Graphics cards?

[~Iris~]

Hello.  I was wondering if anyone could help me out with this, before I rush out and cause a $100 or more disaster lol.

I'm interested in getting a new graphics card to improve game performance.  It's pretty good right now, but I'd like it to move a bit faster after playing for an extended period of time, be a little less choppy when a lot of sims are on the lot, and not have mini-freezes (not crashes) when there are a lot of sims around.  Right now, I'm running an ATI Radeon 9200 SE PCI card, but want something better.  I saw that there's an x1300 card available, and wanted to know if this would be a good choice.  I checked the compatibility list on the official site, and the cards listed only go up to ATI x800.  I also wanted to know if a PCI ATI Radeon x-express card would work with the game as well.  I have a lot of space (which is why I don't think it's a memory issue since I've used only 18GB out of 200GB with a 512 SDRAM and 3.0GHz processor) so I'm assuming that the card needs to be upgraded for my game to run faster/better.  Could someone let me know if the x-express or x-higher than 800 series are a good choices to look into?  Thank you kindly .

[Fawke]

I'm going to put this simply. the 9200 is an out of date card. An update would be recommended. You have to be careful that you're getting a PCI card rather than a PCI Express, as the two are NOT interchangable.

PCI: Best i think out is either 6200 or X300.
I wouldn't know about PCI-E, though.

[nova-storm]

I run an ATI 9600 PCI. 1 gig of ram and an old Proc (AMD athlon 1800) and I ahve all eps. and 10gigs of downloads. I run the game on max every thing and it flys. Not one issue. I love my set up just how it is.

[~Iris~]

You have to be careful that you're getting a PCI card rather than a PCI Express, as the two are NOT interchangable.

PCI: Best i think out is either 6200 or X300.
I wouldn't know about PCI-E, though.

The thing is, my computer can take either or (I have a PCI-X slot and a PCI slot) even if they aren't interchangeable, and I was wondering which one would be better to look into getting, and which one would be compatible with the sims.  I really don't want to end up with $200 worth of useless scrap since that's basically all I use that computer for (aside from some photo editing and story writing).

Thanks for the help though, I really appreciate it and any other feedback .

[nova-storm]

Well You can look at this 2 ways.
1st. you get a ATI  card. You will spend Less and get a great card  that will run sims. But if you have to get a new PC that ATI might not fit the New PC. I got My card on Sale for $99 at Fry. ( www.outpost.com )
 
2nd. You get a PCI card spend more get a great card tha runs sims. Also you will beable to put it in any new PC you might get.

[hardwaretoad]

One of the best things you could do for your game is to double your SDRAM, better yet, increase & change to DDRAM, they're a dime-a-dozen anymore. I'm assuming you're running XP which is a real virtual memory hog... it takes the better part of what you have just to keep it chugging along, combine that with an older GPU & the slugs come out...

You can try shutting down various start-up programs as well. Good luck!

[~Iris~]

One of the best things you could do for your game is to double your SDRAM, better yet, increase & change to DDRAM, they're a dime-a-dozen anymore. I'm assuming you're running XP which is a real virtual memory hog... it takes the better part of what you have just to keep it chugging along, combine that with an older GPU & the slugs come out...

You can try shutting down various start-up programs as well. Good luck!

Right now I have 512MB of DDR SDRAM memory and want to keep it as simple as possible because I don't really want to use the computer for anything other than the Sims (no net, no video, I watch movies and burn CDs, that's it).  I have my eye on a specific ATI Radeon PCI card.  My question now is, on the side of my computer it says that my original graphics card was an "Intel Graphics Media Accelerator with up to 128MB shared video memory."  When looking for graphics cards, do I have to keep this in mind (getting either a 128MB card or 256MB card) or just go straight for the 512MB one?  I don't want to end up with basically an expensive frisbee lol.  Thank you.

[Squinge]

If you can use a PCI express card I recommend doing that; I am using a PCI Express card, it sounds like your existing video is built into your motherboard so you will have to disable it when you buy your new card which will free up some RAM, as for getting 128MB, 256MB, or 512MB most games don't use all of the 512MB yet so I would just get a 256MB unless you get a good price on a 512MB card.

[~Iris~]

If you can use a PCI express card I recommend doing that; I am using a PCI Express card, it sounds like your existing video is built into your motherboard so you will have to disable it when you buy your new card which will free up some RAM, as for getting 128MB, 256MB, or 512MB most games don't use all of the 512MB yet so I would just get a 256MB unless you get a good price on a 512MB card.

Thanks Squinge.  I guess I also should have put that my old graphics card (the one that originally came with the computer) was removed and replaced with the ATI Radeon 9200.  I don't know if that has any bearing on that, but I remember it crashing every five seconds before the card was replaced.  I'm assuming that this means that my existing video isn't built into the motherboard *shrug* lol.  I also have another question:  Should I stay with the Radeon 9000 series, or move up to the "x" series, and if I do move up to the "x" series, which one would be best (but still affordable)? I don't want to have to replace the card again.  Thanks a lot .

[Squinge]

I was refering to when you said "an "Intel Graphics Media Accelerator with up to 128MB shared video memory" so I guess you don't have that built in video anymore; I would ask someone that uses an ATI card which series you should buy; I use nVidia so I can't answer that question for you & your welcome

[Micco]

I use nVidia...

Are you SLI?