New Video Card

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My mother has the only desktop computer in the house, and her old video card
(an nvidia riva tnt2 model 64, installed on a hp pavilion w/ xp version 2002,
pentium 4 [1500 MHz], 1.49 GHz and 256 Megs RAM) is not, shall we say, up to
current gaming standards. What can we replace it with? Any pci compatible
video card, or just certain ones?
Is it desirable to do this on an older- i.e. four or more years old- computer?
What's the best card we can get for it?
THANKS AHEAD OF TIME, YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN TONS OF HELP!
-lara
 
What's the HP Pavilion model number? Can't respond specifically to much
without that info?

Curt.
 
LaraPhoenix said:
My mother has the only desktop computer in the house, and her old video
card
(an nvidia riva tnt2 model 64, installed on a hp pavilion w/ xp version
2002,
pentium 4 [1500 MHz], 1.49 GHz and 256 Megs RAM) is not, shall we say, up
to
current gaming standards. What can we replace it with? Any pci compatible
video card, or just certain ones?
Is it desirable to do this on an older- i.e. four or more years old-
computer?
What's the best card we can get for it?
THANKS AHEAD OF TIME, YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN TONS OF HELP!
-lara
Click to expand...

Given the low end of your system (very low RAM, very slow processor), you
will not be able to run most modern games even if you put in a new video
card. Your processor does not meet the minimum standards for most games.
For what it would cost you to upgrade the machine, you could buy a low end
AMD Athlon 64.

Bobby
 
If possible, buy yourself a new computer. Even if you do buy yourself a new
video card, the system specs are still not up there for you to be gaming.
For example, 1.5Ghz and only 256 MB of RAM. However, I am not sure what
games you want to play so I have no way of knowing what your gaming
standards are.
Does your system even have an AGP graphics slot? If so, use that slot
instead of the PCI slot for better video performance.
 
Lara;
What do you mean by "current gaming standards"?
To some, any computer more than a year old is not up to "current gaming
standards".
Do not get caught into buying the latest and greatest or even any new
computer until you fully evaluate your needs.
If you have specific games in mind ask in a forum that deals with that game.
One of my computers is a 1 GHz, 512 MB and 128 MB video card and it does
very well on the games I use, specifically Flight Simulator 2004.

Assuming you have a PCI card slot, almost any PCI video card will do.
If you can double or even triple your memory, that can help a lot.

I would not necessarily buy a new computer until I determined the cost to
upgrade vs. buy new.
Your computer has a potential of being better than the one I referenced and
mine performs well for me.
 
To make this easier, what types of games are you planning on purchasing?

Evolution said:
If possible, buy yourself a new computer. Even if you do buy yourself a
new video card, the system specs are still not up there for you to be
gaming. For example, 1.5Ghz and only 256 MB of RAM. However, I am not sure
what games you want to play so I have no way of knowing what your gaming
standards are.
Does your system even have an AGP graphics slot? If so, use that slot
instead of the PCI slot for better video performance.

LaraPhoenix said:
My mother has the only desktop computer in the house, and her old video
card
(an nvidia riva tnt2 model 64, installed on a hp pavilion w/ xp version
2002,
pentium 4 [1500 MHz], 1.49 GHz and 256 Megs RAM) is not, shall we say, up
to
current gaming standards. What can we replace it with? Any pci compatible
video card, or just certain ones?
Is it desirable to do this on an older- i.e. four or more years old-
computer?
What's the best card we can get for it?
THANKS AHEAD OF TIME, YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN TONS OF HELP!
-lara
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Well, we have games like area 51 and chronicles of riddick (Which all I've
been able to do with is take out the fmvs), and would like to go into a store
and purchase, even a slightly older games, without having to reject
everything that requires vram. Which I've been told we don't have.
 
Its going to be very hard to play those because those games require alot of
juice from your system, especially Chronicles of Riddick. I know because I
played that game and also tried out the demo for Area 51. I believe your
system meets thier MINIMUM requirements (except for the video card) but you
are going to have a hard time playing, as you may have already found out. If
you are going to be purchasing games like these in the future, I strongly
suggest you buy a new gaming rig if you have the money for it. If not, then
you need to upgrade your RAM to at least 512, buy a new processor and a new
video card. Even if you do all of that, you still probably will have a hard
time playing them.
 
I have a 4 year old Pentium 4, 1.3 Gig. running 512MB Rambus. Updated my card
to a PNY Verto GeForce 6200 AGP 8x with 256 MB onboard memory for about
$90.00 I bought it to imporve my Video and it works great. 9 Year old son
only plays the free games & he is happy with it. Be sure Your AGP slot
supports 8X. I am running it with a 250 Watt Power supply and haven't had any
problem. (PNY recommends at least 300 Watts)

Linusverl
 
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