Can the Radoen X300 handle The Sims 2 with a dual-core Intel

[maguszxz]

Hey, my birthday is coming up and I am getting a copy of The Sims 2 (it's my gift from me to me, lol). My new computer has a X300 with a dedicated 128 MBs of video memory. Also, it comes with a 2.8 Ghz Intel Pentuim D. I have heard that The Sims 2 is more of a CPU game than graphical but I aint sure. I was wondering if my X300 will be able to play it with a decent frame rate until I get an X800 or 6800.

 

[maguszxz]

Can anybody suggest a good card that does cost alot. Around about 150 to 250 is my price range. It doesn't matter whether its ATI or Nvidia.

 

[bourgeoisdude]

6600GT or 6800GS if going with nvidia, the radeon x1600 should be pretty decent too.

 

[apache_lives]

me mates system (P4c 2800, 1gb ram, FX5200 video) runs it ok so your well above the minimum.

 

[dvdpiddy]

remember the x300 has 4 pipes so it should be just fine also remember that the x300 is just the 9600 version for pci-e i think.

 

[maguszxz]

I was looking into a PNY Verto 6600 at best buy a few weeks ago. I am a little gunshy with places like Newegg and Tiger Direct. I never bought something over 50 dollars from the internet. I try to find deals in retail.

 

[dvdpiddy]

screw tiger direct they rip you off more than a man selling a reliable dell!

 

[maguszxz]

a classmate of mine got a 512 MB video card off of Tiger Direct for 139 and it works. I just wonder if it will last.

 

[MTLink]

I was looking into a PNY Verto 6600 at best buy a few weeks ago. I am a little gunshy with places like Newegg and Tiger Direct. I never bought something over 50 dollars from the internet. I try to find deals in retail.

Retail stores usually charge anywhere from $50-100 more for a video card. E-tail FTW.

BTW, if you want to know how well it will run, just DL the demo (if there is one)

 

[maguszxz]

I wish there was a demo to The Sims 2. I played the demo to The Movies and it played really good. I was very surpised.

 

[apache_lives]

a classmate of mine got a 512 MB video card off of Tiger Direct for 139 and it works. I just wonder if it will last.

another poor sucker tripping up in the "more vram is faster" crap - my mates FX5200 256mb is slower then a 64mb GeForce4 Ti4200

 

[maguszxz]

Yea, I just don't think a 512 MB video card for 139 would hold up for a long time. I have decided to either upgrade to X700 or Geforce 6600. I aint got the urge to play Doom 3, Half-Life 2 or Battlefield 2. As long as it can play The Sims 2, The Movies, and Guild Wars at a better frame rate. It's all good.

 

[maguszxz]

a classmate of mine got a 512 MB video card off of Tiger Direct for 139 and it works. I just wonder if it will last.

I bet it's like 6600. For that price, the card is shit now, no way it will last, and it can't use all of that memory.

So should I look into the X700. Before I am impressed by ATI but I heard some horror stories about drivers and how hard it is to find them

 

[bourgeoisdude]

a classmate of mine got a 512 MB video card off of Tiger Direct for 139 and it works. I just wonder if it will last.

another poor sucker tripping up in the "more vram is faster" crap - my mates FX5200 256mb is slower then a 64mb GeForce4 Ti4200

Agreed. The dumbest thing--well smartest as far as marketing/business strategy goes--is that the GeForce FX series had no "MX" line. Remember the "Ti" indicates it was designed for the enthusiast. The FX5200 is better known as a GeForce 5 MX520, to put it in perspective. Remember how much the GeForce 4 MX cards sucked? That's the GeForce FX5200.

The FX5700 is really the first card that even compares in speed to the Ti4200. I gotta GeForce 4 4200Ti 64MB card that beats most GeForce FX cards in speed. I also have a GeForce4 MX420 PCI card that obviously sucks, an ancient ATI All-in-Wonder 128 Pro AGP 4X 32MB card, and a couple of S3 Trio 1MB PCI cards for grins (wow I even have the S3 Virge ISA from my 486).

What on earth brought me to this tangeant? Anyways, I'd take a GeForce4 Ti card (EXCEPT for the AGP 4X of the 4200 as it is clocked slower than the 64MB version or the AGP 8X version) over the ATi X300 any day.

 

[DuxSyagrius]

What about DX9?

 

[bourgeoisdude]

It works. The catch is that it cannot use Pixel Shader 2.0--other than that it is worth the money. Still--if you want quality and high FPS you would have to have a bigger budget. GeForce4 Ti will give you the speed you need for almost any modern game, you only sacrifice picture quality to some extent. Very few games will not run with an AGP 8X 4200Ti 128MB card (well, except 3DMark 05 and 06 that is...)

 

[DuxSyagrius]

about 2 years ago or so my buddy bought a dell and I told him to stay away from the X300. I was pretty pissed when he bought it with the X300. But his 3.2ghz P4 with that X300 played Doom3 at 1024x768 and high quality just as good as my XP2800/9800 Pro did. That really changed my mind about low end cards. I think it is a good card for the money but is only good for a generation or two. My 9800 Pro is getting long in the tooth but it is like 4 years old you know? But if I wanted to go that route,, my buddy's XP 3000 with a MX440 could even play Doom 3 at low quality, 800x600. What can he say? It was free....

 

[cleeve]

So should I look into the X700. Before I am impressed by ATI but I heard some horror stories about drivers and how hard it is to find them

Bah! That's fear, uncertainty, and doubt from drivers more than 6 years old.

Ati drivers are every bit as good as Nvidia drivers now. As a matter of fact, Ati cards have a rep for working better with Sims2, as I recall.

 

[captaincharisma]

My Geforce FX5900 with 128MB still runs good with Doom 3 and HL 2 but do not know how good it is on sims 2 but it played a game with the sims 2 engine fine

 

[cleeve]

Your Geforce 5900 might be serving you well, but it's probably on the short list of worst cards to buy at this time for the price.

Terribly overpriced for the relative performance to other cards. A $110 X700 PRO would absolutely annihilate it. Hell, an $85 6600 would probably have it's way with it.

 

[WINDSHEAR]

get a 6600 or something... anyways, something to remember is, Sims takes a lot of RAM... 1GB at least, and then the graphics card doesn't matter as much.

 

[maguszxz]

I got a 1 GB but I am planning to get another 1 GB. So if drivers aren;t a problem, so I will look into ATI as well as Nvidia.

 

[enewmen]

YES.

I've seen the Sims2 run smoothly on a shitty FX-5200 64 megs.
THe x300 should have no trouble at all.

 

[maguszxz]

Ok, I saw a Radoen X1300 for 169.99 on Best Buy.com. I wonder that price will be the same in the store.

 

[maguszxz]

Just a follow up. I got The Sims 2 on Sat. I installed and it plays great. Better than I expected. I am still going to upgrade down the line but I am very pleased with my performance so far. Thanks for all your help and kind words.