Curse

Eskimo Bob · May 11, 2005, 07:59 PM // 19:59

Well you see, we know noone that is good at computers. Curse you evil people at best buy for coning us into this crappy computer! By the way, this was our first computer to buy, and people normaly make mistakes on a first try.

paulniswander · May 11, 2005, 08:41 PM // 20:41

Hey Bob. I have a cheaper solution for you. Go buy an ATI Radeon 9250 PCI card. They come in the 256mb variety, and will run GW with decent settings. They should cost you around 60 US dollars on a site like newegg.com.

Hope this helps.

Eskimo Bob · May 11, 2005, 09:55 PM // 21:55

Ya, I have been looking at PCI cards now that I know I don't have a AGP slot. The few I am looking at are:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130186

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814164033

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102522

I am not about to pay $60+ for a PCI video card.

Which one of those 3 should I get?

paulniswander · May 12, 2005, 02:56 AM // 02:56

Bob. Yes, those are your choices. The MX4000 is not very good. Don't choose that one. The other two are ati 9250 128mb radeons. However, both cost 50-55 US dollars. Why not spend 10 extra dollars (60-65) and get twice the power with one of the 256mb cards. If you don't spend the little extra, I'm afraid you will be dissapointed at having to run GW at the lowest resolution and lowest settings. The extra 10 dollars is very worth it.

Edit: If you are looking for the very very cheapest possibility, I actually have a near brand new MX4000 128mb vid card just like the one you linked to. There is nothing wrong with it, I simply found it to be underpowered. However, if the lowest cost solution is what you are looking for, I'll sell it to you for $25 US, and ship it to you free. (Half of what you would pay for a new one) PM me if you are interested.

Vorkronor · May 12, 2005, 07:55 AM // 07:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulniswander

... Why not spend 10 extra dollars (60-65) and get twice the power with one of the 256mb cards. If you don't spend the little extra, I'm afraid you will be dissapointed at having to run GW at the lowest resolution and lowest settings. The extra 10 dollars is very worth it.

The extra memory on such a slow card does not in any way contribute to any dramatic performance improvement! In select cases, there can be some increase (but do not expect more than 10%), but CERTAINLY not by a factor of 2!

More memory is necessary in higher resolutions (for example 1200x1024, 1600x1200) and with activated anti-aliasing (AA). And low end cards (the 92XX Radeons and 6200 nVidias) don't have the power to support high resolutions nor AA!

Don't be sheep. Read reviews. I personally prefer hardocp.com, anandtech.com and techreport.com for gamer's hardware reviews.

paulniswander · May 12, 2005, 01:43 PM // 13:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vorkronor

The extra memory on such a slow card does not in any way contribute to any dramatic performance improvement! In select cases, there can be some increase (but do not expect more than 10%), but CERTAINLY not by a factor of 2!

You are right, the card won't be twice a powerful! Check out this link.

http://www.gamepyre.com/reviewsd.html?aid=476&p=5

OMG! I had no idea that the performance improvement would be so little. I continued to look at other cards, and the performance drop off was not so severe. However, thank you for pointing this out.

Svenn · May 12, 2005, 03:10 PM // 15:10

Wow, that really makes the point. Does anyone have a link to a side-to-side comparison using higher-end cards?

Vorkronor · May 13, 2005, 06:26 AM // 06:26

Svenn, look no further than this -> http://www.hardocp.com/reviews.html?cat=Mw==

But be aware, that they do the reviews a little bit differently (they usually test maximum playable settings, than just 1024x768 versus 1024x768), but they do excellent job!