ATI Radeon X800 XL <--- For those of you who have one....

[imported_Chubz]

...what graphical settings do you run BF2 on (Resolution, settings, AA/AF, etc.) and how good does it run?

I'm really thinking about replacing my wimpy 9800 PRO with one so that I can run Battlefield 2 on Medium-to-High details without much slowdown at all.

My rig as of now is:
AMD Athlon 2500+ (oc'd to 2ghz)
1 GB RAM
ATI RADEON 9800 PRO

Also, would a X800 XL be best for the money? (I have a budget of about $350, but I will need to spend money on a PSU as well, so I can't go overboard) Or are there better deals available?

Thanks for any replies , and I apologize if this is in the wrong section! :p

[Noni]

I dont know much about the X800XL but your CPU is quite slow.

If i was you id save up a bit more and buy a new CPU, PSU and GPU!

To be honest i would not go for the x800xl, they dont have some shaders which will be needed in later games. I would go for the 6800 and unlock the pipelines to make 6800GT or an 6600GT BFG OC.

Good luck!

[neo265]

I dont know much about the X800XL but your CPU is quite slow.

If i was you id save up a bit more and buy a new CPU, PSU and GPU!

To be honest i would not go for the x800xl, they dont have some shaders which will be needed in later games. I would go for the 6800 and unlock the pipelines to make 6800GT or an 6600GT BFG OC.

Good luck!

No point unlocking the pipes as the card doesnt have the memory bandwidth to feed 16 pipes, it has less vertex shaders too.

[Noni]

No point unlocking the pipes as the card doesnt have the memory bandwidth to feed 16 pipes, it has less vertex shaders too.

True true, im not being a fanboy but i think Nvidia is the way to go right now. I have an ati myself (same card as yours).

But for the price you cant beat a X800XL.

[neo265]

Nvidia is better technological wise, but raw power seems the way forward as game makers arnt taking advantage of the more advanced core. Not yet anyway.

[Eddy01741]

Great card for my sys, look at my sig. I run on ultra high, with 6xAA with mine. But the CPU is going to bottleneck the card by quite a bit. So that means you have to be a new CPU, which means new mobo, which might mean new mem or hard drive etc. So you might want to buy a new computer instead, since XP uses Socket a or something, and the newer procesors use ssocket 939. So, if you think it can handle it, go for it, but i would go for a new comp if i were you. And, think about nVidia too, if you play Doom 3 or Far Cry exclusively, go for nVidia, if you play Half-Life 2, then go for ATi.

[Selecter]

I got a 800 XL. Great card. Keep in mind that BF2 EATS RAM like a sponge absorbs water. Common complaint is stuttering in game with a hi level card. These people dont have enough ram, they got their sliders all up on high becuase they have a |_33T video card but they forget the GAME TAKES UP TO 1.4 GB ON IT'S OWN, LEAVING NOTHING FOR WINDOWS TO RUN ON.

Buy another GB of ram and a x800XL. You'll be fine. Gameplay is mostly what determines your ability anyways. The worst player with a uber|_33t system will still lose badly.

[mobile_donkey]

I'm running with:

AMD 64 3200+
2Gb DDR400 Buffalo RAM (read cheap)
HIS X800 XL
ABIT AN8

I use the O/C utilites with the motherboard and graphics card to up the CPU to 2200,the GPU to 432 and it's mem to 1002. I run the game at 1024x768@85 and everything's at medium, 4xAA and distance scale at 100%. The game runs really smoothly whatever's going on and it looks good to me.

I upgraded from a XP 2400 & 9800 pro for this game

I might try a higher res but like the fact I don't get any noticeable stuttering.

[imported_Chubz]

Ok... what do you guys think about this deal? :)

http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2700725

An ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition for only $229.

[lcplsickoll]

X800XL=Great bang for the buck. I love it and you can run all high @1280 w/4xAA. Although your processor may be a problem with those settings. The X800XT PE is even better, especially at that price. Although it is a Pre Order.

[tomster2300]

That 2500+ will not bottleneck your system as much as everyone is saying. I have one myself and it is oc'd to 2 ghz as well. I run a consistent 50-100 fps in BF2 with everything set to medium at 1280 x 1024 (I force this resolution) and 4xAA. BF2 is not cpu intensive, it relies heavily upon ram and video card only. Granted, if you had a nicer cpu then perhaps you'd squeeze 10 more fps, but I'll play with what I have and save $500. Believe me, the 2500+ is fine, I am a living testament. Now if you played something like Rome Total War then you might have some problems. Just tweak your system and streamline it as much as possible and you'll be fine. No point in going out and buying a whole new pc when you don't need to.

My rig:

AMD 2500+ oc'd to 2ghz
ASUS A7N8X-X
1 Gig DDR 400 (pc3200)
eVGA 6800 GT
40 gig WD 8 mb cache HD

[lcplsickoll]

That 2500+ will not bottleneck your system as much as everyone is saying. I have one myself and it is oc'd to 2 ghz as well. I run a consistant 50-100 fps in BF2 with everything set to medium at 1280 x 1024 (I force this resolution) and 4xAA. BF2 is not cpu intensive, it relies heavily ram and video card only. I am a living testiment...now if you played something like Rome Total War then you might have some problems. Just tweak your system and streamline it as much as possible and you'll be fine. No point in going out and buying a whole new pc when you don't need to.

My rig:

AMD 2500+ oc'd to 2ghz
ASUS A7N8X-X
1 Gig DDR 400 (pc3200)
eVGA 6800 GT
40 gig WD 8 mb cache HD

Well there ya go then, I wasn't sure about that. I was just making an educated assumption. Looks like the X800XL will offer great gains without worrying about the CPU

[tomster2300]

Well there ya go then, I wasn't sure about that. I was just making an educated assumption. Looks like the X800XL will offer great gains without worrying about the CPU

To play devil's advocate...when games on par with BF2 come out which are cpu intensive then I will begin an entirely new pc build

[imported_Chubz]

That 2500+ will not bottleneck your system as much as everyone is saying. I have one myself and it is oc'd to 2 ghz as well. I run a consistent 50-100 fps in BF2 with everything set to medium at 1280 x 1024 (I force this resolution) and 4xAA. BF2 is not cpu intensive, it relies heavily upon ram and video card only. Granted, if you had a nicer cpu then perhaps you'd squeeze 10 more fps, but I'll play with what I have and save $500. Believe me, the 2500+ is fine, I am a living testament. Now if you played something like Rome Total War then you might have some problems. Just tweak your system and streamline it as much as possible and you'll be fine. No point in going out and buying a whole new pc when you don't need to.

My rig:

AMD 2500+ oc'd to 2ghz
ASUS A7N8X-X
1 Gig DDR 400 (pc3200)
eVGA 6800 GT
40 gig WD 8 mb cache HD

Gotcha.... I appreciate your reply because I was really worried about the 2500+ bogging me down, but maybe it won't be so bad afterall.

Thanks for the help, guys!

[tomster2300]

One other thing I found was uninstalling norton antivirus helped. That thing is an enormous resource hog. Turning AGP fast write off in the bios helped a lot in my case for some strange reason.