I just bought a compaq and it just has the basic video card, no 3D gaming abilities. Which is really no big deal. I don't play many games on the PC. More a consule guy, but CoH has me interested in at least looking into a card that will allow me to play. So, where is best place to find them, what is best model, what might I expect to pay and is it easy to plug one in (I've heard compaq can be stuborn with add-on hardware)?
[ May 25, 2004, 12:23 PM: Message edited by: beatnix19 ]
Posted by Damien (Member # 5611) on :
anything with more than 16mb RAM oughta do ya... dunno about where to shop, though, sorry...
EDIT: nVidia.
[ May 25, 2004, 12:32 PM: Message edited by: Damien ]
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
Anything with 64MB is a necessity. You can get a GeForce (less flakiness, but less performance generally than ATI cards, the other 3D card maker). I'd go for a GeForce 3 Ti card, check out pricewatch.com, you could probably snag one for 100 bucks.
My real suggestion would be to see if you can play with what you have. If anything, up your RAM as close to 1 GB as you can, if it is already, before you by a video card.
-Bok
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
I got a GeForce4 MX 440 (with 64 MB SDRAM) for under fifty bucks, including shipping, and it works great. I can play stuff like Jedi Academy and Halo without any problems.
[ May 25, 2004, 12:47 PM: Message edited by: Jon Boy ]
Posted by Bob the Lawyer (Member # 3278) on :
Wait, do you want to know the model as in, the best money can buy? Or the best bang for your buck that'll allow you to play CoH with us?
Posted by beatnix19 (Member # 5836) on :
ok, I just looked online for detaila and this is what is equiped - Intel Extreme Graphics with up to 64 MB shared video memory. what the crap does that mean? I tried to download a demo of halo and when I installed it i was told my video wasn't set at desired specifications and the picture was very wolfenstein/doom looking. Not at all the 3D look it should have had. Any suggestions?
Posted by beatnix19 (Member # 5836) on :
I just want to play man. Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
You have a motherboard-integrated video card; a standard thing in prebuilt systems. The "shared memory" deal means that it has little of it's own dedicated memory, and instead filtches system memory to work. This has two performance hits: 1) By using the system memory, the video card takes longer to access memory than if it had it's own separate memory, 2) When the video card is using the system memory, your system can't use it, so if you have 512 MB of RAM, you only really have 448 MB of RAM.
-- The GeForce4 MX series is a bunch of overclocked GeForce2s... The GeForce 3 Ti cards will give better performance for almost as cheap.
EDIT: beat, what do you have for a CPU (company, type, and speed) and how much RAM (memory) do you have? Even with the integrated, you may be able to pull it off.
-Bok
[ May 25, 2004, 12:58 PM: Message edited by: Bokonon ]
Posted by beatnix19 (Member # 5836) on :
bought mainly for price and need. I realy only wanted something for e-mail, net surfng and office applications. I also have a digital camera that can be a pain so I liked the card reader. But with all the CoH talk I got kind of interested. Usually don't mess with PC games.
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
I'd add RAM (if even possible; adding a new video card/RAM would void your warranty, BTW), before messing with the video card.
That machine is going to make CoH cry (and by extension, you too). I wouldn't get CoH if I were you.
-Bok
Posted by beatnix19 (Member # 5836) on :
Kind of what I thought. But figured I'd check into it anyways. Thanks, looks like I'll be sticking to my consoles for gaming. Oh, well... Still have Xbox live and that ain't too shabby.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Your computer lacks an AGP slot, and therefore cannot upgrade its video in any meaningful way, anyway.
In my neck of the woods, we call computers like this "stinking piles of something unprintable."
Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :
If it makes you feel any better, beatnix, your computer could beat up my computer and take its lunch money.
Posted by beatnix19 (Member # 5836) on :
Like I said, bought it for the things it does well, not the things my inner child wishes to waste it's money on. Oh well. It's a huge step up from what I had. Couldn't even connect to internet on regular basis before.
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
But look on the bright side, beatnix: at least you didn't buy this one.
Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :
I'm pretty sure I saw that one give my computer a wedgie once.
Posted by beatnix19 (Member # 5836) on :
yea, i saw that thing. I knew i was getting a pretty cheap system but, that thing is a really big pile of poo. What the heck kind of operating system is that?
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
quote:I'm pretty sure I saw that one give my computer a wedgie once.
Sheesh, what is your computer? A Cyrix CPU running Windows 3.1?
Posted by beatnix19 (Member # 5836) on :
apple IIe. I had one of those, havn't you updated yet?
Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :
I am being mildly facetious. I have a 450 MHz Pentium 3, running a dual-boot system with Win98 and Fedora Core 1. It manages OK for web development and learning how to use Linux, but even with its Voodoo3 graphics card with a whopping 16 MB of video memory it can't really run any games written in the past couple of years.
Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :
The only games I even attempt with it these days are SNES ROMs and old Infocom text adventures.
