Upgraded Video Card, wow!

Ok, it started out with my case fan. It was a cheap one but had an awesomely sexy blue LED. My system was doing ok without it. Since I built the unit myself part by part I knew I'd be okay. However, I don't like non-worky parts in my computer. So, off to Newegg.

And of course, like any normal gay male, I can't go shopping without looking at other things along the way.

So, a $10-ish dollar part turned into a $100-ish dollar order. :blush:

When STO was still in closed beta and I was beating on the the turbolift doors to let me in, I decided to upgrade my system. At the time, I had this
SPARKLE SFPX94GT1024U2 GeForce 9400 GT 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card ... it was an added gay bonus that the brand name was "Sparkle" ... Neely O'Hara literally cried out and told me to buy it.
All was well.

As of late, I had noticed that the quality was just ... meh. So here I am again at Newegg, this time looking for a case fan. Hmm, what's available in the way of video cards. The last time I looked, the next step up was over $200. Oooh, what do we have here SPARKLE SXT4301024S3LNM GeForce GT 430 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Video Card

Same memory, same company, better GPU and other fanciness.
I did run into driver issues however. Windows of course recognized it but it was just the basic WHQL one. Bleh. Plus, this card had some built in PhysX and 3D (of course I don't have a compat. monitor for 3D ... yet).
So off to nVidia's site. Hmm, can't install the driver pack, keeps failing.
Well, let's see what the OEM disc will do. Oh, it worked. Cool.
Hey, look there, I went from a 4.3 to a 5.3 Windows experience rating. The video card alone went up 2 points. Nice.

So now, I'm sitting in STO.
O M G, everything is so shiny. I had no idea what I was missing.


In short, I upgraded my video card and the game looks way cooler.

SO FREAKING JEALOUS

Gratz and enjoy!

I had that same experience. (Well, minus the Sparkle.) And your description is perfect: shiny covers it.

I got a new system the summer before the launch of STO. Not too long ago I had my GeForce GTX 280 (overclocked) burn out while under warranty... I got it replaced with a GeForce GTX 470 for free :)

Sounds like impulse buying turned out to be a good thing! Nothing like some retail therapy. Thanks for bring this topic up, too. I had been meaning to, but every time I get on, I forget.

I used to have a custom built gaming rig that ran STO at its most beautiful, wonderful, maxed out setting. But I ended up getting rid of it and got a high-end Sony laptop (but not a gaming laptop). It's theoretically got better specs in a lot of ways, but all of the mobile components I'm sure limit the performance. I'm quite sure that it's the video card that is limiting it. Now I have to run it on one setting down. The not-as-shiny-as-they-should-be graphics made me look into this:

http://www.villageinstruments.com/tiki-index.php?page=ViDock

Has anyone ever encountered one of these external PCI video card adapters? It looks like it'd be a great thing, but I have never heard of anyone who has used this. So I was wanting to see if anyone has any personal or friends/acquaintances/etc. who have actually used the ViDock or similar product. Let me know what you think!

I would so love a new video card (my lappy is 5 or 6 years old, I got it used). But, personal finances aside, a new video card would be worth more than the whole computer. Someday...

I've been considering going from my 260gtx SLI to a single 570gtx, but have been a bit hesitant as I don't know if it would actually be worth the change.

I moved from a 9800GT to a GTS450. That alone is a pretty nice step up! I have pretty much everything on and maxed...within reason and am still running at around 77 frames per second.

I've been running into some driver/signal issues with the new card.

Oddly enough, it doesn't seem to be a heat or load issue. Only seems to happen when switching between display modes or rendering multiple types of output at the same time. Seems to be a driver issue. Alas, this is what got me into IT many many years ago. Just that things weren't as shiny then as they are now.

I want to get a second HD5770 and Crossfire it with my current one to boost my graphics prettiness (relative bargain), but at the same time both STO and Dragon Age: Origins top-out my CPU as well (AMD 64 X2 6000+) so I'd like to upgrade to a quad core. Unfortunately that would probably mean a mobo upgrade too. And upgrade to DDR3. And I'd like a bigger monitor than the 22" I have at the moment, but only if it's got a greater resolution than my current has (1680x1050). What sucks is that I'm 'saving up' so technically I could just buy all that right now. But that would defeat the object of saving up. So I am sad. :(

Still, I could probably spare £200 or so. Any suggestions? I've seen 1Gb 5770s for under a hundred, so that'd be cheapest, but not necessarily the most cost-effective. :-S