Graphics Card Upgrade?

[Squid_uk]

Hey guys!

Recently i tried to play Medal of Honour Airbourne and it reallyed lagged really badly during menu's gameplay etc, so i tried the EA website to find out about the specs needed to run the game and found a online system requirments lab.

These are the results it came up with,

Sorry, your computer does not meet the minimum specifications required to run this game. You should review the details below and you may want to contact our online support site to get more information about the reason you may have failed.

CPU
Minimum: Pentium 4/Athlon 64 or greater
You Have: 2 processors running - AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+
PASS

CPU Speed
Minimum: 2.8 GHz or greater (Windows Vista requires an Intel 3.0 GHz or AMD Athlon 3800+ processor)
You Have: 2.01 GHz Performance Rated at 5.70 GHz
PASS

System RAM
Minimum: 1 GB
You Have: 1.5 GB
PASS

Operating System
Minimum: Windows XP/Vista
You Have: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
PASS

Video Card
Minimum: 128 MB NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT or greater (GeForce 6800XT, 6800LE, 7100GS, 7200GS, 7200LE, 7300GS, 7300GT not supported); ATI Radeon X1300 Pro or greater. Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported.
You Have: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 LE (GeForce 6600 LE)
FAIL: Sorry, your video card does not meet this minimum requirement. You may want to contact your system manufacturer to get information about upgrading your computer.

Video Card Features - Minimum attributes of your Video Card

Video RAM: Required - 128 MB , You have - 256.0 MB
Video Card 3D Acceleration: Required - Yes , You have - Yes
Video HW Transform & Lighting: Required - Yes , You have - Yes
Vertex Shader Ver.: Required - 3.0 , You have - 3.0
Pixel Shader Ver.: Required - 3.0 , You have - 3.0

Video Card Driver Version (DirectX)
Your driver version number is: 6.14.11.6921

FYI: Your video card driver version is provided for your information, but it is not part of this analysis. Updating your drivers is an important part of keeping your computer up to date, to learn more click the 'Driver Info' button.
DirectX Version
Minimum: 9.0c (included)
You Have: 9.0c
PASS

Sound Card
Minimum: Yes
You Have: MPU-401 Compatible MIDI Device
PASS

Sound Card Driver Version
Your driver version number is: 5.1.2535.0

FYI: Your sound card driver version is provided for your information, but it is not part of this analysis. Updating your drivers is an important part of keeping your computer up to date, to learn more click the 'Driver Info' button

Free Disk Space
Minimum: 9.1 GB
You Have: 113.5 GB
PASS

DVD
Minimum: 8X speed DVD-ROM. This game contains technology intended to prevent copying that may conflict with some DVD-ROM, DVD-RW and virtual drives.
You Have: SONY DVD RW DW-Q30A
PASS, but the Speed could NOT be analyzed.

So if this is correct its my graphics card(s), is this because they are just an older model?

Also what i would like to do is upgrade them but if i can afford it still stick with the SLi, what would you guys reccommend? I would be looking to play other games with similar spec possibly higher

[Krispy Kritter]

Like anything else, it all boils down to your budget. As for SLi, assumming you are actually running two cards in SLi mode, isn't necessary, and in most cases won't give you the best performance. A typical SLi setup provides about a 50% speed increase over a single card. An nVidia 7x series card, for example, is roughly twice as fast a the 6x series. So upgrading to say a 7950 GT would be an improvement over what you are currently running. Budget wise, you can get a 8600 series card for $100-150. For speed and gaming performance, go with a 8800 GT (currently $250-325). You won't need anything faster until you make the switch to Vista for DirectX 10 or using large resolutions (over 1600x1200). Either way, your cpu will be as much of a bottleneck as the video card.

[johns0]

If you are really into newer games then get the 8800gt,it's the best video card in its price range and plays games in high detail at 1680x1050,something the 8600gts couldnt do.

[Squid_uk]

Thanks guys for the help but should i look at getting any particular size memory? 256MB or 512MB

[johns0]

512mb for using higher resolution.

[Squid_uk]

ok i've managed to get this far but now im not sure which to pick

http://www.dabs.com/productlist.aspx?&NavigationKey=11137&NavigationKey=415910000&Navi...ffset=0#Paging

[johns0]

Pick whats in your price range and is in stock,they are all pretty well the same card with a few being overclocked hence the price difference.

[Squid_uk]

Is there a way i can find out what interface i have/need? (i.e. PCI or AGP)

[yoda313]

I think the newest cards are actually pci-e interface. It would be in the specifications in your computer manual.

Also go to your display settings and it will tell you what type of card you are currently using. AGP is slowly being replaced by pci-e. And fyi I don't think they've made a pci graphics card in quite awhile now....

[Squid_uk]

If I use the device manager it tells me that the cards are in PCI slot 6 and 7

[yoda313]

If it just says "PCI" and not pci-e than you can't use any cards that say "pci-e". Only if you know for sure your motherboard supports pci-e can you use it.

You may need to upgrade your motherboard if you are looking to buy a pci-e graphics card. There may be agp alternatives but like I said i believe those are few and far between these days.

Good luck.

[johns0]

You have a pci-e so you can buy that type of card since you hsve a x2 athlon cpu,windows says my 8800gt is a pci in slot 2 but it says that for agp or pci-e anyways.

[Squid_uk]

Hey guys after a long thought (as well as trying to save up!) I ahve decided to go with the nVidia 8800 this one http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4TNM

Not really bothered that i comes with a game but it seem to be the best priced one around!

Now when i get this card will i have to remove one of the old cards or is it best to remove both?

[yoda313]

This is your main card for your monitor right? THen you need to uninstall the current cards drivers FIRST. Then you can shut down and unplug the old card and install the new one.

[Squid_uk]

Yes i only have the one monitor.

Is the un-install quite stright forward, can it be done via the device manager?

[Bjs]

Try again, but disable all non-essential running background tasks, which can be the cause of the performance issue.

The game runs fine here, and I have the same card using drivers provided by nvidia (Forceware 81.98), not those from the original cd.

[Squid_uk]

Thanks for the tip Bjs but i have tried updating all drivers, when i try the system requirements lab website most of the recent games i try, all say that the graphics card is not sufficient

[Krispy Kritter]

Are you actually having trouble with the video card or just the website you are trying to use? Most likely, there is an issue with the website or more likely an issue with the app they are using to detect your hardware.

You did remove both of the old cards, right?

[Squid_uk]

No i haven't removed anyhting yet the problem i was having was playing certain games, they seemed to lag so i had a look at systemrequirementslab.com and the result was that my graphics card was no up to date for the games

[Krispy Kritter]

The website is pulling hardware information from your system and telling you that your currently installed pair of 6800's don't meet the requirements. Which you already knew as you were shopping for a new card. So what exactly do you need help with?

[Squid_uk]

what i was looking for help with now was uninstalling the old cards and installing the new one correctly

[Krispy Kritter]

power down
remove the existing cards
install the new card
power up
Windows should see the new card and ask to install the drivers (say no or cancel)
after bootup is complete, download and install the latest nVidia drivers or simply use the driver on the driver disc

[Squid_uk]

do i need to remove the drivers from the previous card?

[Krispy Kritter]

It is often recommended, but I've never had any issues unless I was changing chipsets (ie: from nvidia to ATI or vice versa).