Graphics Cards?

[Canderis]

I recieved a gift of an alienware laptop, and I get to choose the specs before its shipped. I get a choice of 4 graphics cards and I was wondering what one I should get.
The only thing the NEED to do is run kotor and TSL.

The cards are
1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M
1GB ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5730
512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 240M
1GB ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5850

[Liverandbacon]

Well, the 5850 is the fastest by far, so if the money isn't an issue for the person gifting the laptop to you, go for that one.

However, if all you want to do is KOTOR and TSL, any of them will run both on highest settings as if they were a joke. You could go way lower than a 240 or 5730 and still play them on high settings, after all, the games are both more than half a decade old now.

[Q]

^What he said.

[Astrotoy7]

Even though you're focusing on KOTOR, good to keep future games in mind, so I'd lean towards the 5850, being directx11 compliant and all

man, I wish someone would gift me an alienware lappie..

mtfbwya

[Canderis]

Well i specified kotor cuz they are older and newer graphics cards sometimes puke on older games. I play just as many new games as old so...

[Astrotoy7]

Originally Posted by Canderis

Well i specified kotor cuz they are older and newer graphics cards sometimes puke on older games. I play just as many new games as old so...

It's more a case of older games choke on newer versions of Windows. As the KOTOR/Vista thread has demonstrated, you can get KOTOR working in Vista/Windows7 with a bit of tweaking - but there is the odd person that has difficulty. Rather than buy a lappie with a 4 year old graphics card that would never get updates, you're better off dual booting into XP if KOTOR compatibility was a huge obstacle.

Either that or you could simply get XP as your default install, though that means you'll miss out on any DX10/11 goodness from other games

mtfbwya

[aloysiuscarl]

I have a 4870, its faster on average than the 5770, and costs $100 less on average pricing. It runs everything i've ever tossed at it at max and at good speeds.8800GT should be better than 9600GT as it's 112SP vs 64SP, but 9600GT shaders are clocked higher. If on budget look for 8800GT's.