nvidia graphix

[shwarz]

My 2yr old eVGA 256-P2-N376-AX Geforce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card just died on me the other night while playing BF2, I have come to the conclusion it was due to over-excessive heat problems. So now I need a new card and plan on buying this one tonight assuming I don't receive any reasons not to from here.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130085

Now my current computer specs (minus old card) are:
Thermaltake PurePower W0068RUC ATX12V 2.0 460W Power Supply
SUNBEAM Samurai IC-SA-SI Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
DFI LanParty UT nF4-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3500BPBOX
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model TWINX1024-3200C2PRO
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3200826AS 200GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
SAMSUNG 990DF-Black 19" CRT Monitor D-Sub
5.1 soundcard Creative Soundblaster Audigy 4

When I add the new 256mb nvidia card will I need to also get a more powerfull power supply unit? I was told by a guy in best buy that the reason my card may have done what it did was because I needed a little more wattage since the gforce cards draw a lot of power, should I upgrade to a 500W PS before I buy the new video card or am I good where I stand?

[Gen.Ben]

Your fine, your setup will be fine on a 460 watt PSU.

Truthfully, the best buy people don't know very much.

Although you could use another GB of memory as BF2 Needs at least 1.5GB of memory if you want the textures on high so it isn't all choppy.

[Chazell29]

While comparing you system to mine, yours won't take as much power as mine, and I run with a 500W powersupply, so 460Watt should be fine.

Also, the 8600GT is a great card. With my 3GB of ram and my Core 2 Duo E4400, I run BF2 on all high with AAx2 and get 100FPS. On my older system with an AMD 4200+ I could run on all high AA off and got about 70FPS.

[shwarz]

Your fine, your setup will be fine on a 460 watt PSU.

Truthfully, the best buy people don't know very much.

Although you could use another GB of memory as BF2 Needs at least 1.5GB of memory if you want the textures on high so it isn't all choppy.

I wish I could upgrade to 3GB right now, but I'll wait til next year when I get a new computer all together. My mobo has 4 RAM slots right now and there is a 512mb in each, so I would have to scrap two of them and buy 2 1gb sticks, I think my 2bg is fine for BF2 for now.

Thanks for the advice

BTW how do you guys actively check your FPS in game? What program? I have fraps running sometimes but I don't know how accurate it is.

[Gen.Ben]

Oh whoops! I thought you had 1GB of memory because you said "(2 x 512MB)" but yeah, 2GB is fine for BF2.

Having FRAPS running is accurate and gives a good reading.

[Chazell29]

Sorry, I ment 500Watt PSU

[shwarz]

Ahh ok this makes more sense.

Dang then for the past 2 yrs according to fraps I have been averaging about 45FPS in BF2, I have seen it go down to 25-28 and up to 60 on occasion, hopefully this improves with the new card. And since the new card's core clock and effective memory are a little higher I would assume I should see a difference. My old card had a 350MHz core clock and the new one is 540MHz, I don't have detailed knowledge in this area but I would assume almost 200MHz in speed should be a noticeable difference in game.

I play BF2 with a guy who bought the 8600GT recently and he tweaked BF2 to play in HighDef and said it was amazing, can't wait to try that out.