Dave P

Got a Sony Viao Pc but it won't run SimCity 4. I have been told by Sony that it's because the video card isn't upto the job.

Looking to upgrade the video card for no more than £50.

I'm running an AMD Athlon 1800. I know my memory is DDR, but can I use DDR video cards as well.

Any help appreciated.

Dave

ChrisB

Not so much a question about the video card being DDR...

Do you have an AGP slot available?

If so, you should be able to just get a GeForce 4MX 64MB card for £50.

If not, a PCI GeForce is available for they cost more IIRC.

JoeyDeacon

I have a GeForce 440MX 64MB in my PC because at the time I wanted to build as cheap a PC as possible that would play games and for £50 it seemed a good choice as I didn't want to spend £200+ on a video card. For the money it's pretty good, it can handle Medal of Honour and Mafia really well at 1024X768 but for newer games and higher resolutions it will start to struggle. The other problem with the 440MX is that it is a pretty cut down card and can't handle some of the nice effects that the proper Geforce 4 Ti cards can handle. That said I couldn't really notice when we benchmarked my card alongside my friends £185 Geforce 4 Ti4600.

Other good choice for that sort of money would be a Radeon 9000. The other advanntage of the 9000 is it supports full direct X 8.1 so you will get all the nice effects that the MX440 can't handle.

I have read that Sim City 4 is very resource hungry so I unfortunately have no idea how either of these cards will handle it?

One thing to note is that both of these cards are only going to be short term solutions as neither of them Support Direct X 9.

Most people on here who are into games think the MX440 is only good for using word and that if you want to play games you HAVE to have a Radeon 9700 Pro......

Mr Footlong

iTrader: (7)

Erm, no to the random 9700 comment above.
Thumbs up for the 9000 series for a nice performance boost for budget gaming

Cheers,

Nick

Dave P

OK the big Sony rip off. Sell it as a multimedia machine but no AGP slot.

So I guess I have to get a PCI Video Card. These seem to be few and far between and top cash. Any thoughts?

Pc is actually a mate at work.

Dave

jbryant

If there's no AGP then a PCI GeForce 4 MX may well be the best bet.
Otherwise you can get very cheaply the GeForce 4 MX AGP version, or strecthc up to the 4200 series cards, depending on the budget.
I'm not familiar with the equiv Radeons as they lost my trust a long time ago

Cheers
Joolz

jbryant

Aha - I've just re-read your post and the 4200's are over your budget.

Joolz

Dave P

It's a mates PC so I can't get a look inside. Sony actually told him it had no AGP slot, but I think you quote the same Motherboard as they quoted to him. Not seen him today as been on a course.

Cheers for all the help.

Dave

JoeyDeacon

Surely it has an AGP Slot??? Even my old Pentium 2 266 motherboard I have gathering dust in a cupboard has an AGP slot???

Have you whipped the cover off to have a look yet?? I have done a quick search on Yahoo and I think the current card in the machine is a SiS740 32 MB.

If it does (as I suspect it does) have an AGP slot I would go for a Radeon 9000 if your budget is only £50. Dabs are selling this card for £53 but I have personally had bad experiences with them so I would probably buy elsewhere.

[Edited by JoeyDeacon - 2/5/2003 2:23:27 PM]