Decent Video Cards What are some decent (reasonably priced) video cards that Sims 2 will work with without a problem?
Define Reasonably Priced. Cause if there is a 400.00 video card available for 200.00, that's reasonably priced.
Any card of the Geforce 6 generations or the Radeon X. Anything lower (e.g. Geforce FX or Radeon 9) is a waste of money; you get a LOT better price to performance ratio with the new cards.
Is there a latest generation GeForce or ATI card on the market for less than $200? If so, I'd be all over that. I've got a GeForce 4 Ti4200 and I'm lookin' to upgrade, but my max budget is $200. I'm runnin' an Athlon XP 1.4 Ghz with 512 MB of RAM. So, maybe it's actually about time to upgrade the 'ol MB/CPU combo. But of course, the financial flow is limited. Any suggestions or information about somewhere I can go (online, of course) to get some inexpensive gear would be appreciated.
If you keep an eye out, you can sometimes find the Geforce 6800 for about US$200. But they need a lot of power, like at least 350W (and 400W isn't a bad idea.) And you want to make sure that your box can handle something that can run so hot it needs its own fan. Otherwise, you might be better off sticking with your ti4200 until you can get a better Mobo/CPU that can handle the higher ones. (If you really like the AMD cards, then wait until you can afford the newer 64bit CPUS and the PCX cards. I don't believe that the PCX are available for anything but Intel CPus right now.) For others who don't have the G4ti4200 (which isn't a bad card), it depends on whether you have an AGP slot or only PCI slots. If you only have PCI slots, then the best currently available is the PCI FX5200 or the PCI Radeon 9200. (The G4ti may actually be better than these, but it's not available currently except used, and then you don't know what condition it will be or how long it will last.) If you have an AGP slot, then try for something like the Radeon 9600 or above or the FX5600 or above. And if you have the bucks, then go with the G6 series or the Radeon X series. (But if you're going to do that, you might as well get a better mobo which can do the new PCX cards. And make sure that your computer can handle the needs of the higher power consuming cards and their heat issues. And get a top quality CPU while you're at it.)
Um, doesn't every video card come with its own fan and heatsink? Am I missing something? If you have a PCIe motherboard or are planning to get one, I'd recommend you get a Geforce 6 with SLI. If you ever need more juice out of the system in months to come, buy another one and hook them up. Two video cards are better than one. And I still stolidly maintain that anything less than a Geforce 6 or Radeon X is a waste of money to upgrade to. If you get a Geforce FX or Radeon 9, in time you'll regret not shelling out that extra $150 for a card that would have lasted you two more years.
Most of the older video cards don't have a built in fan. They might have a heat sink, but many are just a card. However, if all you're trying to do is to eeak out another year to save for a really good system, then getting the older cards is worthwhile. Somehow I think you're more used to leading edge computers than the ones that the average gamer has to get by with.
Smokes. I never knew that. Every single card I've ever seen sold always come with heatsinks and fans. True, I suppose if you were planning to buy a new system sometime, a $100-150 card could grind you along the year until you finally get that kick-donkey new PC. However, since I never buy entire new PC's, I'm assuming you want a card that'll last you a while. And my computer has NEVER been near high-end by gamer standards, always mid-low compared to noncasual gamers who play Doom 3 and Half Life 2 and such. Anyhow, Radeon X600 and Geforce 6600 cards are selling in the $200-$300 price range as of now. Those are the cards I'd get if I were going for a new one. There's no way I could have the money to buy a $500 top of the line. I mean, with that much money, you could buy a PS2, Gamecube, Xbox, and DS in one shot. All just for 1 piece of a computer.
From what I've observed about people who play The Sims is that they tend to buy prebuilts most of the time. Lots of Dells and Compaqs. The few who start from scratch are pretty rare. Shoot, most of them don't even know what video card they have, let alone if they have an AGP or only PCI slots. And frankly, until last spring, I was one of those people. Sure, I knew what processor I had and how much RAM, but anything else was something that I had no clue on. Thanks to Josh, however, I learned a lot very quickly about the various components of computers and built my own this September. But that was my first one (although I had been inside others to do things like upgrading RAM.) One of the main reasons why I felt I needed to learn this stuff is because there seemed to be so many people who needed help getting ready for TS2. And the people helping tended to be so condescending in trying to help those without a lot of computer knowledge. (So, I tried to educate them, the way that Josh helped me.)
