P-II/400MHz/Woodo2 upgrade ??

[ervmad]

I have an old PII/400 MHz /64Mbyte / Woodo2 graphic card.
Up to now, most games have been working but the newest christmas presents didn't work now, like Ages of Mythology...

Will it be enough to get a new GeForce4 card to get these games working? Can anyone help me with advice on what I should consider in upgrading ??

/Mats

 

[ferrari]

Unfortunately, i think you will need a brand new system. 400mhz and 64 meg is just too little nowaday for any graphic accelerator to help. I think that most people in this forum would agree with me on this.

 

[Rubberbband]

I second that opinion. A GF4 won't improve your performance much as your sytem will be the bottleneck. If you don't have the cash for a new system, pick up a GF2 (try to avoid the MX models) and squeeze out a few more months out of it but don't expect it to play newer games. It will still be a major improvement over that Voodoo.

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[dhlucke]

Pick up a GeForce2 if you plan on keeping that system. Be warned: it'll still be limited. Majorly limited. I have that setup for my wife and it can't play everything I want, but it's good enough if you don't play games that much. Don't get any MX cards. I have a GF2 Pro in there.

If you have the cash, upgrade everything.

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[Col_Kiwi]

Don't get any MX cards.

That'd be a good signature.

-Col.Kiwi

 

[the_Prisoner]

Geforce 2 card and if you do not mind playing games 2 years and older. Their are alot of great games out their that are 3 years and older and you can pick them up cheap. Also, another 64MB of memory would help.

the Prisoner

I'm not a number, I'm a free man!

 

[Skipper007]

Although I mainly use my dad's Althon for gaming, I have run Command and Conquer: Renegade on my K6-2 450 with 256MB RAM and a 8MB Matrox G200. It was actually playable most of the time, if a bit choppy, which sometimes made it hard to aim. The one time it did have a tendancy to slow down was with flame tanks firing on screen - the one time where it's really bad to have your computer slow down.

Interestingly, some older shooters such as Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force had worse performance characteristics, and Dungeon Siege was seriously choppy on this configuration. But it ran Renegade pretty well for such an old rig.

My personal opinion based on my experience is that you should upgrade your system, but if you don't want to shell out that much get a Geforce 2 and up the ram to 256. Ram is cheap anyway.

 

[Crashman]

In spite of what you might here, your system can still game at 800x600 if you just add more RAM and a decent card. RAM prices as they are, a 256MB stick is your best value, you'll probably need 16-chip double sided DIMM's to support that size, and Crucial sells them cheap (I paid $30 for mine a few weeks back).

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[Crashman]

Oh, I forgot to mention a card. On a system that old I'd set a cap of around $100 on the video card, which lands you with the Radeon 8500 OEM as your best value at $92.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[the_Prisoner]

Yah, it is amazing what a PII 400 with a decent video card and enough system ram can do! Lots of older games out there to play.

the Prisoner

I'm not a number, I'm a free man!

 

[Crashman]

Should be able to play most NEW games at 800x600 resolution with medium detail. OK, I play Need For Speed Hot Persuit 2 on a Celeron and Radeon DDR, with medium detail, at 1024x768. The 8500 would stomp my card, even with a piddly 400 powering it.

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[ervmad]

I bought 128M RAM and a GF4-MX440-64M from Inno3D. All for 100$
I run games in 1024x768 (Ages of Mythology, NBA2003, Fifa2003, NHL 2003 and more)
It works without any problem and I am glad I did it!!!

 

[Crashman]

You see? I was right. Don't let these "1337 g@y-m3rz" discourage you, I knew you could do it!

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[the_Prisoner]

woohoo! Lots of power in that old computer. And I will say again, lots of great games out their that are 1-5 years old.

How old is Half Life? Still a wonderful game. Trbibes, System Shock 2, Theif, Baldurs Gate, Bad Mojo, Wing commander series, Interstate '76, Need for Speed and etc!

the Prisoner

I'm not a number, I'm a free man!

 

[Crashman]

I run the latest games on a card with half the power and a CPU with twice the power.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[the_Prisoner]

I did not say you could not. Just nice to see that you can run newer games on older computer. Funny that you see computer recomendations on the box of a game, but they do not really reflect what power is needed or not needed.

I will say it again, still alot of great older games out their to play and you can buy them cheap.

Keep playing,

the Prisoner

I'm not a number, I'm a free man!