Shaders necessary for some games?

Hello,

In some newer games, shaders are ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED - the only one I could name is Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Not only do you need a shader capable card, but it has to have Shader Model 2.0 or higher. There are some hacks for Oblivion that will allow you to run it on Shader Model 1.1 cards, but definitely not on your GeForce4MX - never ever, sorry no can do, nada zip zilch, no means no etc...

However, there are still many good games that don't need it. Half Life 2 for example - though 2 years old - is still a relatively recent game that will work fine on your GeForce4MX. Yes, it won't show you all the clever shading and water stuff, but it'll still be fun and still look better than older games. Half Life 2 - Episode One - which is very new, should also work, as it's based on the same game engine.

I don't really have much more information on specific games, but I'd just say - check whatever game you want really carefully. But on another note - if you're going to keep your card, then I'd look out for older games you haven't played, there's a lot of good games out there which should keep you happy, they're often very cheap to buy too. Save your extra dollars for a new graphics card instead! Might be worth waiting ~12-18months though, some revolutionary improvments might be coming out with the next generation of graphics cards.

Didn' I already say [most of] that??

Additionally, I would consider very carefully before getting a socket939 system. You already have an obsolete system, you'd have to be very firm on what your plans are to be buying another obsolete system. In a few months, you'll be able to get a reasonably cheap socketAM2 system - which might be low-spec, but more upgradeable in the longterm than socket939. Heck, you might even be able to get a low-spec Conroe system instead. Not that I would.

Depending on what the rest of your system has, you'd very likely get a reasonable improvement in your gaming if you could pick up a second hand AGP graphics card for your current system (even if you don't have AGPx8 support!) - such as GeForce 6600GT or Radeon X850 ... in fact, compared to your lame* GeForce4MX, even a Radeon 9700 (like mine) or GeForceFX 5950 would be a massive improvement - and probably much cheaper than buying an already obsolete socket939 system new.

* - sorry, couldn't resist. I used to have a GeForce2MX before my current system ... now my sister has it and I'm not upgrading for at least 12 months**, so she's not getting the Radeon until then either. On the other hand - like I said GeForce2MX was just fine for UT2004 at medium detail levels.

** - dreaming of ATi R600 "Xenan"*** w/ 64 unified shaders and 512MB RAM - should be expensive!! But I'd have kept my current AGP setup for 4 years by then.

*** - edited to reflect Xenos derivation rather than take the same name - dern n!+P1cK0RZ!!!