I need a new Video Card?

J

Jason01

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Dec 9, 2004
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Clermont, IA
Well, After getting some games for Christmas, I finally got around to installing them......
I still can't play them however. It appears that my video card is not good enough. I need a new one.

Any sugestions on what to get? I know that it needs to be a PCI(no AGP slots)

Other than that, I have no idea.

The box that the game came in says:
64 MB 3D card with Hardware Transform and Lighting (T&L) capability(minimum)

The system that it is to go on to is:
2 GHZ celeron
768 MB RAM
40 GB HD

I ustacould know what to look for......I don't anymore, so I am flying solo on this one(not good). I have about $150 extra to spend on it(I possibly could go to $200). Please Help!
 
Try newegg.com.

My hubby gets a lot of stuff from them... they have good prices.
 
WOW

Information overload! :thud:
Great Prices, though! :dance:
Would this work for what I need?

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-145-087&depa=1

As I said, I ustacould know. I really don't trust my opinion anymore, and to top it all off, I was at Best Buy today, and asked about it, and the salesman told me that if I want to play games on an "outdated pc"(I bought it about a year ago), that I would spend far more upgrading it than it would cost to buy a new one. Then proceded to try to sell me a $2,500 PC........yea.......I'm gonna buy from you.....
 
Ok, here's what the hubby says:

"Yea, that looks like a good card, for a PCI card. Spend as much money as you can on it if you plan to keep that machine for a while... To get the highest quality card to make it last as long as you plan to keep the machine."

He's the software engineer... i'm the lowly housewife... ;) But he is a hardcore PC gamer too. He recently needed new memory for his machine and after looking into it, found out that he could upgrade his machine (memory, video card and mother board) AND rebuild mine with his older components (I only need internet and e-mail) for a couple hundred more than it would cost just for the memory upgrade on his machine. Down the road, if it's not working for you, before you go shopping for a whole new pc, you may wanna look into just upgrading the parts and building it yourself.
 
Well with no AGP slot or PCI express slot you are pretty limmited. The one you have listed there is probably the best you can get. Do ever buy any computer stuff from best buy, they are a total rip. I would say upgrade your MB and get one with an AGP slot, but that might cost a little more.
 
Thanks for the input. I really don't want to buy another computer for a year or so, so upgrading this one is really only the feasable option. I have another stupid question.

I also probably need a new monitor, as mine is loosing its mind(it will change the brightness all on its own, not surprising, it's 3 years old). It is a 17" CRT monitor(the one that I have now). Is a 15" LCD monitor the same screen size? I seem to remember somewhere that it is. Also, are LCD monitors all that great?
 
Well when playing games LCD's aren't so great. They have what is called gohsting, and it is very distracting. Though the newer ones with a lower response time such as 16ms or 12ms seems to help out a lot. If your not going to be doing much gaming then it wouldn't matter so much. Also if you get a new video card make sure it has DVI and d-sub. LCD's look so much better using the DVI connecter instead of D-sub.
 
Ok man, for the money, the best buy is a Radeon 9550, 256mb of DDR ram, i have this its amazing quality for the price, if you know much about benchmarking then i can tell you this scores 10,000 on 3D Mark 2001 se.

This cost me around £60, which i guss is around $100.

What games are you wanting to play, i recently download...o i mean brought, Colin Mcrae 2005, amazing quality, prince of persia Sands of time and Warrior Within, yet again amzing quality, THUG 2, yep you guessed it amazing quality.

The card is 10/10 for the price, and to top it off, it has the radeon neon fan ;)

I have an Athalon 2200, that is over clocked to 2.0ghz with 256mb DDR PC3200 400mhz ram.

EDIT!!!!

****, you have PCI Express???

Lucky! It seems this IS NOT going to be cheap, but you can get one the the most advanced Graphics cards in the world.

ATI Radeon X800 PCI Express, its nnot cheap but there arent many cheap cards around for PCI express as its kinda new to the market.

Or, try looking up this....

ASUS Extreme N6600 /TD PCI Express x16 - 128 MB DDR - TV out

its around $146.99

ASUS Extreme N6600 Series is equipped with newest ASUS-specific award-winning features and nVidia 's GeForce 6600 Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), which owns both ultimate excellent cinematic resolution and fierce graphics computing power. Incorporating various state-of-the-art technologies such as NVIDIA UltraShadow II technology, NVIDIA CineFX 3.0 engine, NVIDIA Intellisample 3.0 technology, ASUS GameFace Live, ASUS VideoSecurity and ASUS OnScreenDisplay and rich-spectrum of unique ASUS innovations.
Main Specifications:
Product Description ASUS Extreme N6600 /TD - graphics adapter - GF 6600 - 128 MB
Device Type Graphics adapter
Enclosure Type Plug-in card
Interface Type PCI Express x16
Graphics Processor / Vendor NVidia GeForce 6600
Core Clock Speed 300 MHz
RAMDAC Clock Speed 400 MHz
API Supported DirectX 9.0, OpenGL 1.5
Video Memory Installed ( Max ) 128 MB - DDR SDRAM
Video Output 2048 x 1536
Max Monitors Supported 2
TV Interface TV out
 
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if your machine is mainly for gaming and you dont move your comp around alot, get a crt, much better bang for buck, you could spend a couple hundred and get an excellent 19", maybe even a 21" crt vs a 15" no name lcd

as for your vid card, if your gonna buy a new comp in a year, i would say save your money so you can get a really good comp, just wait on the games for a while, i think it would be worth it

if you really want to game now, and you had to get a vid card, get this one http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-145-055&depa=1
you might as well save the $27 because i doubt that vid card would be able to fill the 256mb of ram the one you picked has, the higher end ones have a hard time filling theres up, i doubt a low end would even come close
 
centralharbor said:
if your machine is mainly for gaming and you dont move your comp around alot, get a crt, much better bang for buck, you could spend a couple hundred and get an excellent 19", maybe even a 21" crt vs a 15" no name lcd

as for your vid card, if your gonna buy a new comp in a year, i would say save your money so you can get a really good comp, just wait on the games for a while, i think it would be worth it

if you really want to game now, and you had to get a vid card, get this one http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-145-055&depa=1
you might as well save the $27 because i doubt that vid card would be able to fill the 256mb of ram the one you picked has, the higher end ones have a hard time filling theres up, i doubt a low end would even come close
Click to expand...


Chipset/Core Speed: nVIDIA GeForce FX5200/250MHz :rolleyes:
 
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