BRK123 Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 Guys: My graphics card will not support playing mlb 2k9. I know very little about graphic cards and need some advice on which one will support this game. I've seen the specs but I'm unsure which one would be a decent card to purchase. I want to spend max of $50. Also, what about the power supply. Don't you need to know if your power supply can handle it? How do you find what size power supply your computer has? I've looked at my paperwork of when I purchased my computer (Dell) but I do not find where it states size of power supply. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keyser Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 Here this card is the best for the money. If you have alocal Compusa they might have an 8600GTS for like $45.00 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...&CatId=1558 or http://www.compusa.com/applications/Search...p;Sku=V261-3654 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hackman2007 Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 Guys: My graphics card will not support playing mlb 2k9. I know very little about graphic cards and need some advice on which one will support this game. I've seen the specs but I'm unsure which one would be a decent card to purchase. I want to spend max of $50. Also, what about the power supply. Don't you need to know if your power supply can handle it? How do you find what size power supply your computer has? I've looked at my paperwork of when I purchased my computer (Dell) but I do not find where it states size of power supply. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks You shouldn't need to worry about the power supply that much since the cards won't be taking the extra wattage from a 6 pin connector on the graphics card. If you want to find out how large your power supply is, open up the computer and read the power supply. It should tell you how much wattage it has. Should probably be somewhere from 200-350w I imagine. Also, before you buy a graphics card, make sure your computer has a PCI Express x16 slot. Not all Dell computers have them (the older ones). It should look something like This picture. In the picture, it's the black slot, but can be any color. Notice the difference between the two white PCI slots and their pins. If you are unsure of whether your computer can take a new graphics card or if it has the required slot, post your computer's model number here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xzyzz Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 Just curious - how big a difference is there between the desktop and laptop versions of the geforce 8600? I've got the 8600m in my laptop, and I wouldn't recommend anything lower. Optimal tradeoff of quality/performance on the laptop seems to be to set the resolution down to 1280x800, keep crowd details high, but turn off particle effects and depth of field. Antialising and anisotropic filtering also off. Any less performance from the card, and you'd need to start getting rid of the crowd, or dial back the resolution severely. That said, the 8600m seems decent. While I'm jealous of some of the screenshots I've seen on this site, I have to say that 2k9 still looks pretty d*** good even tuned down to run on my macbook pro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klon122 Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 If you need technical information about graphics cards, look here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hackman2007 Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 Just curious - how big a difference is there between the desktop and laptop versions of the geforce 8600? I've got the 8600m in my laptop, and I wouldn't recommend anything lower. Optimal tradeoff of quality/performance on the laptop seems to be to set the resolution down to 1280x800, keep crowd details high, but turn off particle effects and depth of field. Antialising and anisotropic filtering also off. Any less performance from the card, and you'd need to start getting rid of the crowd, or dial back the resolution severely. That said, the 8600m seems decent. While I'm jealous of some of the screenshots I've seen on this site, I have to say that 2k9 still looks pretty d*** good even tuned down to run on my macbook pro. The 8600M GT is about equivalent to a desktop 8500GT, maybe just a little bit better, but not much. Plus not to mention the card in question above is an 8600 GTS not 8600 GT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xzyzz Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 The 8600M GT is about equivalent to a desktop 8500GT, maybe just a little bit better, but not much. Plus not to mention the card in question above is an 8600 GTS not 8600 GT. Gotcha - thanks. I'm going to be replacing my laptop soon, so this is more than just idle curiosity for me. I'm trying to learn more about mobile GPUs, b/c I've never really been able to afford laptops capable of gaming. So I've never paid any attention to them. I guess that's one benefit of getting older. Better income After a few minutes roaming teh interwebs, unfortunately, it looks like most of the first-rate options are only for 17-18" behemoths. For a 15" laptop under $2k NOT made by Alienware (I'd rather not announce my hobby to my colleagues that blatantly), the GeForce 9600M GT seems like a pretty good bet. At least according to these guys. [/threadjack] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRK123 Posted April 6, 2009 Author Share Posted April 6, 2009 You shouldn't need to worry about the power supply that much since the cards won't be taking the extra wattage from a 6 pin connector on the graphics card. If you want to find out how large your power supply is, open up the computer and read the power supply. It should tell you how much wattage it has. Should probably be somewhere from 200-350w I imagine. Also, before you buy a graphics card, make sure your computer has a PCI Express x16 slot. Not all Dell computers have them (the older ones). It should look something like This picture. In the picture, it's the black slot, but can be any color. Notice the difference between the two white PCI slots and their pins. If you are unsure of whether your computer can take a new graphics card or if it has the required slot, post your computer's model number here. My system is a Dell Dimension 8400 Series Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hackman2007 Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 My system is a Dell Dimension 8400 Series Yeah, it has a PCI Express x16 slot and a 350w power supply. You should be safe getting the above mentioned card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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