[Mugen C]

Hi There, I just bought the Midtown Madness 2 yesterday, trying to run it on W2K, but the performance is extremely poor...
I have a PII 450 with 128MB Ram, ATI Xpert98 8MB.....My question is....I am planning to buy a 3D card, but don't know which one is good for my limited budget. Any suggestion?
Is my system capable to run this game smoothly?

Thanks so much for your help!
Mugen C


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Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do!

[ThC 129]

well the best card out there for the higher-end buyer is the GeForce 2 Ultra, if your looking for a good card that is fast but won't cost you 3-500 dollars i would get the Leadtek Winfast GF 2 MX, its around $150 US, and already comes with a heat sink and fan on it.

[Mugen C]

Hi There, I visited a local computer shop, they have something call Pandex TNT2 M64 32MB 3D AGP Video Card w/h TV out. Is it something worth a try or else? They are selling it for about $140. What do you think?

Also another question...they mentioned something about Nvidia and TNT...what are they?

Thanks!


Mugen C

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Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do!

[yakkob]

Don't touch it m8, very poor card.

Either go for a 3DFX which will take no installing and is stable in a hell of a lot of machines.

Or go for a GEF, and maybe have a tinker seting it up. Seems pretty fussy on some mobos. I had to enable agp 1x on my BP6 to get it to work

Still sh1thot tho

oh yeah its a GEF II GTS. But any gef is cool.

[kearos]

Hi Mugen

it seems like you're not ready to spend a lot of money on the video card upgrade. Also, since you have a PII 450, I would presume that you have a BX motherboard.

In this case, I would recommend a GeForce 2 MX. It should be around $150 US and I haven't come across any major problems with the MX and the latest Detonator 3 drivers.

I wouldn't really think about anything else because at that price, nothing compares.

Cheers

[DosFreak]

"Hi There, I visited a local computer shop, they have something call Pandex TNT2 M64 32MB 3D AGP Video Card w/h TV out. Is it something worth a try or else? They are selling it for about $140. What do you think?"

If they are charging $140 for an M64. You should go down there and give 'em the smack down. That's a rip off.

[ThC 129]

yeah not even CompUSA or Bestbuy would do that.

[Mugen C]

Hi There, thanks for all the Advices, it's really helpful...Yes, I am using an Aopen AX6BC Motherboard....Perhaps, it's using BX chipset, so far I have no plans to do any upgrades...I think I will get the Geforce 2 MX.
BTW, Do I need to take any special steps to install this 3D Card? Such as removing the original graphic card and drivers... do I need to change anything in the W2K registry to make it work or it will work perfectly with its driver?

Thanks again for all your helps!

regards,
Mugen C

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Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do!

[bobbinbrisco]

that's a good choice for your graphics card but using a geforce with a pIII 450 won't be as good for your money as running a TNT2 Ultra card like the Diamond V700 Ultra card.

Anyways installing a new graphics card is the most easy upgrade you can do for your computer, there's no need to fiddle around with jumpers and that. Make sure when ur about to shutdown ur computer u set u uninstall ur old graphics card drivers and set the resolution to 256 colours.

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2 Computers (networked)both have :

Intel SE440BX2
Pentium III 700Mhz (100)
LS-120 120 Mb (100MHz)
Fujitsu 17.3 GB Ultra DMA 66/10.2 GB Ultra DMA 66
Mitsubihi 50X IDE
Creative Vibra PCI 128bit
Matrox Millenium G400 16Mb AGP/Diamond Speedstar 8Mb AGP
Bay Netgear 10/100PCI
Medium ATX Tower case
120W Multimedia
MS INternet KB (PS2)
MS Win2000 Pro

[euankirkhope]

I really really like my ATI radeon. video in and out, excellent DVD/MPEG, and really good 3D, and excellent 2D

[Bursar]

[Mugen C]

Hi There, thanks for the advises again, I understand my CPU is giving me the limitation on the game performance. What I am looking for is...by replacing the video card. I wish I can get more decent performance while playing those new games. Also I'm planning to put more RAM into my system...upgrade to 256MB

BTW, I kinda look around today for those GeForce 2 MX Cards, however, is there any recommended brand name I should get? Sorry about my "Junior" questions! :P Thanks!

regards,
Mugen C

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Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do!

[kearos]

Hi MugenC

Your questions are not "junior". I'm glad you're asking for advice and not going to buy something blindly. After all, I was asking the same questions at one point in my life too.

Each of the other cards have their advantages but when looking at each, I think the GeForce 2 MX suits you best. You will use EVERY feature of the card without paying too much. You also get superb driver support from NVidia as well as game developers too. After all, even if your CPU is the bottleneck, you can always put in a new CPU later or just put your MX into a new system. Either way, you can't lose.

As for a particular brand, they're all pretty much the same. If I had to make a choice, I would buy the Asus V7100 Pure. It's $210 Cdn (about $150 US) There are other models that offer TV out or TwinView (dual monitors) but you make the decision there. Also, I chose the Asus because that price is for the retail box so if anything goes wrong, you get the added support and warranty of Asus instead of some half-ass local shop technician.

Cheers

kearos