I am having a computer built for me. Which graphics card will run The Sims 2, Everquest 2, and Empire Earth the best?

Thanks

Michael

Those games are not really demanding, just get the cheapest DX9 PCI-E card with at least 128-bit memory interface.

nVidia 6600 or 6600GT. Look for Chaintech, MSI, eVGA or a good brand. Shop newegg by your price range if you want more options.

Lian-Li PC61
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 3700+ San Diego @ 2.5 gHz stock cooling
eVGA 7800GT
1GB Corsair DDR
WD Carviar 300gb SATA 3.0gb/s
Samsung 17" 740N Monitor
Dr. Pepper

if everquest 2 isnt demanding i dont know what is

AMD Athlon 64 3000+
1GB x2 512 DDR RAM
eVGA Geforce 7800GT
N Force 4 Mobo

F.E.A.R for one, Oblivion for another......

Is PCIe or AGP better? Which will I have to replace sooner with the technology that is coming out in coming years? Thanks for the help.

Michael

PCI-E is the latest. AGP is ancient and a dieing almost dead technology! :)

No Everquest is not damanding at all compared to Oblivion and F.E.A.R!!

Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55
Corsair 512X4 2048mb
2X WD Raptor 74gb 10K
RAID 0
250gb WD Caviar
2X 256 6800 GT
WinXP Pro X64

"AGP is ancient and a dieing almost dead technology!"

It may be "dieing", but it's hardly ancient. Unless you're a hardcore gamer that will accept nothing less than the highest frame rates at the highest resolution with all the eye candy turned on, AGP will hold you over for a while longer. There are plenty of decent AGP gaming cards that will play any game that's currently available, just not at the highest settings. Since you have a Dell with only 256MB RAM, I highly doubt you're a hardcore gamer. You should have 512MB minimum, & if you wanna get serious about gaming, 1GB is the least you should consider.

In other words, a video card isn't the only thing you should be thinking about upgrading.

Ancient is a figure of speech to discourage one from building a computer with AGP. It would be a waste. He said, "which will I have to replace sooner."
I noticed the 256mb also but surely when he says he's having a computer built for him he's not suggesting that is the one listed???? :) After all, the one listed is a Dell. Never known Dell to custom build unless its from the new Alienware/Dell. :)

Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55
Corsair 512X4 2048mb
2X WD Raptor 74gb 10K
RAID 0
250gb WD Caviar
2X 256 6800 GT
WinXP Pro X64

"Never known Dell to custom build unless its from the new Alienware/Dell. :)"

Dell's claim to fame is that they do not sell you a PC but a SOLUTION. In other words they sell you a computer "custom built" around your needs.

That one of the reasons you can't just walk into a store and walk out with a Dell.

The Dell is the computer i have now. I am getting a new one built. I don't know exact specs, but it will have 1GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive, and a Pentium D processor. I am just wondering about graphics cards.

Michael

WEll... Nvidia is going agp with their 7600gt and the 7900gt.
The 7900gt would be the fastest agp card around and it will cost about 300 bucks, and it will be faster than many high end pci-e cards around like the 7800gt.

Free

yeah oblivion and fear are really demanding but have you ever tried EQ2 on highest settings? even my computer gets about 5 frames a second and my card is pretty mid-high end

AMD Athlon 64 3000+
1GB x2 512 DDR RAM
eVGA Geforce 7800GT
N Force 4 Mobo

Is an ATI Radeon X1300 256Mb DDR2 PCIe Crossfire ready any good? What is Crossfire ready? Thanks for the help.

Michael

Crossfire is ATI's way of combining two video cards to evenly divide the processing and graphics rendering workload of the GPU. Nvidia uses SLI. If you have an ATI motherboard that supports ATI Crossfire you can set this up. The X1300 is not a good video card by todays standards. Its at or near the "bottom of the barrel". Even less than the old 6600. You would be better off spending a few more bucks and getting an X 1600 XT or an nvidia nforce 4 mobo with a 6600GT.
If you need more help you're going to have to find out what the specs are for your new system. Otherwise, its just mental masturbation.

Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55
Corsair 512X4 2048mb
2X WD Raptor 74gb 10K
RAID 0
250gb WD Caviar
2X 256 6800 GT
WinXP Pro X64