Whats the best cheapest graphics card to buy for building halo stuff? I'm kind of hoping that it's from bestbuy too but it doesn't have to be. I just want to build maps and stuff like that. I also want to be able to use sapien without my level's texture's to be messed up. Also I want to see water. Thanks. Would a VisionTek - ATI RADEON HD3650 OC 1GB DDR2 PCI Express Graphics Card do that?

For Halo CE, definitely. Just make sure your computer has a PCI-E slot.
Edited by H Guru on Dec 30, 2008 at 04:06 PM

Unfortunately they don't have that at the store, but they do have a BFG - NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB DDR2 PCI Express Graphics Card Would that work instead?

The 3650 will perform better as it is a better card.

Ya but that's not at the store so I guess I'll just get the other one but would it do good?
Plus how do I find out if it can support PCI-E or whatever. What's it called?
Edited by tufferred on Dec 30, 2008 at 04:30 PM

Any NVIDIA card is good. 8400 would work. I use 8600 myself.

When you run it in sapien does it show textures good and does it show water?

Get a Radeon. Mine hasn't failed me yet.

Yes. Also runs Crysis on good settings. Nvidia ftw.

What about the video settings in the game are they all unlocked? Or can you use all of them?

NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Runs fine.

well this might not be the cheapest but dang it's really nice and really good. NVIDIA 9800 GT

Is DDR-200 SDRAM the same as DDR2?

Not all of them, because resolution depends on how big your monitor is, so the furthest mine can go to is 1280 x 800. If you mean decals and particles, and if they can go to high, then yes :D

Mine can go 1280 x 1024 would it work on mine?

Yes. The resolution depends on how large your monitor is. Resolution = number of pixels that show.

Tell me your budget and current rig and I can recommend one for you

Make sure your PC has a power supply wattage high enough for whatever graphics card you choose, and that it has enough auxiliary cables in case the card needs them.

If its a laptop, you just about have to have a separate graphics card for it to work. My old laptop with an integrated graphics processor will give me the blue screen of death if I try to run Halo, but our newer laptop with a 256MB 8400M GT NVidia processor runs it as well as a desktop. We have an old Pentium 4 with a 128MB graphics card that will play Halo CE maps if there aren't very many AI involved. We have a newer dual core desktop with a 256MB graphics card, that works great for all maps and editing tools.

How much are new power supplies for 300watts? How much are auxilary cables?

Auxiliary cables are about $3-5 each. I've never looked into buying a new power supply and replacing an old one, but after doing a google search, I can tell you that you could probably get a simple 300-watt power supply for $30-40.

Almost exactly my laptop. Except I exchanged 8400 for 8600. Looks a lot better.

Alright Thanks a TON guys for all the help!!!Looks like i'm getting a new graphics card (the NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB DDR2 PCI Graphics Card).
Again thanks.


1 more question (sorry) but how do I tell if I have a DDR2 Slot?
Edited by tufferred on Dec 30, 2008 at 10:39 PM

Oh no it doesn't. I get 9 FPS on CMT SPV1 for more than half of the time.

SPV2 I bet I'll get -3.

Nvidia cards tend to give lower framerates, from what I have experienced. Also, they have issues with the active camo shaders (there's a fix for that). In general, I think that ATI tends to have better performance. I have an HD3650 with 1GB VRAM, runs very nicely :D Except mine isn't a VisionTek, it's some other OEM...