GTA 4 Graphics Card

[kt88seamp]

I am shopping for a new graphics card. I am looking to turn all the detail settings up as high as they will go, at a resolution of 1680 x 1050, in GTA 4. I have tried both an ATI X2 card and an ATI crossfire configuration. They both made the game perform horribly. I have learned that you need at least 1.5GB of video ram to turn the draw distance all the way up to 100. This Newegg link contains a card I am looking at. I looks promising, but I want to run it by you guys before I dig out the MasterCard.

The specs of my system are:

- 800 watt Antec PSU

- Gigabyte X48-DS5 motherboard (brand new)

- Intel Quad Core 2.66 GhZ

- 3GB DDR2 1200 RAM

- 80GB hard drive (space is not important for me, I use removable drives for storage)

- LG DVD/RW drive

- Sound Blaster X-FI PCI sound card

- Linksys wireless G PCI card

At present I am running this graphics card (newegg link) in my system. It plays GTA 4 well with most of the settings well above medium, but still not near the max.

Edited April 4, 2009 by kt88seamp

[WRX22B1998]

if you tried a X2 and crossfire and it performed horribly, how can you expect better from a single 4870 ? just wondering lol.

[kt88seamp]

How can you expect better from a single 4870 ? just wondering lol.

A single is not the same as a double. I tried both a crossfire and a double card, same sort of thing. I even one time had the card in my system (a middle of the road 4850) right now in a crossfire and GTA 4 did not like it! GTA 4 does not like doubles, which is a problem Rockstar must fix!

Edited April 5, 2009 by kt88seamp

[WRX22B1998]

yeah but how can you expect BETTER from a single 4870. so you tried a 4850X2 and also a second 4850 in crossfire ???

[kt88seamp]

I tested a 4850 (my current card) in crossfire. I also on a separate occasion tested a 4870 x2 with the same ugly results.

And as i said before GTA4 runs fine with my current card with the settings lower than max. I am looking at the single 4870 with 2GB of ram so I can up all the settings.

Edited April 5, 2009 by kt88seamp

[_Ray]

I am shopping for a new graphics card. I am looking to turn all the detail settings up as high as they will go, at a resolution of 1680 x 1050, in GTA 4. I have tried both an ATI X2 card and an ATI crossfire configuration. They both made the game perform horribly. I have learned that you need at least 1.5GB of video ram to turn the draw distance all the way up to 100. This Newegg link contains a card I am looking at. I looks promising, but I want to run it by you guys before I dig out the MasterCard.

The specs of my system are:

- 800 watt Antec PSU

- Gigabyte X48-DS5 motherboard (brand new)

- Intel Quad Core 2.66 GhZ

- 3GB DDR2 1200 RAM

- 80GB hard drive (space is not important for me, I use removable drives for storage)

- LG DVD/RW drive

- Sound Blaster X-FI PCI sound card

- Linksys wireless G PCI card

At present I am running this graphics card (newegg link) in my system. It plays GTA 4 well with most of the settings well above medium, but still not near the max.

First off, why the 800W PSU?

Second, a bigger HDD will actually be faster.

But on the topic of GPUs, some people actually experience BETTER with single cards, as their programs may not like doubles, and some people's mobos just don't like 'em, and slow it down. Besides, even with a GOOD Crossfire setup, you can't expect more then 30% Peformance gain AT BEST, and is it worth 2x the cost? Most people only get 7% real-world improvement, and 18% improvement in games that are built for it. NOT WORTH 2x the cost, unless you're running 3 or 4 monitors.