ATI RADEON 9250 256MB Videocard

[Droidie]

Hey all

Recently accquired the Sims 3 and need to upgrade graphics card as receiving Shader2.0 error current system

Win XP sp3
HP Compaq desktop
Motherboard N1996 with PCI-e slot
180gb hard disk
2gb ram

Is the ATI 9250 compatible and does it have Shader2.0

Or can my existing card be uprated?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Droidie

 

[refillable]

You sure you have PCI-E? According to HP it only has AGP, or is yours a different model?

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lang=en&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=bph07557

If you only have AGP, the best card is this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161337

If you are very sure you have PCI-E, go upgrade to this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102952

Also, show us what your Power Supply is.

 

[purple stain]

^+1

But you will probably have to upgrade the PSU if you want to use the 4670.

 

[tajisi]

The 9250 is fairly ancient by modern standards. If you don't want to spend a lot and don't have a good PSU, you might be limited to something like an old Nvidia 7600GT or 8400GT.

That is assuming your CPU (Pentium 4 or Celeron? Going by a google search here, so more info helps) can handle the game. Chances are it still won't run very well even if you upgrade the GPU.

 

[Droidie]

Hi it's currently running a AMD 2.19 PSU so I don't know how high I can go with a graphics card

 

[Droidie]

You sure you have PCI-E? According to HP it only has AGP, or is yours a different model?

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lang=en&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=bph07557

If you only have AGP, the best card is this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161337

If you are very sure you have PCI-E, go upgrade to this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102952

Also, show us what your Power Supply is.

Hi definitely has a pci-e slot at the ATI9250 is in it at the moment the only problem might be the PSU is only AMD 2.19

 

[renz496]

lol. i own that card before. was my second card after nvidia Riva TNT 2 64 .

@OP

can you specify the exact model for your amd cpu? what is your psu wattage? on another note are you sure that you have PCI-E x16 slot and not x1 slot?

 

[jaguarskx]

It could be a PCI card (not to be confused with PCI-e). I recall seeing some PCI versions of the Radeon 9250. I think Diamond made one.

Anyway, you will need to buy a newer card to play Sims 3. The Radeon 9250 is a DirectX 8 card, the Sims 3 requires a DirectX 9 card as a minimum. It also only support Pixel Shader 1.4 or 1.5; I can't remember that far back since it was released 10 years ago.

 

[tajisi]

Droidie, I can tell you that I am 100% certain that there are no 9250 cards made for PCIE.

We need more specific information. Perhaps if you could run CPU-Z or some other similar program you could give it to us. The only references I can find online are to very old low end Intel boards.

Assuming your computer is running an AMD chip, probably an Athlon XP (given the age of your video card and what little information I can gather), then it's likely to choke to death should you try running Sims 3.

You'd be better off buying a cheap APU based desktop that has everything you need already in it before investing in a dinosaur to try and upgrade it. Hope you can find a way to play your game.

 

[purple stain]

Sims 3 isn't that demanding.I think the OP just wants to be able to play the game, not max it out.

Sims 3

System Requirements
OS: Windows XP (Service Pack 2) or Windows Vista (Service Pack 1)
Processor: (XP) 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent; (Vista) 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
Memory: (XP) 1 GB; (Vista) 1.5 GB
Graphics: 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
DirectX®:
Hard Drive: At least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content
Sound:
Built-in Graphics:
Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA X3000 or above.
2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent
0.5 GB additional RAM

Supported Video Cards:Nvidia GeForce series: FX5900 or greater, G100, GT 120, GT 130, GTS 150, GTS 250, GTX 260, GTX 275, GTX 280, GTX 285, GTX 295; ATI Radeon™ series: ATI Radeon 9500 series of greater, X300, X600, X700, X800, X850, X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950, 2400, 2600, 2900, 3450, 3650, 3850, 3870, 4850, 4870 series or greater; Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA): GMA 3-Series, GMA 4-Series
*Please note that the GeForce 6100 and 7100 cards are not supported

9500 series or greater so the 9250 won't work.

 

[tajisi]

Have you ever tried playing any of those on a P4 single core? Sims 2 even, with a low end GPU like that, lagged pretty bad. I remember having to turn down a lot of stuff to play it, and that game is several years old. I've seen Sims 3 stutter on a relatively new low end PC when a lot of Sims get on screen and start doing things. Slide show.

While he can "play" it, 12 FPS at 640 x 480 with bottomed out settings... Is that any justification to try and talk him into spending his money for what will at best be a slight upgrade? By the time he spends $50 on a GPU and more on a PSU he's probably already up to a third of the cost of a Wal-Mart level APU based machine that will blow his current one out of the water in every aspect and regard.

 

[Droidie]

lol. i own that card before. was my second card after nvidia Riva TNT 2 64 .

@OP

can you specify the exact model for your amd cpu? what is your psu wattage? on another note are you sure that you have PCI-E x16 slot and not x1 slot?

processor is AMD 3200+ 2.19ghzn
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=bph07557&dlc=en
Link shows the motherboard the slot is listed as accelerated graphics slot
Cannot see the sticker on the psu without taking it apart as the sticker is set against a blank side.
Droidie

 

[Droidie]

It could be a PCI card (not to be confused with PCI-e). I recall seeing some PCI versions of the Radeon 9250. I think Diamond made one.

Anyway, you will need to buy a newer card to play Sims 3. The Radeon 9250 is a DirectX 8 card, the Sims 3 requires a DirectX 9 card as a minimum. It also only support Pixel Shader 1.4 or 1.5; I can't remember that far back since it was released 10 years ago.

Would you know if I could just use a 9500 or a 9550 with my current set up
CPU AMD 3200+2.19 win xp sp3 2gb ram I cannot see the sticker on the psu without dismantling the box
Droidie

 

[truegenius]

get a new board+cpu+ram and it will serve you better and will not require a gfx card to play sims3 at low settings

how much is your budget

 

[purple stain]

Are you sure your getting the right specs? That motherboard page says a Intel.