Team-BHP - Rig to play GTA IV

Hi ! I have to upgrade my desktop in order to play the newer pc games like gta iv . I can salvage my hdd, monitor, dvd writer , keyboard , mouse ,ups etc. from my old computer so basically I need a processor , motherboard and memory together with a suitable power supply . I would prefer AMD because I feel it will give better value for money . I would also prefer a motherboard with on board graphics which are capable of handling such games at least initially with an option to upgrade to a better graphics card later so it must have pcie 16x slot available. The idea is to go for a low cost upgrade which can be further upgraded in near future, especially the graphics part. Any suggestion regarding the availability and price of such hardware will be appreciated.

Go for a really good processor since the game's engine puts a lot of load on it. Graphics card and RAM too. Forget trying to run GTA4 with your onboard graphics. Would recommend Intel processors these days... AMD had their time, Intel's kicking butt these days.

If you're building a rig specially for GTA4, you'll be looking at a budget of atleast around 30k for just the motherboard, processor, ram and graphics card.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pranavt (Post 1105449)

Would recommend Intel processors these days... AMD had their time, Intel's kicking butt these days.

Wait for Phenom II. New Opterons are already at par with Xeons, and now I am waiting for 45nm Phenoms. They are mostly coming on Jan 8.

The usual advantages of a PC. Being able to do many other things apart from just gaming, 3rd-party homebrew mods coming out for the PC version of gta4, etc. But at the same time, you'll have a DRM-infested system since GTA4 PC installs a lot of crap apart from just the game. And you have to sign-in at 2 places if you want to play online. Different strokes I guess, depends on what you want.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

Wait for Phenom II. New Opterons are already at par with Xeons, and now I am waiting for 45nm Phenoms. They are mostly coming on Jan 8.

Tru dat, but that's for servers. I'd still go for an Intel system these days, and I'm an AMD fan myself, my last 4 systems being AMD based. I'm looking forward to the CPU/GPU integration that AMD along with ATI are cooking up, but that's still some time away.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaggoswami (Post 1105541)

Please specify you budget. Without that it is a bit tough.

Anyways, here is what I can say.

C2D 7300
MSI P45/Intel P45
2 X 2 GB DDR2 Transcend 800 Mhz RAM
nVidia 9800.

Will cost 26K approximately.
Graphics is around 10 K. CPU + Mobo = 12 K
Ram = 4 K

Or go for 9600GT graphics card and will cost you around 6.5K.

Wait for Phenom II. New Opterons are already at par with Xeons, and now I am waiting for 45nm Phenoms. They are mostly coming on Jan 8.

GTA IV recomended CPU is C2Q.

BTW, there are three models of C2D 7300, (E, T and L) all totally different.
I am sure you are talking about E7300.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ask77 (Post 1105739)

budget is between 15k to 20k . What advantage will the pc have over dedicated consoles like ps3 or xbox 360 ?

That budget is too low.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirAlec (Post 1106036)

1) GTA IV recomended CPU is C2Q.

2) BTW, there are three models of C2D 7300, (E, T and L) all totally different.
I am sure you are talking about E7300.

3) That budget is too low.

1) This is with reference to point 3 in the above quote. I thought that budget is not mentioned, so be on the safer side.
c2Q would be nice but for that the thread starter must have a OS like 64bit Vista, that is more efficient at multithreading. Then only the real advantage of C2Q can come out. No doubt, even without that c2Q will be faster, but then its not worth the money spent.

2) Thank you very much, I was surely talking about E7300.

L7300 is Merom, 65nm Low Voltage,17W, Mobile.
T7300 is Merom, 65nm, standard voltage, 35W, Mobile.
E7300 is Wolfdale ( 3M ), 45nm, 65W, Desktop.

L and T are for mobile platforms and E is for Desktop. Here the discussion is about Desktop, so obviously it is E.

3) So IMO for this budget, E7300 will be fine. What now really matter is how is the GPU.

Please consider the AMD Platform also.

Processor : AMD Athlon X2 5600+, 2.9 Ghz. Rs. 4100
Mobo : MSI K9A2GM-FIH Rs. 4500.
RAM : Transcend 800 Mhz, 2 X 2 GB, Rs. 4000
Graphics Card : nVidia 9600Gt, Rs. 6500-7000.
Cabinet : I ball Gamer with 400W SMPS, Rs. 1800

So Mobo + Processor + RAM + Cabinet = Rs. 14,400.
With Rs. 7,000 graphics card.
Total : Rs. 21,400.

Now if you buy 9800GT, it will cost you Rs. 9000, so
Total : Rs. 23,400 ( Rs. 9000 for graphics card ).

I think the 9600GT configuration does fit in your budget.

@ aaggoswami
Thanks for your suggestions what about Asus M3A78-EM AMD 780G/SB700 using amd 780 g chipset with Integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 GPU . Is this chipset and m/b good ? how does it compare with the msi mobo.?

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Quote:

Originally Posted by ask77 (Post 1107286)

I think that I recommended MSI K9A2GM-FI.
Stay away from ASUS. Their RMA is very bad. MSI is much faster.
The chipset is one of the best AMD has right now. We can also say it is one of the best IGP available today, but you will not be able to play GTA IV. For that you need graphics card. I have mentioned about them in above post.

One more thing is that if you are still want a slightly lower cost setup, you can have AMD Athlon X2 5200+, 2.7 GHz instead of AMD Athlon X2 5600+, 2.9 GHz. The X2 5200+ will cost you about Rs. 3600.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ask77 (Post 1105739)

budget is between 15k to 20k . What advantage will the pc have over dedicated consoles like ps3 or xbox 360 ?

Why not just get a ps3/360? Why go through the headache of building the system and then having to worry about keeping it up to date? With a console you get a good configuration that will play all games released until the next generation of consoles come.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyrus43 (Post 1108323)

I just bought GTA IV today! first i had to get the bloddy Service Pack three installed!! And now, when i start the game, i ge super pathetic Graphics! Can someone help!! PLEASEEEE!!!!

All depends on your card. GTA4 requires huge resources from the graphic card and processor as well. What resolution are you running?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyrus43 (Post 1108323)

I just bought GTA IV today! first i had to get the bloddy Service Pack three installed!! And now, when i start the game, i ge super pathetic Graphics! Can someone help!! PLEASEEEE!!!!

IIRC, you have 7300GT mostly from POV. If you mobo has PCI X16 2.0, go for 9600GT. But you will need a good SMPS. Or else go for ATI HD 4670. 4670 wont eat as much power as 9600GT. Both of them will be available for around 5-6K.
If budget permits, go for 9800GT.
This will solve your problem.