Yet another video card question

M

Martygi

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 14, 2003
Messages
82
Merry Christmas Everyone,

I know...not yet another "please pick a video card" thread...

I bought the following computers as Christmas gifts for my sons:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1870262,00.asp

I know they aren't the best, but I got them for $460 (total price)
each and that's about all I can afford for this year. My youngest
son likes to play Command and Conquer so I was wondering
which ATI card would go best with the 3400 Sempron? I would
like to stay ATI just because the computer already has an inbedded
ATI chip and this should cause the least amount of hassles when
it comes to drivers and all.

I don't plan on upgrading the video myself, I just want to know in
which direction to point him since he'll surely be getting extra
Christmas money from other family members.

Thanks for the help!
 
Every Command and Conquer game would play on that computer without having to add in a new video card. My brother has a laptop with the same integrated graphics and he can play Command and Conquer Generals with everything maxed out at 1024x768. The C&C games aren't very graphically intense. It might be worth it to upgrade the video card for future games, though.
 
Thanks for the info. I was thinking some sort of X800 blend is what I was going to recommend.
As for my C&C comment...it could be he would play other games if his current computer would handle them better? I let him borrow my AOE3 and he said it barely runs...maybe an X800 would make that play better than the onboard chip?
 
Yeah,the issue is games like Generals are old enough that todays integrated chips can play them fine; AOE3 is using not only DX9 but also taking advantage of SM3, and thus looks gorgeous, but plays like crap on anything but a dedicated card. Morale of the story is that if he's going to want to continue playing RTSs, then he should have a seperate graphics card.

This 6600gt is 125 after a 20 dollar MIR. and is another option you could consider. That x800 mentioned above would also get the job done nicely, though it doesn't have some of the features the 6600gt has.

Also, consider picking up another 512 megs of RAM for the computer if he'll be doing a little gaming; it should only be ~35 bucks.
 
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