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Dear Brain,
Unfortunately there is really no way around
graphics cards when dealing with purchased
games. Most games on the side of the box will
give you two different bits of information. The
first one is minimum requirements to run, these
hardly ever work, and the second set of numbers
is the recommended requirements. To run under
minimum requirements many games will allow you
to install them with a less graphics intensive
setting, but some do not. This is an ongoing
problem we run into on pre-built computer
purchases. The computers you buy at Best Buy,
Wallyworld, etc are usually not gaming
computers. One good rule of thumb is that if
your computer cost less than 1000.00 it is going
need to be upgraded to run certain games and
programs well. If it uses an onboard processor
this is almost always the case.
If you are not
sure about the card your computer is running, or
your general computer capabilities head on over
to PCPitstop.com and run the full set of tests
to get an idea of your computers capabilities.
Dedicated video
is almost always necessary to play today’s
games. If you cannot afford to replace your
card, one thing you can try is to shut down
every running process and program on your
computer so that you can try to use all of the
computers capabilities for the game, usually we
have messengers, antivirus, etc all running in
the background while we try to play a computer,
all the while we think we meet the minimum
requirements, but we are already using up half
our computers capabilities before we start the
game running.
The good news is that hardly anyone needs the
latest video card, even to play the newest games
a card that is one generation older will usually
work great for the next two years or so in the
gaming world. The prices are way less than you
would believe. We have had the best luck in
Vista with ATI cards, for example the ATI
Radeon HD 2400 Pro with 256mb of dedicated GDDR2
memory can be had for 39.99 with free shipping
right now at buy.com we compare both the minimum
recommended ATI and the nVidia cards to the
right.
The Nutz |
