Okay graphic card dorks. I need your help.

[Chovexani]

I FINALLY managed to get a copy of Knights of the Old Republic for the PC (don't own an X-Box and barring another Grand Quintile I won't be buying one). Got it dirt cheap off eBay. Problem is, my PC is an absolute POS prefab Gateway that is like 5 years old. I don't even know wtf is under the hood of this thing, other than it both sucks and blows at the same time. Up to this point I haven't had much trouble running relatively recent games that aren't too demanding (the Original Campaign of Neverwinter Nights was so slow I couldn't play it, but that was a blessing in disguise). However, I ran the system scan utility thingie after installing KOTOR and it says my video card sucks too bad, no game for me. Even tried running the game for the hell of it but the whole screen was almost white and I couldn't click on anything.

My question is this: what is the bare minimum cheap-ass card I could slap in this hunk of shit to be able to play games like KOTOR? I don't need all the fancy effects, I don't need to win any penis-size contests (I'm a girl I'd lose anyway), I just need to be able to run the game ok enough so that I can play it without everything looking screwed up. I'm on a limited budget and I'm about ten seconds off pulling a Michael Bolton on this thing anyway (if you saw Office Space you'd know what I mean). And, like I said, this thing is such a POS I wouldn't dare put anything fancy in it 'cause it would probably explode.

BTW I think the suck-ass card I've got is some kind of Nvidia card that I'm sure went out of fashion around the time people stopped writing on clay tablets. I am also 95% a console gamer, and only use my Mac/PC for stuff like Starcraft, Civilization, The Sims and cRPGs. Basically for games I can't play on my PS2 or Cube. So I'll need to be talked to like a 3 year old, because the only thing I understand about graphics is that they make the half-naked Squaresoft boys look shiny on my TV, and I like that.

[0rganism]

1. Does your computer take AGI video cards, or does it use a PCI slot?

That's going to make-or-break you right there, probably.

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. At minimum you'll need a Geforce 3 64MB card, I think.

The Geforce 3 Ti200 is a pretty decent card, and it should be enough (look at the recommended system specs; probably requires a DX9 compatible card and specifies minimum video memory requirements).

And a quick look at Pricewatch shows one vendor who carries the card for $60. http://www.shentech.com/vigeti64ddra.html

Of course, if you have PCI video and not AGP, you'll need adifferent card.

[Wilber_Stool]

3. You might try upgrading your drivers

before you buy a new card. If you have never done it, it will make a world of difference. You have to know the type of card that's installed in your machine. I it's a nVidia or ATI, go here, scroll down to the bottom right. Win 2K/Xp.


http://www.guru3d.com/

[Chovexani]

6. I had a bad experience upgrading recently

I upgraded to the latest nVidia driver and my machine just lost it. Ended up having to re-install Windows. :(

[Maestro]

4. Well let's see

At minimum I would get a card with 64 mb of RAM on-board as has been mentioned. You are right about not wanting a fast, modern card because if your computer is a POS Gateway that is five years old, your memory and cpu would be bottlenecks for the information anyway. I suggest an AGP version of the Nvidia GeForce TI 4400 or FX 5200 or if you can find a GeForce 3 go ahead. Stay away from the MX versions. They are POS's as well. ATI has started making great cards as well but I am not too familiar with their low-end products only the high end which wouldn't really help you.

[TroubleMan]

5. I ran it on a Geforce 2, 64 MB with no problems

I've since upgraded, but you can pick up one of those cards for like 5 or 10 bucks.