Psx and pcsx2 hd graphics card information.

[ToneDeafPalmMute]

So I'm looking to either buy this desktop, or buy a barebones kit here next week. I heard it was possible to rebuff the graphics on many ps1 and ps2 games using an hd card, I've looked at a few, but not sure they have the right capabilities. Most graphic cards i've looked over say hd, and have a connection for an hd screen, but which ones actually support hd gameplay? I've seen the prices range from 35, to 400 dollars on certain hd graphic cards... the processor will at least be an i7 or i5 intel. Thoughts?

[Zaladane]

So I'm looking to either buy this desktop, or buy a barebones kit here next week. I heard it was possible to rebuff the graphics on many ps1 and ps2 games using an hd card, I've looked at a few, but not sure they have the right capabilities. Most graphic cards i've looked over say hd, and have a connection for an hd screen, but which ones actually support hd gameplay? I've seen the prices range from 35, to 400 dollars on certain hd graphic cards... the processor will at least be an i7 or i5 intel. Thoughts?

Pretty much anything you can get nowadays will be perfectly fine for Playstation 1.

However the first thing you should stay away from is any integrated graphics - ones that share system ram etc.. especially for PS2 emulation and double especially if it's an Intel chip. Another thing to keep in mind too is that even though PS2 emulation is getting better all the time it's still not perfect and some games just won't work or work poorly no matter your system. Pretty much everything main stream is ok though. Also certain games require more juice as it were depending on the level of graphics/sound etc. For example it takes way less to run FFX than it does for FFXII.

Just because some of these chips say HD performance doesn't mean it magically turns these games HD - sure they're all great for movies and PC games. Just because you increase the resolution to HD proportions doesn't necessarily make it "HD" In the case of Playstation 1 you can in the end only go so far and it does start to eat up resources through increased resolution, custom shaders, smoothing effects etc. You can end up with a great picture but getting Twisted Metal on psx to look like Twisted Metal on PS3 is just not going to happen. PS2 games will of course take even more "juice" and you can get them looking pretty spectacular coming pretty damn close to current gen. Still it depends on the game. GTA3 will never be as detailed as GTAV for example just because it wasn't drawn as well in the first place although other games which have a lot going on like the aforementioned FFXII and Gran Turismo 4 can look fantastic. Pretty much any games that have gotten the so called HD treatment and rereleased on PS3 you can pretty much get looking the same like God of War etc.. But depending on far you go with it you can end up with problems like a blurry picture and such.

So in the end I would say any modern mid range dedicated graphics card will probably be fine as long as you have a decent system as well. You don't need to get the latest and greatest and spend three grand to do it either. Plus PCSX2 is worked on all the time so let's say if you bought a system tomorrow there's a good chance it would run even ibetter a year from now with future releases.

So um yeah just my thoughts