How Good Is This Combination (For Games)?

[Kaodi]

Athlon 64 3800
512 Mb DDR400 x2
Radeon 9600SE 128 Mb

I was under the impression that it should play most of the games I like at high or highest graphic settings (The Sims 2, Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich, Dungeon Siege II, Black & White II, KoToR I & II), but a friend of mine doesn't seem to think so. Would anyone of you be able to provide a good opinion?

 

[trancejeremy]

The Sims 2 should be okay. I have a Athlon 64 3400 and a crappy video card, and I can play on the highest graphics settings (the sims now have fingers!).

And since you seemingly have a gig of ram, you should be okay. (The game uses up slightly more than is available w/ WinXP if you just have 512 megs. If you hit ctrl-shift s in the game, it gives you the frame rate and how much memory is currently being used)

 

[Psionicist]

Well, the processor is nice, the memory is nice, but the video card sucks (relatively speaking, of course). You'd be better of with a slower processor and use the money you save and buy a better, current generation video card.

 

[Kaodi]

Graphics Card

I've never really had a good grasp of what constitutes *good* is a graphics card, but for some reason, down the road, I think I would rather I had to replace my graphics card than replace my processessor. The graphics card can be popped into any other computer, while a processor needs a compatible motherboard as well, does it not?

 

[trancejeremy]

Yeah, I would agree with that. That's how I bought my computer - I went for the best CPU I could afford, but the lousiest video card, since the latter is the easiest to upgrade.

OTOH, if you plan on simply buying a new computer every 1-2 years, then going with the best graphic card might make more sense.

 

[Kaodi]

Upgrade

This is going to be the first computer that is truly mine. After initial purchse, I think I am going to stick with upgrading as I need to.

 

[Rackhir]

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/index.html

This has a number of charts comparing the performance of various video cards. How much money do you have to spend on the video card? BTW Most of the cards with an SE or LE tacked onto the name are crippled versions of cards. XT or GT usually indicate a higher end card.

http://www.pricewatch.com

This a good place to check for prices on video cards. Newegg is a good place to buy them. Not always the absolute cheapest, but ususally close and they are reliable. I would look at an nVidia 6600 or an ATI XL700 at least, if gaming is important.

I would recomend purchasing a motherboard to use with the processor, ram and video card. I think you'll find everything works much better if you have one.

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=110799&AFFIL=pricewatch&NR=1

This is a pretty good one and will support SLI if you can buy a second (matching) video card. It's about $112. I would recomend getting some sort of nForce 4 chipset motherboard, if you are getting an Athalon processor. What ever you purchase for a MB, make sure it has PCIe (PCI Express) slots, since essentially all future graphics cards will require one.

 

[drothgery]

This has a number of charts comparing the performance of various video cards. How much money do you have to spend on the video card? BTW Most of the cards with an SE or LE tacked onto the name are crippled versions of cards. XT or GT usually indicate a higher end card.

Nitpick: In nVidia-speak, XT means crippled; in ATi-speak, XT means a higher-end card. ATi uses Pro or XT to indicate a higher-end version. nVidia uses Ultra or GT or GTX. Both vendors will use SE or LE for crippled/low-end versions. nVidia also used XT for this purpose in the GeForce 5xxx series (though because of its pricing and because it wasn't all that crippled, the 5900XT was a pretty good value until the 6xxx cards came out).

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

Go with a better video card. The information given on the SE version of said card is right on. You can do much better and still not break the bank.

 

[KenM]

That video card right now was mid range, last year, go with a better. Also try to get another 512 RAM, more RAM always helps.