I am looking to by a new mac pro for my graphics business. It will be mainly used to work on graphic work, but i may have to have a game or two on there to pass the time. Obviously i do not need the best on the market, but i am looking for insight on what would be the safe way to go to comfortably play my games. Any insight welcome!
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What graphics card to buy?
- Thread starter shan50
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Hi, I have a NVidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, it runs games nicely, although I'm upgrading to the ATI Radeon 4870 512MB (about $350 from apple I think), from what I've read, it's very good for graphics, video, modeling etc.. and games too I believe.
Kind Regards
Me
Kind Regards
Me
The stock NVIDIA GT 120 can play anything out now, just not necessarily at the highest resolution, depending on the game you'll need to compromise on resolution/graphics settings.
If you're not going to be playing very much, just perhaps the odd Blizzard game (Warcraft, and maybe Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 when they are released) you'll be fine with the GT 120, and can always upgrade later if need be, the ATI 4870 is available in an upgrade kit.
The ATI 4870 is a very fast card, should play almost anything except GTA IV and Crysis at 1920*1200 and maximum settings, so that will give you a more significant degree of future-proofing.
There's always the possibility that Apple will come out with an even faster card than the 4870 as an after-purchase upgrade kit in a year or two time, so if your needs are fairly basic, I would stick with the GT 120 for now. It will cost you a bit extra buying the ATI 4870 kit rather than upgrading right away when you order the computer, but if you never need that faster card for a few years, there could well be a better option available by then.
If you're not going to be playing very much, just perhaps the odd Blizzard game (Warcraft, and maybe Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 when they are released) you'll be fine with the GT 120, and can always upgrade later if need be, the ATI 4870 is available in an upgrade kit.
The ATI 4870 is a very fast card, should play almost anything except GTA IV and Crysis at 1920*1200 and maximum settings, so that will give you a more significant degree of future-proofing.
There's always the possibility that Apple will come out with an even faster card than the 4870 as an after-purchase upgrade kit in a year or two time, so if your needs are fairly basic, I would stick with the GT 120 for now. It will cost you a bit extra buying the ATI 4870 kit rather than upgrading right away when you order the computer, but if you never need that faster card for a few years, there could well be a better option available by then.