Is the video card my problem?? HELP! 1) CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz 2) RAM/Memory: 1022MB RAM 3) Free Hard Disk Space: 49.6 GB 4) Total Hard Disk Space: 74.5 GB 5) Video Card: Intel(R) 82845G/GL Graphics Controller 6) Video Card Driver Version: 6.13.0001.3119 (English) 7) DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c 8) Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 9) Sims 2 Version: Sims 2 (DVD) & Sims 2 University (CD) OK... I need help. I've been reading other threads, and from what I've read I've basically figured out my problem must be my video card. When I play The Sims2 it's always extremely slow, it usually tends to freeze for like 10 seconds during daytime to nightime transitions in the game, as well as when I'm on community lots. Community lots are almost unplayable that's how slow it goes. When I return from community lots the games freezes for what feels like an hour. It's soooo slow during game play and especially when alot of stuff is going on. It's like torture to play this game. I set all the game performance options to OFF (like shadows, reflections, etc)... and I recently bought 2 sticks of 512 RAM and I havent noticed ANY change in game performance at all, so I figured it must be the video card. I have a few questions about that... 1) What kind of card should I get for my computer? 2) How much do video cards cost? 3) Whats the cheapest one I can get that will give me good game performance? 4) Whats T&L? 5) Does my computer have T&L? 6) Can I get T&L? HELP ME! --Kara--
Question 1,2,3: What kind of card you can get depends on what you computer can use. If you have a laptop or notebook, there's nothing you can do. (The laptops with built in video/graphics cards can't be changed.) If you have a computer which has an AGP port, then you can get pretty much any AGP card you can afford. It's not recommended that you get any card lower than a Radeon 9200 or FX5200. Those will run you about US$100 (give or take a bit.) But if you can, it's better to go for a Radeon 9600 or higher or an FX5600 or higher. Those tend to run a bit higher, but since I found a Geforce 6600GT for only US$169, you can probably find something between those two. Many of the computers with the 82845G/GL integrated card (and all Intel cards are "integrated cards") have only PCI (not PCX or PCI Express) ports. That means that the only cards you can upgrade to for better performance are the PCI FX5200 and the PCI Radeon 9200. There're in the same price range as the AGP ones, but may be a bit higher. (They seem to be phasing them out already. Some of the really good PCI cards have already been phased out leaving only these.) Avoid *any* card which has LE or SE in the name as they are cheaper because they have taken out important things. The lower numbered cards are actually better. (It's a marketing strategy, in otherwords.) And also avoid the Powercolor brand, because they are cheaper for the same reason. Questions 4,5,6: The only problem I can see is the video card at this point. The RAM isn't going to help enough because the video card is not letting it use its full potential. T&L is Texture and Lighting. The newer cards have it built in. The older cards can't do it. And the Intel cards do not have T&L, unfortunately. All of the ones I recommended above *do* have it. For info on things like "does my computer have an AGP or PCI slot", that's come up so many times that it should be pretty easy to find with a search of the forum. Good luck with your computer upgrade. You'll be amazed how much better your game plays and looks with a better card.
