Video card for Civ 4?

[rocketgirl]

I have a Dimension 3000 P 4 2.8 Ghz , 512 SDRAM with a Intel Extreme Graphics 2 video card.

I am trying to install Civ 4 but it glitches (video wise) terribly. Do I need to upgrade the video card and if so to what?

Thanks in advance

[tigerwolf7]

The Dimension 3000 only has PCI slots, no AGP or PCIe, so you're very limited in what you can upgrade to. The best cards available for PCI are the Geforce 5600, then the 5500 and 5700le. (Make sure the card says it has a 128-bit memory interface, not 64-bit.)

[rocketgirl]

So the bottom line is... I NEED to upgrade?

[tigerwolf7]

Yes, in order to play newer games. Unfortunatly the best PCI video cards are also very low end, but still better than nothing.

[rocketgirl]

Thank you for all your assistance, it is greatly appreciated:

[rocketgirl]

Everything I read about the 5600 card (discontinued?) states that it requires AGP. Is this interchangeable with the PCI? Or is there a PCI version that I have not found. The minimum system requirements are:

Intel Pentium® III, AMD Duron or Athlon™ class processor or higher128MB system RAMA 250W system power supplyA motherboard with an AGP 2.0 slot17 MB of available hard disk space (50 MB for full installation)CD-ROM or DVD-ROM driveWindows® 98 or higher, ME, 2000, XP, or Windows® NT4.0. (Service Pack 5 or 6)VGA or DVI-I compatible monitor

[drew-and-not-u]

Just go to newegg.com and go to the videocard section of their website. select PCI videocards and look for any of the nVidia cards with a 128bit interface. Don't get an ATI PCI card, as they've always been plagued with problems.

[speedstep]

If you have a tower the best card for the money is a PNY Geforce FX5500 PCI card.
It wont kill your power supply OR your wallet.

The Dell Part Number for the Video Cards is

NVIDIA VERTO FX5500 PCI 128MB PNY VCGFX55PPB VIDEO GRAPHICS CARD (A0416878)


I have used these cards with XP SP2 and GX1, GX110, 170L, and Dimension Series without issue for SMALL MINI TOWER based systems.

Its available at Best buy, COMP USA, Walmart, etc. Very easy to find card.

http://www.pny.com/products/verto/value/5500pci.asp

http://www.nextag.com/serv/main/buyer/OutPDir.jsp?search=VCGFX55PPB&node=0&x=54&y=9

Works with Farcry, World of Warcraft, Battlefield2, Doom3, HalfLife, etc.

If you install XP SP2 you dont even need to install drivers. It just works.

For Win2000 Install Directx 9.0c Redist  and then install the Nvidia 56.72  WHQL drivers.

[tigerwolf7]

There have been Geforce 5600 cards made for PCI, but they're extremly rare. It was the best PCI card available, as it's roughly as powerful as a Geforce 4.

[MiddleCity2000]

Wow... I am also trying to upgrade to a PCI video card so I can play Civilization IV...  I have a Dimension 2400 with almost exactly the same specs at rocketgirl...  Here's what I'm looking at...  I've seen links for both of these cards in other posts, but I could use some help picking one...

Card 1...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814143032

3D Fuzion 3DFR55256P Geforce FX5500 256MB 128-bit DDR PCI

This one is $83 bucks... It looks like a BFG knock-off(?), is that OK??... it says it has a 128-bit interface (with 4 chips on the front and 4 on the back... SpeedStep mentioned this was ok in <a href=http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_video&message.id=127398&query.id=350039#M127398>another thread</a>)... It has 256mb (but apparently the difference between 128 and 256 doesn't matter much?)... However, since I don't need the dual-monitor functionality of the PNY card, I guess I could spend $20 more and take the extra memory instead.

or...

Card 2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814133134

PNY VCGFX55PPB Geforce FX5500 128MB 128-bit DDR PCI

This one is $94 bucks (which seems odd because I found it for $60 on Buy.com... here's the link... http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10381057&loc=32767)... Does newegg consider this a "better" card than the 3D Fuzion card?  I don't need dual monitor functionality, but if the extra memory on the 3D Fuzion card isn't worth $20, then I guess this is the way to go...

Any thoughts appreciated... your other posts have been helpful as well!

thanks,
matt