I was thinking about getting a new video card seeing as to how I am running on the video card that came standard with my computer. But I have two questions.

How do I know how powerful my video card is?... Is there some sort of way to check this?...

And I hear 32mb memory video card should be enough for most games. Is this true?...

Sorry to bother you folks about this but I am totally clueless when it comes to the whole video and sound card issue.

I'm no scientist with this stuff, but shouldn't it tell you in properties?
Mine has an icon on the taskbar and it comes up with heaps of stuff in a 'hardout computer nerd' sort of language...

[ 06-11-2005, 01:25 AM: Message edited by: Eagle eye ]

Run dxdiag, and it will tell you all the properties of your video card.

For reference, 32MB today is pretty small... and I don't think it's enough for most games today. I think 64 is the smallest you can practically buy, and 128 is kind of the minimum. I have 256 on both my main computers.

If I were buying a new vid card, I'd get no less than 128MB, and probably 256MB. It's well worth it.

Thanx all. I figured out that I have a 4 mb. graphics driver. God I feel antique.

How much does a new video card go for these days?... I'm thinking a new 128 seeing as I'm a new college student and poor. >.<

Hi So So,

I'd go with the 128mb card. How much ram do you have? if you have an older computer that only had a 4mb video adapter, chances are it doesn't have more than 256mb of ram, right? Once you have a video card with more than half the video memory as your ram (eg, 128 v-mem/256 ram) you start to get diminishing returns on what the vmem will do. 64mb is great for most games, 128 will play most anything - assuming you have enough ram, your processor is fast enough and you have a big enough cache (that actually makes a difference). There are other issues, but those are the main factors

And you can get a very decent 128 mb card for about $100 - or less!

Given that your card is that old, you'll also need to make sure you get the right kind of graphic card. Something that old is likely to be a PCI card, which you'll be able to tell by looking at the motherboard layout. If there are several slots of the same type, it's a PCI card. If it's in a slot that's unlike any other, it's probably an AGP card. An AGP card also has an L-shaped foot... when you take it out, you'll see that.

If it's a PCI card, no problem. Just get one of those. If it's an AGP card, then you need to make sure you get one with the right speed. They come in 1X, 2X, 4X, and 8X speeds, and you need to get one compatible with your motherboard. You can tell *THAT* by going into the BIOS setup and checking for the AGP settings.

If you're in the States (and I know where Hell is here... I've been there [img]smile.gif[/img] ), check the Sunday papers for the computer store ads. They go on sale fairly frequently.

OK, now if one were to get a new card, it would almost certainly be Direct X 9 compliant, or compatible, or... whatever. The question is, if W&W didn't work with DirX 8, will it work with 9?

I have Win XP with a radeon card and Dir X 9, and I know I may have issues with XP if I were to load W&W again(and I'd sure like to), but what about Dir X 9?

Does any one have it working with Dir X 9?

+Dr.Pick

I have it working with DX9... better with 9.0B than 9.0C, but it worked anyway.

BTW, it worked with DX8 too.

Good to see you back, Dr.Pick [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img] Pleasure to see you around again.

Thank you! I know it's been a long time. Life has so many distractions.

+Dr.Pick

The latest games that my kids have bought have needed a minimum of 64 vid. I found that the 32 I had onboard was not enough to run many games well so I bought a 256 nvidia card & it plays anything that I ask it to. I think that the minimum for a new card would be 128.
I am thinking that having only a 4 meg video card that your pc is very dated and cant play the latest games because it wont meet the minimum requirements for cpu or ram. In which case you will probably be playing games like W&W or Baldurs Gate. These games will play ok with 16M video. Wizardry 8 requires 32M to play well.
Playing the older games on these forums will keep you occupied for years without having to have the latest & greatest computers.
BTW W&W will play with DX9.

So So,

reading the thread, I have concluded that your machine is an archaic one most likely. I mean no offence, So So, but 4 MB video is a real rarity nowadays [img]smile.gif[/img]

First of all, check your motherboard so that you can see what you can plug in into your machine. If I am correct and the machine is old, then you need not have the AGP slot. All contemporary video cards are AGP! Among others, almost all cards with 64 and more MB of video memory are AGP! I am not sure whether you will be able to find some PCI card with 64 or more video memory.

