New video card or new computer?

Question

I love the Sims 2 and I own the base game and 2 expansion packs. After I installed the first ep my walls turned red and my floor turned purple. I realized that I need a new video card. A new video card with enough space for my games would run around $300. Is it worth spending that much for a video card or just spending around 600 more and getting a new computer?

Answer 1

Are you happy with the present computer? If you are up to date on everything and just have these video issues, I would get a nice video card. If money is not the problem and/or there are other issues that you are dealing with, I personally would get a newer computer that fits your criteria. I personally had problems with my older computers not being able to upgrade to a level that I wanted.

Answer 2

Enough space for your games? I think you are confusing RAM with on board video memory, two different things. You don't need a $300 card to play sims 2. Sims 2 will play on a vid card with 32MB on board memory.



What kinda vid card do you have? cpu? RAM?



OK, sorry for underestimating your knowledge... you can keep your case, power supply, hard drive, optical drives etc. and just get a new mobo, cpu, vid card and ram, that would pretty much be a new computer. You could install it yourself, it's just a couple screws, some thermal paste and new drivers. If you have to pay someone to do it it might be better to just get a new rig.



wait.. I'm assuming you need a mobo upgrade in order to upgrade your vid card... if you mean it will cost $300 just to buy and replace the vid card in your system, that's ridiculous. You can change out a simple vid card, that's cake. It's only 1 screw and install new video adapter drivers.



What kind of motherboard and video card is it? If you're running on integrated video, there is hope to upgrade. If you have an actual vid card that is less than 32MB, it's probably a 1x AGP mobo and your upgrade options are limited

Answer 3

Depends what kind of hardware you have now.

A new computer does not necessarily mean you have a fast graphic card as well.



Buying a Geforce 8600 GT can keep you happy with games for the next 2 years. That's if you have a motherboard that supports PCI-Express. If you have an AGP motherboard, you may search for Geforce 7600 GT. It's a good buy and can give you good gaming experience for 1-2 years.

Answer 4

It depends on your specs compared to the game's requirements. I bought recently a Nvidia 7600gs 256MB graphics card for $100 for playing Unreal Tournament and it works pretty good. I have 512MB ram memory and plan on upgrading for better looking shooters.

Answer 5

Well for the video card you can install it yourself, but if its a notebook then your screwed, get a new notebook, but if its a desktop, then go to best buy or something and ask them if you shuold get a new screen or new video card. whichever one is cheaper go with it. Good luck

Answer 6

it would be hard for you to find upgrades for your old pc.. i think you should assemble your cpu.. dont buy a cpu that is already made, making your pc would be more cheaper..