Dad needs recomendation of card for kids PC

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video (More info?)

My 5 year old son is starting to get into pure entertainment games (instead
of just educational). I have one that he received for his last birthday
called Hot Wheels World Race. My son's PC meets all the minimum requirements
except the video card. The game requires a "DirectX 9.0 compatible sound
card with 32MB RAM". Before the install it runs a hardware check and states
that the card I have doesn't support 3D hardware acceleration.

So my problem is trying to determine what card has hardware acceleration. I
need some help finding a good deal. I would prefer to find something
new/used off eBay that has 32-64MB and meets the requirements above and I
would prefer not to spend over $30-35. Is that possible or am I kidding
myself?

I did try a cheap card from CompUSA called a Champion MX 400 GeForce2 64MB
AGP 4x/2x which after rebate is 10$. Sounded good but I didn't read the box
carefully enough and afterwards noticed the card only supports DirectX 7.0.
Is that all the difference I need to watch for is making sure it is DirectX
9.0 compatible? That doesn't sound like hardware acceleration to me but what
do I know.

I have been A+ and Network+ certified for the last 5+ years but I work in
the business world where video capability is not a big concern except for
PowerPoint and certainly nothing 3D so I would appreciate some help.

Thanks
Tony Vrolyk

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video (More info?)

The cheapest card you will find that supports DirectX9 (which most
current games will be using) is the GeForce FX5200; it can be found
for about US$70 with 128mb and several configurations (TV-Out, dual
output, etc). It's a nice card, specially for it's price, but don't
expect a performance king.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video (More info?)

Tony,

The question is if the card needs to be compatible with DirectX 9, or
whether it has to support all of the DX9 features in *hardware*.

I believe that some fairly old cards are DX9 compatible, if the maker was
obliging enough to make DX9 drivers. The latest nVidia drivers (61.77 for
XP, 61.76 for Win9X, at www.nvidia.com) support your MX 400, and are DX9
compatible. Did you try DX9 drivers with the MX 400? The drivers included
with the card may be older than DirectX 9 itself.

If you need DX9 hardware support (unlikely), the lowest-end cards (that I
know of) use the nVidia Geforce FX 5200 chipset, or the ATI Radeon 9500 or
above. The 5200 is still current, but, if new, costs roughly twice your
stated price target (www.newegg.com). A Radeon 9550 or 9600 won't be
cheaper, but the 9600 may have much better performance (if you need it).

Good luck.

Bob Knowlden

Address may be scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

"Tony Vrolyk" <tRvErMoOlVyEk@tds.net> wrote in message
news:413bed9f$1_1@newspeer2.tds.net...
> My 5 year old son is starting to get into pure entertainment games
> (instead of just educational). I have one that he received for his last
> birthday called Hot Wheels World Race. My son's PC meets all the minimum
> requirements except the video card. The game requires a "DirectX 9.0
> compatible sound card with 32MB RAM". Before the install it runs a
> hardware check and states that the card I have doesn't support 3D hardware
> acceleration.
>
> So my problem is trying to determine what card has hardware acceleration.
> I need some help finding a good deal. I would prefer to find something
> new/used off eBay that has 32-64MB and meets the requirements above and I
> would prefer not to spend over $30-35. Is that possible or am I kidding
> myself?
>
> I did try a cheap card from CompUSA called a Champion MX 400 GeForce2 64MB
> AGP 4x/2x which after rebate is 10$. Sounded good but I didn't read the
> box carefully enough and afterwards noticed the card only supports DirectX
> 7.0. Is that all the difference I need to watch for is making sure it is
> DirectX 9.0 compatible? That doesn't sound like hardware acceleration to
> me but what do I know.
>
> I have been A+ and Network+ certified for the last 5+ years but I work in
> the business world where video capability is not a big concern except for
> PowerPoint and certainly nothing 3D so I would appreciate some help.
>
> Thanks
> Tony Vrolyk
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video (More info?)

Bob Knowlden wrote:

> The question is if the card needs to be compatible with DirectX 9, or
> whether it has to support all of the DX9 features in *hardware*.
>
> I believe that some fairly old cards are DX9 compatible, if the maker
> was obliging enough to make DX9 drivers. The latest nVidia drivers
> (61.77 for XP, 61.76 for Win9X, at www.nvidia.com) support your MX
> 400, and are DX9 compatible. Did you try DX9 drivers with the MX 400?
> The drivers included with the card may be older than DirectX 9 itself.

Yes... The driver may be compatible with the DirectX9 features but it
doesn't mean a lot when the hardware does not support it, the DX9 features
would simply be ignored or emulated in software. The latter would most
likely make any game using the features unplayable.

Martin.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video (More info?)

Tony, I'm 14 years old and I got this game last year for my birthday
from my grandmom ( thinks im 5 or something ) I have a GeForce 2 MX,
it cost around $50 and if your son is going to be getting other 3d
games this is just the right card, as long as he's not planning to
play doom 3 at 1024x768 he should be good

==============
Posted through www.HowToFixComputers.com/bb - free access to hardware troubleshooting newsgroups.