Computer Related (Please Help)

wul3er · Post by **wul3er** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 9:35 pm

Does anyone know what a Transform & Lighting (T&L) capable Video card is.

I have never heard of one before. I just baught the sims 2 and it states that if you have one of these the processor required speed is 800MHZ which i would qualify. Or it states that if you dont have a (T&L) capable video card the required processor speed is 2 GHZ.

I have 1300 MHZ and the game is running really slow.

So, could someone please tell me what kind of video card i require and if possible a rough idea of price would be great.

Thanks in advance.

metz · Post by **metz** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:00 pm

Hiya mate, at the moment i'd say one of the best cards for your money is a ATI Radeon 9800pro, at about Â£100 (give or take a few pound) is a lot of card for little money.

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:09 pm

lol wul3er sounds like you're stuck in my kind of timewarp

a T&L card is anything really in the GeForce or Radeon class ie takes on board some of the strain of working out the low-level maths of a 3D scene from the basic description (ie figuring out where every last polygon goes and how it should be lit), rather than just reading what the CPU's worked out and illustrating such like a voodoo class card might (which is itself a herculeanan task...).

guess it means i won't be Sim'ing any time soon.... no big loss really, sounds like another Maxis (?) / Microprose free-time black hole.. like Civ.. Simcity.. Railroad Tycoon.. Flight Sim.. F19

(or GTA)

wul3er · Post by **wul3er** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:28 pm

Ahh, and here was me thinking my computer was up to scratch(ish)

In the manual it recomends the ATI radeon 9800pro. But when i looked on ebay the price is a bit above me limits for the moment.

Is there any other cheaper alternatives i could get to get the game running in the mean time.

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:40 pm

you can afford the game but not a card to run it?

even a vanilla GeForce or GF2 might be able to help you out, as it can handle T&L natively (it's main selling point on launch, as it was the only card that did). second hand ones should go for silly money nowadays..

wul3er · Post by **wul3er** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:51 pm

The game was a present from my girlfreind.

She over heard my saying that it looked good and i wanted to play it. So she surprised me by buying me it. I never realised that my Video card wouldnt be able to handle it. I think i'll see what money i can come up with and have a look in the computer shop next to my work and see what they have for me.

Si_GTi · Post by **Si_GTi** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 8:26 am

If you can't get a 9800 Pro try looking for a 9600 or a 9600XT. I picked up an ABIT 9600XT 256MB card from dabs for about Â£130. Its great!

The card I was originally after is this one...
http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/compone ... klinx=2W59
... which is highly recommended. Â£122.98, p&p will probably bring it nearer Â£130. Bargain!

SiDaBa · Post by **SiDaBa** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 8:42 am

I recently bought a Geforce 5200 (sure there are other letters between there but i'm not at home to look at the box or anything) 256Mb. Â£80 from PC world! Now when i play NFS Underground i can see the lil people around my car when i win.

Also i've been able to play Sims fine over the entire weekend....and last night

Still my processor is slightly faster BUT it's a cheap and alright card

metz · Post by **metz** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 9:05 am

Do what si_gti says, i was just gunna tell you the same, the 9600xt is the best bet if you cant afford the 9800pro.

That class of radeons wiped the floor with its geforce counterparts.

As being upto scratch is concerned, If you bought a new pc 2day...in 6months it would be considered obsolite. Technology changes so fast in the computer world.
I bought a (at the time) top of the range 2.8athlon xp cpu and 512 333mhz ddr ram with a serial ata 80gb hdd, less than a month later there were faster cpu's and bigger hdd's available.
I've got battlefield vietnam installed on my pc with 2.8 athlon 512 333 ddr and a geforce 3 Ti 500 and i can't run that on anywhere like the better graphics settings. Jesus my posts are becoming tahrey's.. i will stop.

Si_GTi · Post by **Si_GTi** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 12:23 pm

I've been wanting to upgrade my home pc for ages but keep getting distracted by my Polo - MOT, tax, insurance and servicing are keeping my wallet away from Dell's website! So I compromised by getting the graphics card in preparation for the new machine

So atm, I've got a "lowly" Athlon 850 with 512MB SDRAM and an 80GB HDD. Oh and a shiney uber-fast graphics card. I think I might just get a mainboard/memory/processor package tbh, but then I'll want a new (quieter!!) case too...

wul3er · Post by **wul3er** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 8:23 pm

When looking at the Video cards i noticed that most of them were DDR ram.

I have sd ram (pc133). So i wasnt sure if they would work. I was planning on upgrading next year. But the guy in the computer shop suggested i buy a Geforce 4 with 64Mb he says if i take the computer in he will tell me if it will work. I might also get a new processor providing the motherboard will accept it.

metz · Post by **metz** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 9:14 pm

The ddr ram on the video card will work with your current pc as it doesnt affect your system ram, Also go back to the shop and punch the guy in his eye for trying to sell you a peice of sh** graphics card mate. Geforce 4 cards are obsolite now and even my geforce 3 ti500 is better than the 64mb geforce 4 cards.

Get a radeon 9600xt or 9800pro if the price is right for you.

Hope it wasn't one of the pc world numskulls that suggested the geforce card. They told me i had to buy a standalone card reader for my pc as you couldn't buy one that fitted in a bay of your computer. As my mate had bought one from a computer fair that day the guy was a little embaressed when he fetched it from the car so i could be smug with it.

As for a new cpu, i reckon your motherboard will not take the new athlon xp cpu's as it has a athlon 800 at the moment. This suggests its quite an old system. but a cheap and chearfull pc chips motherboard will set you back all of Â£30 and a 2400xp cpu is probably less than Â£50 now.

wul3er · Post by **wul3er** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 10:00 pm

TBH i think it could be the AMD athlon Xp thats in it. How would i be able to find this out.

And also How much is one of these Video Cards you's are sugesting likley to cost.

Si_GTi · Post by **Si_GTi** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 11:15 pm

*cough cough*

Si_GTi wrote:The card I was originally after is this one...
http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/compone ... klinx=2W59
... which is highly recommended. Â£122.98, p&p will probably bring it nearer Â£130. Bargain!

metz · Post by **metz** » Wed Sep 22, 2004 8:58 am

Athlon xp cpu's started at about 1.5gb i think, so yours is definatley the older athlon. I used to have a athlon 800 before i upgraded so i know you will have to buy a new motherboard too.

Graphics cards >
http://www.kelkoo.co.uk/sitesearch/go.j ... PAN2uk&orw

http://www.kelkoo.co.uk/sitesearch/go.j ... TV-out&orw

The 9600xt is not a bad price and free delivery is a bonus.
to be honest if you got that card a cpu/mb and some decent ddr ram your pc would play all or most of the present batch of games in the shops smoothly.