TheFamilyMan]

Packard Bell Gaming PC... GeForce 8400 GS 256mb

I hate to say this, but this is practically an oxymoron. I really pisses me off when companies tout their products as a "gaming PC" that will only play, at best, contemporary games at minimum image quality settings. At minimum, I suggest either the ATI 3850 or nVidia 9600gt cards if you really want a decent gaming rig, both are about at $180 US right now. Good Luck!

[Nitro89]

he needs a nice one probably for around £100, which Nvidia graphics card is good value and high quality?

[Abbadon]

Windows 2000 or Windows XP (with certain services and packages removed) will provide better performace, but, if your friend can't live without Vista, he can get a GeForce 8600 Video card.