Posted by Damien (Member # 5611) on :
If that Java Desktop ends up anything like Windows RG, then it wouldn't really matter HOW it compares to Windows, simply that it does... Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
I had a 16-meg Voodoo3 once. I got rid of it because it wouldn't run something. What was it? Unreal, perhaps? I suppose it's not important. The important thing is that I bought the card for $35, sold it on eBay for $21, and bought my GeForce4 for $41.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
saxon, I'll sell you my old machine for $300 + shipping. I'll even throw in a 19" monitor for $80 + shipping, if you'd want one.
Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :
Whether or not I'd actually buy would depend largely on the specs of your computer. But you have sparked my interest.
Posted by Richard Berg (Member # 133) on :
Hey now, don't be dissing the Voodoo3. I still have a few; great cheap 2D cards, and decent (16-bit) 3D for their day.
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
Oh, I'm not dissing it. I really only got rid of it because it couldn't keep up with the games I was playing.
Hmm. I think it was Jedi Outcast that finally did my Voodoo in.
[ May 25, 2004, 02:32 PM: Message edited by: Jon Boy ]
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
saxon75, it's an AMD 800 T-bird with a 60GB HD, a Radeon 8500, and 512MB of RAM.
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
The "Java Desktop System" is a Linux box... And while pokier on the CPU and RAM end, it looks a million-fold more extensible (it has an AGP slot!). Buy that 300 dollar system, and a $130 copy of XP Professional online somewhere, and bam, the skies the limit. You decide 6 months down the road you want a new video card? No problem. Want 1 GB of RAM? Heck, it'll let you add 2 GB! I wouldn't be surprised if the CPU was easily replaceable (up to a certain limit). Given the two, I'd choose the "Java" one any day of the week.
But I am a computer geek.
CoH isn't too CPU intensive, just RAM and video intensive. I have 1 GB RAM (PC2700), and a ATI Radeon 9700Pro, but only an initial offering AMD XP 1800+ (I won it at an AMD event/raffle the day the XP chip was released; the speed of the chip is only 1.53GHz, almost half as fast as beat's current system). EDIT: I should add, I can put up the graphics settings to nearly maximium, before I notice system performance issues.
Hmmm, maybe I'll nab that cheap Walmart box to build a web server on....
-Bok
[ May 25, 2004, 03:24 PM: Message edited by: Bokonon ]
Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :
Tom, I am tempted, but I think it would be more prudent for me to wait until I can afford something a little closer to the top-of-the-line.
Posted by Bob the Lawyer (Member # 3278) on :
CoH runs fine for me with only 512 MB (PC 3200) of RAM. I assume my 9800 Pro is picking up the slack. Well, and I’m running with a faster Barton. Basically I just wanted to draw attention to the fact that I’ve got a 9800 Pro.
Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :
A Card is on your computer! And he's doing Voodooo??? So much for the Mormon thing....
Posted by Doug J (Member # 1323) on :
I'm assuming you mean City of Heros:
Requirments: OS - Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP
Processor – Intel Pentium® III 800 Mhz or AMD Athlon 800 Mhz minimum
RAM - 256 MB minimum
Available HDD Space - 2 GB minimum
Video – minimum of GeForce 2 Series cards (GeForce Ti and MX series cards accepted as well as ATI Radeon 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700 and 9800 series cards)
Audio - 16-bit Sound Card minimum
Internet Connection – Broadband (Cable modem, DSL, etc)
Pick an amount to spend, compare it to the others and enjoy.
Posted by slacker (Member # 2559) on :
This sounds like it was getting close to a "post your rig stats" type of thread.
For most games out there (including the ones coming out soon), you'll want at least a gForce 4 MX card, but you can get a gForce4 Ti card pretty cheap. If you want to spend a bit more and get better performance, the latest video cards just came out, so prices will be dropping here soon.
Personally, I'm waiting to see the ATI 9800Pro drop below $200. From what I've seen, the 9800Pro outshines all but the FX5950 and above cards. Then again, I still remember nvidia's tendancy to screw up it's settings if you so much as look at it the wrong way.
For bragging rights, here's my current desktop setup:
AMD XP2600+ (2.1Ghz) ASUS A7V8X mobo 1024MB PC2700 DDR RAM 160 GB Maxtor HD 60 GB Maxtor HD Nvidia Ti 4600 128mb vid card 4x DVD +/- burner 16x DVD-ROM 21" DP110 monitor (Trinitron tube)
I'm able to play any game out there and get very respectable results on most settings. I've even tested HL2, and can get about 20-40-FPS on most levels (and the glass effects are wicked!).
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Here is a great video card review that everybody should read.
Posted by Jacare Sorridente (Member # 1906) on :
I loved the video card review. It was at least as useful as Tom's Hardware reviews.
![[Cry]](graemlins/cry.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Well, and I’m running with a faster Barton. Basically I just wanted to draw attention to the fact that I’ve got a 9800 Pro.