Graphics Card for 125+ FPS - Please Recommend

[BreakingScience]

Hi,

Currently in the process of getting some components together to build a pc for quake - JUST QUAKE I've had problems with a number of graphics cards in the past - they work at 125 for a few months and after a random update they spontaneously lag. What graphics cards can anyone recommend to get 125+ FPS without tweaks. Looking to spend the least amount of money I can as I'm pretty broke . It worries me when I read that even a GTX 460 can't run the game steady! Anyways, any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[mind_in_a_box]

Disable PostProcessing, enable Vertexlighting. Performance problems pretty much solved for my old cheap laptops Geforce 8400GS go.
Otherwise I can tell that my desktops GTX570 is running the game just fine

No, really, what "tweaks" are you speaking of? Do you want to run the game at the highest possible graphics? Or are you playing at very low graphics like most people do?

[TCM]

Pretty much any non-budget card from the last few years will run it at stable 125 fps, FPS problems more often come from things like drivers and background programs than actual hardware.

[iSuckz]

i have a $90 / £70 ATI 7750 (very cheap, doesnt even need PCIE power connector) and play @125 with all the eye candy enabled - ultra high textures, post processing, max geometry, no compression .. etc..

[Ikaruga]

Quakelive (not like Q3A) is a very CPU and bus speed bound game (probably because of the browser implementation and the overhead of the added 2D post-processing).

We had many talks and tests about this a long time ago, and even high-end (read i7+) pimped out machines had fps-drops for no apparent reasons, while others had no problems with ancient systems, so its still lotto.

Basically a simple new APU like the A10-5800k with a fast system-ram should be enough for you, but nobody can promise anything, it's a question of luck.

For example, my dual-atom + ION (Nvidia 9400-Mobile) based htpc runs quake3 (or wolfcam) 125 fps maxed out without problems, while it's horribly suffers under Quakelive with the very same maps (goes down to as low as 20-40 fps sometimes).

Go figure

[jigglywiggly]

Quake live is sometimes just weird

I sometimes get fps drops on any computer.

On my laptop with an 8400mgs I get stable 125fps, and then sometimes on my desktop with a gtx 670 I get drosp to like 118 and it's very distracting.

Usually it stops, but it also runs sometimes weird on my np8130 laptop which has a 2720 i7, and a 560m.

Basically, ql is just weird and should run on anything.

[BreakingScience]

Thanks to everyone for the replies, Quake really is f'ing frustrating! I'm unsure what to do. iSuckz do you get a fully stable 125 all the time or does it dip slightly - even briefly?

[megaman3]

Don't buy a pc thinking on running quake3 on a browser. Just be sure it won't have bottlenecks and there you go.

And I don't know if I'm too picky but QL never runs like q3 or q3 engine games. Those are smoother, perfectly steady 125fps.

[BreakingScience]

Hey megaman3, I stopped playing quake two years ago for the same issues mentioned above. I'm more than happy to build a PC for the sole purpose of playing quake - I love the game, grew up with it, and hate everything else. Just want something that will run it at 125.

Currently purchased:

i7 920, Gigabyte UD3R motherboard, 8 GB DDR3 ram, gfx ?..........

[Ikaruga]

Currently purchased:

i7 920, Gigabyte UD3R motherboard, 8 GB DDR3 ram, gfx ?..........

You are obviously not short on money if you purchased an i7-920 for gaming. With some rare exception (like the crappy coded GTA4), 95% of the games are GPU limited at 1080p or above, and spending hundreds on stronger CPU gives nothing but +5-10fps at the very best cases. If you are that rich get a 7870 or a the GTX-660 at least or even something stronger, like the GTX670.
I personally think that Kepler cards are the best for gaming, just make sure you don't go above 2-4xAA with them.

Besides that, even a cheap used 9800GT won't get 100% GPU load from QL when it works normally.