Video card for GPL and newer sims

What card would be the best in terms of number of racing games it would run?


I have two possible PC configurations:

System 1:
Operating System
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (build 2600)

Processor a Main Circuit Board b
3.07 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. 8VD667K 1.x
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG 05/09/2003
Drives Memory Modules c,d
120.02 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
48.86 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

DVD-RAM Drive

ST3120814A [Hard drive] (120.03 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 4LS0ZXDN, rev 3.AAE, SMART Status: Healthy

504 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'A0' has 256 MB
Slot 'A1' has 256 MB

Intel on board graphics card

no AGP slot - only PCI sockets


c: (NTFS on drive 0) 120.02 GB 48.86 GB free
Network Drives
None detected


Operating System System Model
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600) Acer VERITON 5200 AcerPower
System Serial Number: 02251205
Chassis Serial Number: A
Enclosure Type: Desktop
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
1.60 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: Acer S81M
Serial Number: 987654321
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. R01-E2 S1 10/03/2001
Drives Memory Modules c,d
80.02 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
29.43 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

DVD Burner Drive

Slot 'A0' has 256 MB
Slot 'A1' has 128 MB
Slot 'A2' has 128 MB

NVidia TNT 2 32M AGP GFX card


f: (NTFS on drive 0) 80.02 GB 29.43 GB free


Which one would be easiest and cheapest to bring up to scratch to play GPL properly, and maybe run something newer?

I shall move this topic to the OT forum now. More will see it and respond ok.
IMHO system 1 would barely cut the mustard, however, it must have a pci graphics card, nothing less than an ati 9600 with 512mb on board. They are not all that pricey nowadays. Even then it might struggle. Dump the ram and get two 2GB sticks as well. The systems you desribe seem way out of date and may not perform well with todays hi-res mods. Upgrade and you might be ok. However, I'm no expert, have had a gutful of beer tonight and I really have no idea what I'm talking about.

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[www.mediafire.com] Some say you should click it, you know you want to. [www.gp4central.com] <----GP4 Central

dcroz, when you say no AGP slot, only PCI, is it PCI-Express? 'cause newer cards are PCI-Express (AGP is a bit old now).

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Rocker

I can run GPL extremely well with full detail with a 256mb ATI HD 2400 card, 2GB ram, vista and Dual Core at 2.33 GHz.
As for newer sims, rfactor looks horrendous, GTR evolution, NFS Shift and TRD Grid barely run, and look worse than PS One games.
Other sims like Netkar Pro and LFS work very nicely on my system. Fortunately GPL and those two are three of my favourite games
As mortal says, you probably want something with at least a 512mb graphics card to run the newest sims.

How much did you spent on that machine?

micky-cannonball Wrote:
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> How much did you spent on that machine?


Is that question for me?
Mine was £500, I bought it a couple of years ago now..

I wouldnt bother with either personally.

P4's are 2004? thats 6 years old.

Windows XP can go to hell, its windows 7 or nothing now days, the ram, well you have none. my gf's dads pc is running 512 ram on his P4 windows XP machine, he has trouble loading Internet Explorer on it. tho i get the feeling its riddled with viri.

If your limited with money, tell us your budget and a far better machine could be made.

saying that, id say the first one, at least it has a decent Processor.

dcroz, where are you from (are you Brazilian)?

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Rocker