i finally broke down and bought a new computer: athlon 64 3400+ 1 gb dual channel ram ge force 6100 gpu my question is would you recommend installing a 5700 fx card from my old computer or staying with the built in graphics chip? my goal is to play battlefield 2 as well as possible. by the way, i read someone elses post on here about it being impossible to play bf2 with a built in graphics chip---- absolutely not true. granted i havent really messed with the graphics options that much in game so they are all on the lowest setting except the redraw distance i believe i have set on medium and the slider is at 80%. so currently i can run this game no problem (not sure of frame rate but i dont experience any stuttering). the reason i'm hesitant to put the 5700 fx in my computer is when i did so in my old computer, it made every game i had unplayable even after installing/reinstalling several different driver versions. so i guess i'm looking for anyone with a 5700 fx card , similar processor/memory and playing bf2 to let me know how high they can set the graphics settings in bf2 and still run the game smoothly so i can compare this with my current setup. also, if you could recommend the best driver version for the 5700 fx that would be great as well. thanks in advance.

I suggest you buy a new card altogether... Hellz Yea!

I agree with jam on that one, all in all you will enjoy the new cards benefits better then what you currently have. AMD64 3800x2 @2.7ghz "phase change Cooling" Nvidia 7800GT Epox 9npa+Ultra 1Gig pc4800 -Second System- Celeron D @ 3.65ghz 768mbs pc3200 geforce4 256mbs Asus p4p800-se

i appreciate the suggestion but i guess the reason for posting my question is because i dont have the money (i'm guessing around at least another $200) right now to pay for a new card...i barely had enough for the computer.

well, that depends on where you buy it. In todays gaming world, you need a 256mb graphics card to get your moneys worth out of the game. If you have a credit/debit card and dont mind shopping online, then you can get some great deals! i like to use a shopbot called Calibex located at www.calibex.com type what you want, and it will find the lowest price on the net, including shipping. If at first you dont succeed,.....quit

Not true, zicarias. 256MB is actually quite useless on lower-end cards, even though 256MB seems to be quite a selling point. Basically, the memory bandwidth is too small to effectively use all 256 MB of memory on the low-end cards. And most games are completely happy with 128 MB of video memory. Only MMOs and similar games protest. Since the fellow seems to be tight on cash, I suggest he go with either a 6600GT 128MB (for under $140 if you look around) or for the most bang for your buck, a 6800GS, but they're more expensive.

I would guess the 5700 is faster. Run a BenchMark on both if you really want to find out. 3dMark 2003 sound perfect