Ye Olde Video Card Question

[akatonbo]

Since the old PC upgrading sticky seems to be long gone. Feel free to migrate elsewhere if needed.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8538843&type=product&id=1188558584689

The recommendation came direct from Dell when I let them scan my system (3 year old Dimension 8400) for compatible upgrades. The price is right, and it certainly looks like something TS2 would appreciate. Any caveats? TS2 compatibility issues, power/heat issues despite Dell suggesting it themselves, etc.?

(I'm running WinXP, apparently 2.99 GHz processor if my System control panel is to be believed (I thought it was somewhere between 2 and 2.5), 1GB of RAM about to be upgraded to 2GB because it was omgcheap, current graphics card is a Radeon X300 (128MB onboard RAM, seems to also be PCI Express). I just finished installing all the EPs and SPs I was missing (and yes, I'm cracked to keep Securom off my precious) and am thinking that a shiny new video card would be a nice complement to the extra RAM and the new 19" widescreen LCD that I just shelled out for because the monitor that came with the box died an ignominious death today.)

[Lord Darcy]

Be aware that ATI 2000x and 3000x series cards have TV/computer black screen issue.

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9816.0.html
http://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=33055

[akatonbo]

Ah, yeah, that thread definitely mentions the same card several times, as well as its close relatives. The second link you included doesn't work, however.

ETA: The bottom of the BBS thread has people stating (within the last 2 days or so) that upgrading drivers fixed the problem.

http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?threadID=cbc06e3a3b9b316ab112190df9995b76&directoryID=21&startRow=51&openItemID=item.21,root.1,item.61,item.104,item.41,item.127,item.23

[Simsbaby]

If you haven't bought the card yet I would recommend checking out the other options here. Also, I found what seems like a slightly better one for cheaper. Don't forget about nVidia too. Though some people have problems with them I've never had any with my nvidia cards, unlike the shoddy ATI 1600 that I had. 

[akatonbo]

I want to stick with things that I can be reasonably sure will work in the machine I have, but the specific card you linked is indeed on Dell's list (that model and the one I linked myself are the only 2 cards with 512MB RAM on it, and said list does include some nVidia cards) and is indeed cheaper, significantly so after rebate. Damned if I know what the actual difference is (although I imagine it has something to do with the DDR2 vs. GDDR3 part), but it looks very shiny and my pretty new monitor has one of those white connectors on it (I am the worst hardware geek ever, I should tell the story of what happened when I tried to add a second hard drive so you can all point and laugh -- but I am capable of putting reasonably straightforward parts into my own box and I know someone who can help me with less straightforward ones).

[Simsbaby]

Oh, wow, I didn't even notice those points. lulz. GDDR3 is faster than DDR2, but I'm not sure by how much. DVI(white video connector) should also produce a better picture than VGA(Normally blue connector).

[Lord Darcy]

ETA: The bottom of the BBS thread has people stating (within the last 2 days or so) that upgrading drivers fixed the problem.

http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?threadID=cbc06e3a3b9b316ab112190df9995b76&directoryID=21&startRow=51&openItemID=item.21,root.1,item.61,item.104,item.41,item.127,item.23

Thanks for the head up. I almost gave up hope that it would ever be fixed.

[akatonbo]

My hardware cluelessness tends to mean that I am VERY careful about making sure that all the funny words I don't know the meanings of match exactly between "what someone tells me to buy and/or what matches what's already in there" and "what I am actually about to buy". Especially since I once managed to miss some fairly important funny word that meant I had to return and re-order some RAM I bought for a computer I was upgrading at my then-workplace. (I was instructed to do some data entry on the middle of the store machine instead of the front desk machine, while bossman worked up front, for the first time. Sat down at it, started to work, and inside of five minutes was running two different spyware scanners and a virus scanner because it was so slow; when they found nothing I realized that it was running Windows XP with 128MB of RAM. My boss kindly permitted me to order another 256MB for my own sanity.)

(And noticing the DVI connector is important too, since the hard drive story involved... well, basically, I bought an IDE drive thinking that was pretty safe, because what else would I need? Got it home, opened up my box, and discovered the existence of SATA. Whoops! Apparently my monitor death was not such a bad thing, since it got me looking at other upgrades, and the dead one did NOT have a DVI connector; I just checked.)

Thanks to both of you for the advice. Assuming no one gives me any dire warnings in the near future about Dell not knowing their ass from their elbow when it comes to what my power supply can handle, I think I'll go with the XT.