So I need a new graphics card. Among other things, I ran Sims 3 for the first time today and I realized my graphics card is horrid because 1) it told me so, but I ignored it, then 2) my sims were all black, furniture was all black, and I couldn't click or use anything. Not sure if that last thing is a graphics card problem, but the first two definitely are (according to google). Now I have absolutely NO idea what I should look for when buying a new graphics card. Specs or type or anything. Halp pwease? I'm not an intense gamer or anything, I just want to be able to play Sims 3 without any problems or my computer sounding like it's throwing up baby fetuses. The one I have right now is apparently called "Plug and Play Monitor on Intel (R) 82915G Express Chipset Family". : D
^ Phee that's one weird sounding graphics card. As far as I know good gaming graphics cards are Nvidia or ATI are usually the best choices. My laptop has a Nvidia, and it runs Sims well, but my laptop just can't handle the game itself because it's big and laggy u_u My boyfriend's moderate gaming desktop is also using Nvidia graphics card: NVIDIA Geforce 8600 GT to be exact Hope it helps some bits!
Ah, found this on yahoo answers: "You have an onboard video card, and a VERY crappy one at that. It doesn't have 128MBs of video memory, it steals it from the system memory. Your video card is probably one of the absolute worst possible video cards for gaming." Wonderful. [EDIT] Thanks, canyourunit.com, for making my life a giant fail. I JUST WANNA PLAY SIMS 3 DAMNIT.
right, basically you don't actually (as such) have a graphics card! it's part of the motherboard! these are called "on-board" graphics cards, they use your system's RAM in place of the RAM you get on video cards. how old is the pc? because there are two types of graphics card, AGP and PCI-e. if the pc is around 3-4 years old it's more likely to be an AGP slot you have, but PCI-e (pci-express) were just emerging then too. if you could open up your pc and take a picture of the slots you have (like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... _Slots.jpg) I can tell you in a matter of seconds if it's AGP or PCI-e. if it's PCI-e, then this is a good (and VERY cheap!) card for you: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/116473 if it's AGP then you'll have to look on ebay and so on, but i would recomment an ATI Radeon Pro 9600: http://www.kikatek.com/product_info.php ... ce=froogle if you need any more help just ask here or PM me
TY! It's probably around 3-4 years old or even older, I can't quite remember I looked it up: http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/R/3724/4172su4.shtml I believe it says PCI-E? In euros though! I hope they ship to US.
yep, it has PCI-e (and even if not you could return it if you didn't break it saying it was wrong kind, they'd exchange for store credit ) eBuyer is also a US company http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814121320 very good, and uberly-cheap
Good card for the price !!! But that's still an entry level card. If you plan on keeping your pc for another 5 years, maybe spend a little more and get a decent card that will help you in the future. You don't need to spend 200$, but for little less than 100$, your PC will get a nice kick in the butt. This card is quite nice. Only downside is the size of the card. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102824
wasn't sure on budget and so on so picked a nice one that's cheap, unless you're gonna play games on uber-high settings then you won't really need anything too extravagant, but it's always nice lol very nice card for $100, can't fault it
Just to chime in here and give my 2 cents Either of the cards mentioned above would be fine. If you are not wanting to spend much, I would go with the cheaper one. It is a lower "level" video card, but I wouldn't necessarily call it entry level, it would do what you need it to do and it would be a considerable upgrade from what you have. I would go for the cheaper one personally, another 4-5 years is a long time for a PC (for the new ones any way) they all will be pretty much out dated by then anyway. I think this card should last you based on the specs of your pc. Besides, the clock speeds aren't that much different between the two posted above, the more expensive one's core close speed is only 75 MHz higher and the memory and shader clock speeds on the more expensive one is actually considerably slower, especially for the price. But honestly, which ever you are most comfortable buying, both are good options. If you need tech specs for the more expensive one, you can find them here: http://tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=4035856 The cheaper one is here (and click on the "specifications" tab on the right hand side): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121320
nVidia released a series of high-performing and cheaply priced video cards a while back; I actually grabbed one too and it plays all the games I need on highest settings at 45fps+. These games are: -World of Warcraft -Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas -Diablo II: Lord of Destruction -Star Wars Jedi Knight III: Jedi Academy The card is an nVidia GeForce 9500GT. The power required to run it is 300W, which is already included in most modern computers; if not, 400W power supplies are dirt cheap. I bought my 9500GT at a small computer store down my street for approximately $115 CAD, or somewhere around $105 USD. But, if you only want to know what to look for, look for something relatively cheap that will have around 512MB of video RAM. Here are a few suggestions: nVidia GeForce 9400GT: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... =E145-9402 *XFX GeForce 9600 GSO: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... =P450-9616 *BFG GeForce 9800 GT: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... u=B52-9814 XFX Radeon HD 4350: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... CatId=3585 Zotac GeForce 8400 GS: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... CatId=3585 * = Best quality Anyway, I could go on all day, if I were you I'd make your own personal list judging on research that you obviously need to do then talk to a specialist at a computing store.
I ordered the newegg one because I'm a cheapo. Rebate taks it down to $35, or about $45 with shipping/handling. Woot! Thanks everyone! Now I just have to install it =X
don't worry, all you have to do is put it in the slot (only 1 slot will fit it anyway! lol) then take the monitor cable from the slot it's in and put it in the new slot just a small "ooh..." what type of screen is it? if it doesn't have a DVI cable you may need a converter (they're usually supplied with the card anyway) one of these: http://www.pothasttechnologies.com/ebay ... dapter.jpg but don't worry, chances are you'll have one in the box with the card, i got 3 with mine (even though i only have 2 DVI slots haha) hope all goes well if you get stuck don't hesitate to ask
o.o That was complete gibberish to me lol. Hopefully it'll arrive on Monday and I'll let you know how installing it went! erm. My screen is flat-ish. Er. Has that gel-thing that changes colors when you press on the screen. LCD? Uh....that's all I know. I'm absolutely hopeless with technology.
haha LCD screen for sure, basically there's only 1 place that the graphics card will fit, so don't try and force it into somewhere it won't
Don't worry Phee, you are covered! Actually, the card from newegg that was purchased (if I'm reading correctly) has DVI, HDMI and D-SUB, so it should be good no matter what it's connected to. Now she has options, maybe hook it up to that 150 inch flat screen in the living room http://planetapex.blogspot.com/2008/01/gigantic-150-inch-panasonic-plasma-flat.html B) (I'm joking btw)