J J

I just went out and bought Combat Flight Simulator 3. Problem is, I have a 3dfx Voodoo3 card. It's rather old, only 15 mb. I need something with atleast 16mb to play CFS3

So, I guess it's time to upgrade. What do you recommend as a good graphics card to get?

Processor: Intel Celeron, MMX, ~500MHz

Memory: 128MB Ram

DirectX 8.2

LordVagabond

It depends on how much you're looking to spend...

These days, for a decent gaming rig, I'd suggest:

At the least a Celeron 700, if you can afford it a Celeron 1 Gig or an AMD XP 1600+ (1.3 GHz, what I actually am running)

For video cards, I would suggest a GeForce, either a GF3 Ti200 or Ti500, or if you have it, DEFINITELY a GeForce 4 Ti4200 64 or 128 MB card...

I use a GF4 Ti4200 that I got for about $200 US in June 2002



The three things that will increase your gaming ability, in order of importance:

1) Video card

I recommend for a budget, an older GF3 Ti200 Card. For pure performance, any of the GeForce 4 Ti4200 128 MB DDR cards, like MSI or Gainward or Viewtek. I use the MSI, and actually have a review of it here: http://3dgameman.com/forums/showthread.php...s=&postid=44536

Processor:

A Celeron 500 will do just fine, but that is 2 to 3 year old technology. I would recommend, for decent gaming, at LEAST 1 GHz

3) Memory and mainboard

actually tied into #2, a good, up to date motherboard that can handle your processor and DEFINITELY DDR RAM... fast stuff, and makes on the fly loading and processing so much easier.

SCSI

J J, if you care for my .02 I will go ahead and add it, seeing as how I *just* got finished going through about the same thing as you.

I decided that it was much much more effective to buy a new PC, minus monitor. http://www.pcusa.com/shopKitConfig.asp?id=KIT-12 is one expamle, you can change it to your liking, for me it came out to a little over 300. 256 DDR, Athlong 1800(Same price as 1600), and TNT2 32mb, I know that the card sucks, but they system is upgradeable, and I can always swap cards later.

But then again Vagabond might set me straight

Btw, I am running a Duron 750, 456(Something like that) Pc133 ram, and TNT2 32mb card.

SCSI/Skuzzy

WestSideBilly

I paid $135 for my GF 4200 Ti in august. Definately a good choice.

However, SCSI is right, the rest of your box is going to hold the video card back. If you have a decent monitor already (19" at least), buying/building a new box is the way to go.

LordVagabond

Well, it depends on your budget... it can be cheaper to build your own, or you can get a commercial gaming rig to do the job. Scuzzy does have a point, you can buy decent systems at decent prices... I'm just a DIYer with a techie thumb to me

J J

Alright, thanks for your info, it has gone into discussion in my family. Check it out, this is what we're looking at:

(Copied word for word from magazine)

AMD Athlon XP1800+ CPU
ALBATRON Mainboard (VIA Chipset)
256MB DDR PC2100 Memory
40 GB Ultra-ATA/133 Hard Drive
DVD Drive 16X IDE
CD Recordable 48X12X48 IDE
On-Board 3D Audio Integrated
HighQuality Heatsink & Cooling Fan
1.44MB Floppy Drive
GeForce 4 MX480-8X (64MB DDR)
10/100 Ethernet & 56K Fax/Modem
Deluxe MidTower 300 WPowerSupply
Enhanced PS2 Keyboard
Internet PS2 Mouse
Windows XP Home Edition
One Years Part & Labor Warranty
Free !!! COREL WordPerfect Office
Free !!! NORTON SystemWorks

All that for $835. Can I get some of your opinions on this system?

A few notes: I plan on asking the fellow who will build this for us if he could replace the GeForce card with this:

http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/radeon97...0pro/index.html

LordVagabond

hmmmm.... Everything looks good except for the motherboard and the video card

Absolutely, positive, TOTALLY stay away from MX model GeForce's... get a FULL Ti, not an MX.. MX's are basically the rejected children of Ti's... I'd go GF4 Ti4200 128 MB for just a little more and get SUPERB quality for the money.

As for the motherboard, I know shit all about Albatron, never heard of them, so I'd avoid it... go Soyo, Asus, MSI or Gigabyte If you want more specific details, you know where to PM me

J J

Alrighty. Thanks again for all info. This is what I now own:

I have an AMD Athlon XP 2100
1.7 GHz
256 MB of RAM
A few other goodies and the GeForce4 Ti 4200.


Nice?

LordVagabond

is the ram DDR? apart from that very nice

SCSI

I will add my .02, sounds like a great system, but you are getting raped if you pay that much without a monitor.

Go to pricewatch.com and look for athlon 1800, a good configurator site is linked in my first post.

Just my .02