The Church of Alvis

So I have an Acer X1300
http://support.acer.com/us/en/acerpanam ... 00nv.shtml

Which I bought two years ago when my old PC failed to continue to work. It has served me well and for WoW it has been fine unmodified. However the graphics requirements for SWTOR make it unusable. The rest of the stuff passes the bar, so if I can just replace the video card I would prefer that to buying/building a new PC outright.

Now the problem is that the PC itself is not very big and so in order to upgrade the video card I have to get what is a low profile PCE card.

The SWTOR suggested video cards are described as:

Star Wars: The Old Republic requires a video card that has a minimum of 256MB of on-board RAM as well as support for Shader 3.0 or better. Examples include:

ATI X1800 or better
nVidia 7800 or better
Intel 4100 Integrated Graphics or better

http://www.swtor.com/info/faq#171060

Looking around I realize I don't have a good easy way to compare video cards to know that if any of the low profile PCE cards I see are up to that standard. For example my PC currently has a GeForce 9200 which is apparently worse(by quite some level) than a 7800. So If I could get some guidance I would really appreciate it. Here is a card I think exceeds the recommended minimums. Is it?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102874

If you find other cards my price constraint should not exceed $150. At that point I should look at just buying a new PC.

Yes that would run SWTOR.

I don't know about it running on a 220w PSU though, that sounds like it would really be pushing it.

Kirb wrote:Yes that would run SWTOR.

I don't know about it running on a 220w PSU though, that sounds like it would really be pushing it.

Good point. I ran your system through http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/to ... index.html and, even with a crappy video card, a 220w PSU isn't enough. Also, chances are your current power supply doesn't have the right connectors for a modern video card.

Well if it is now trying to replace a power supply and a video card I'm entering the turf of just get a new PC and keep my current to give to my daughter for silly kid stuff.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6883103371

How would this be?

Never mind that last one. reviews seem to poo poo it.

Let me dig in my basement before you do anything. I'm not sure I have a good card but I think I have an old functional power supply or two that might be sufficient to allow you to just upgrade the card now.

Furiel wrote:Let me dig in my basement before you do anything. I'm not sure I have a good card but I think I have an old functional power supply or two that might be sufficient to allow you to just upgrade the card now.

The problem is the PC I'm on right now is really small, so putting most components into it is like putting linebackers in a Yugo*.

*Ziinng: 80s Auto reference!

Bulwark and I are gonna shop for parts tomorrow and start building a new machine and this PC can be Zoe's first PC when I'm confident she won't try to feed it crackers.

Blackferne wrote: Bulwark and I are gonna shop for parts tomorrow and start building a new machine and this PC can be Zoe's first PC when I'm confident she won't try to feed it crackers.

Yeah, too much sodium...

I'm going to have a 5850 extra here in a week or so. Upgrading to a 6950/70.

Happyclam wrote:I'm going to have a 5850 extra here in a week or so. Upgrading to a 6950/70.

If you are wanting it to find a good home, Bulwark and I have computer parts coming this week to assemble a new PC. Let me know.

In case anyone is curious what we put together

Reusing my old case.

Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819116370

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131616

Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817371016

DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827135204
(BTW we saw a blu-ray burner for 64 bucks)

HDD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136319

RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231308

Total Cost:
$343.17 with shipping.

Y no SSD?

Furiel wrote:Y no SSD?

Budget mostly.

Blackferne wrote:

Furiel wrote:Y no SSD?

Budget mostly.

Time is money son. And with a SSD you're PC will boot in literally seconds. Get a small SSD drive big enough to put the OS on and that's it, then use a regular HD for program loads and data storage. A friend did that with his last PC and it's amazing. I fully intend to do the same next PC tweak/upgrade.

Furiel wrote:

Blackferne wrote:

Furiel wrote:Y no SSD?

Budget mostly.

Time is money son. And with a SSD you're PC will boot in literally seconds. Get a small SSD drive big enough to put the OS on and that's it, then use a regular HD for program loads and data storage. A friend did that with his last PC and it's amazing. I fully intend to do the same next PC tweak/upgrade.

Interesting. The motherboard has an upper limit of 3GB/s data transfer so I'm not sure if that would cap the improvement.

An SSD will saturate SATA 3GB pretty easily. Programs (read: games) load much quicker. That being said, if you're gonna go SSD, you should probably get a MB that has SATA 6GB.

Raikir wrote:An SSD will saturate SATA 3GB pretty easily. Programs (read: games) load much quicker. That being said, if you're gonna go SSD, you should probably get a MB that has SATA 6GB.

I'm not really that concerned about load speeds enough to rework my order to do that.

Send me an address via PM, Joun. I should be able to mail it off by the end of the week.

I may be doing a thread like this in the near future. I'm debating just building a whole new rig for TOR.

And just out of curiosity is there a video card that would allow the game to be played on a 55" tv? Without it looking like ass of course.

Most mid range cards ($100-150) can handle 1920x1080 (1080p) on medium to high settings with no problem. TOR is not that demanding graphically.

Raikir wrote:Most mid range cards ($100-150) can handle 1920x1080 (1080p) on medium to high settings with no problem. TOR is not that demanding graphically.

assuming the card has HDMI (which most do these days) or the TV has AGP input (which many do these days).

Socket 775? Ouch...

My 460GTX handles ToR fine at 1680x1050, even in it's current Beta condition. A 5750 or higher ATI/AMD card should be fine as well. Though there is no AA in the Beta builds so far (the new one might have it, should know in a few days) so it's hard to tell how it will really run.


As for playing on 55" TV, it will look a bit grainy because the pixel pitch of the TV is much larger than the monitor, but if you're far enough away, it should be acceptable. Honestly, I'd rather go 3 x 27" LCD 1080p Panoramic.

I use this site to compare card stats and see how they rate. http://www.gpureview.com/

have you looked inside the computer infront of you? you might be able to find one there.