If you do not have the AGP slot then you will need a PCI card. One of the best PCI video is Riva TNT2 Ultra (32 MB video memory, OpenGL). It is fast, reliable and supported by everything but:
- it's only 32 MB, which isn't enoough for contemporary PC games.
- you won't be able to use HW acceleration with W&W. The game will suffer from "greening" if you try.

Notes:

- ISA slots: black, long (16 bit slots) or rather short (8 bit slots).
- PCI slots: always white, not too long.
- AGP slot: only one slot on the motherboard, looks like PCI but it is never white (usually red or brown).
- other slots looking like PCI and not white: do exist but if you have such slots on your motherboard then one of them is AGP for sure [img]smile.gif[/img]

Gao.... am totally confused now.

I'm pretty sure my computer is decently archaic. It's a 256 RAM, Intel Celeron Processor. Current Video Card I do believe is a Interl(R) 82815 Graphics Controller. Have no idea if that makes any sense to anyone.

Most of today's games run fine on my computer like Warcraft III and what not. The only problem I have had was trying to install Halo because my computer didn't meet the video card requirements... But basically I just want to keep somewhat up to date with the games these days.

Sounds like you may have an on-board video card. For a machine that feels that old, a PCI card is your only option (probably). You can find 64 or 128 MB PCI cards at your local computer store, at least here in the US. You do have to look around, though... there are many more AGP cards than PCI.

In any case, a motherboard with an AGP slot will also work with a PCI vid card... you just have to plug it into a PCI slot.

Don't buy anything less than a 64MB card. And as I think about it, don't buy anything *more* than a 64 MB card. It won't be good for anything beyond this machine.

An AGP video card needs an AGP slot on your motherboard. You cannot put the card into some other slot. Therefore, no AGP slot on the motherboard equals no possibility to use AGP video cards. Period.
As Bungleau has said, most of today video card are AGP. You can be sure that if you enter a shop and say: "I need a video card" then you will be offered only AGP cards.

That's why I have recommended an inspection of your motherboard. Make sure that the motherboard has an AGP slot first and then buy a new video card.
If you find out that you do not have an AGP slot then you will need to specify in the shop that you need a PCI card.

SOrry I wasn't too clear, Radek. What I meant to say was that if your MoBo has an AGP slot for video, that MoBo will also accept PCI vid cards... but into a PCI slot (which they all have), and not into the AGP slot. Looking back, it looks like you could misinterpret what I wrote to mean that you could plug a PCI vid card into an AGP slot. That's plain wrong.

There's a whole lot to be said for bringing the PC into the store and saying "I need a new vid card for this machine..."

*yawn* That's what I get at these odd hours...

Oops! I have answered to So So, Bungleau. You were completely clear in your comment [img]smile.gif[/img]

My old pc had a similar intel graphics controller. When you put in your new card and install the new driver it may still require you to disable the onboard graphics controller.
If you do have to do this DO NOT disable the display adapter. This will turn off any video display and you will only get a blank screen. The computer will be working fine so you cant do a repair install of windows to fix it, you just wont see what is happening. This has already happened to some fool on this very forum.
Also make sure you only install the latest drivers, they can be found at the manufacturers site on the internet.

Hrms.... many thanx to you all.... This cleared up a lot of questions that I had about the whole tech issue with my computer... I really need to start learning about these things...

But I have decided since I'm going to college I might as well just get a new laptop and not worry about my desktop anymore. Out with the old and in with the new.

Though I have to plague you all with another question. What is the difference between all these Pentium 4 and Pentium Centrino and Pentium M???.... Or is getting an AMD processor just better in general?

[ 06-15-2005, 02:11 PM: Message edited by: So So ]

I went with AMD. The main reason is the cost factor. I think, for gaming, that AMD gives you more bang for your buck.
Others may disagree.

I use AMD in all the machines I've built. These days, there's no difference... other than the money left in your pockets [img]graemlins/twocents.gif[/img]

:D

if you dont have agp the best card available is actually dx9 compliant ati 9200 pci version.