Buying new system (video too)

Winterberry · Post by **Winterberry** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:20 pm

I bought/built an Asus Pundit-R machine last August or so, and have ever since been wishing I hadn't. Long story short, there seems to be something to do with heat that makes the system somewhat unstable. So, I've been bent on starting to look for a new system for about three months now (various things conspire to make me keep this machine until at least the end of August, possibly September or so).

SO: I've been planning on buying or building a full-size desktop machine (the lack of proper-size PCI slots in this bookshelf box is driving me nuts). I don't do a whole lot with it (I'm an independent film director who freelances graphics work for the family web business when necessary). So, I'll use the new machine for small video editing projects, bzflag, various mostly textual directoral duties, sound recording (my sister happens to be an accomplished pianist, so for basic recording my machine serves a useful purpose), bzflag...

The past day or so, I've been thinking that maybe a laptop would better suit me. I tend to spend a lot of time away from my desk, so the ability to take it with me would be good. If I could bring it home and plug it into a dock so I could make use of my big 19" CRT, scanner, printer and other peripherals, that would be nice. I'm limited on budget (~$400) but I think I can basically replace this machine specs-wise for around that price (Satellite A65 would do it; I have a 2.8 Prescott with 200GB SATA, 512 Ultra, DVD burner.).

The only thing that concerns me is bzflag. Video editing is usually more CPU- than GPU-intensive, depending on the software. I goof off with 3D animation from time to time but that's not too much of a draw on the system, usually. But, BZFlag likes a lot of video power.

Can anyone recommend decent video cards? I get around 30fps with my Radeon 9100 IGP right now, so I'm not looking for much more than that. Just something that will run the game nicely on full Experimental and which won't be obsolete by BZFlag 3.0.

Winterberry wonders why he can't just write "Can anyone recommend any laptops with decent BZ video cards for under $500?" and be done with it.

Longhair · Post by **Longhair** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 1:41 am

Wowza, a good laptop w/ decent video card for ~$400. Good luck. I bought a Compaq Evo N410c on ebay for just over $400 recently. It has an ATI 7500 Mobility GPU. Not the greatest, but I at least get 40 or so fps in bzflag. ATI doesn't supply Linux drivers for anything earlier than the 9500 mobility, so you're stuck w/ the open source drivers. Not a disaster, but definitely not the greatest either.

On my desktop, I have an nVidia 6200 GPU that I picked up new on ebay for just over $100. @1024x768 resolution, I'm getting 350-500 fps. (fast computer) Just bumped it up to 1280x1024, and it's down to about 150 fps. Still plenty fast.

Waistless · Post by **Waistless** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 6:37 am

BZFlag aint that graphics card absorbing, my Radeon 9800Pro 128mb card(which actually is a bit old) can run at 1600x1200, highest quality settings in bzflag and driver controlled, and i still get a decent, playable fps

Anyway, it depends how much money you want to spend and if you'll be playing any other recent games other than BZFlag. If you just want a good video card that can max out BZFlag, I'd recommend an ATI Radeon 9600 or 9800 128mb (or 256mb for max performance with quality) cards or an equivilant nvidia card. Just remember they use AGP 8x slots, so make sure you get a motherboard capable of that.

Those cards aren't that expensive, and you'll be getting detail like this screenshot, with Highest detail in bzflag and driver controlled. (see attatchment.)