Graphics Card Help! I think!!!!

SuperOxford

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Forgive but i am a newbie to this PC thing and am not sure what I am talking about!

I bought TOCA Race Driver 2 and it refuses to work.. When i run it i get a blank screen and then it just back to the usual screen that it was on before i clicked in the Race Driver icon. I have only ever played Championship Manager 4 and Medal of Of Honor on my PC and they both work fine. Is this TOCA problem because my PC does not have a graphics card or at least 1 good enough to run it?

I bought my PC from Evesham Micros but cant find the specs that i has when i ordered it about 6 months or so ago! My PC uses an AMD Athlon XP2000+ with 512Mb RAM. How do i find out if i have a graphics card and if I dont which card would you recommend for someone who plays games occasionally?

Sorry if this is easy for you out there but a simple bloke like mei would appreciate your help!
 
right click on your desktop, click on properties, then click on settings, then click on advanced. You should have a series of tabs - click on the one that says adaptor and it shoud give you the name of the installed graphics card.

Another way is through My computer, Control panel, performance & maintenance, system, hardware, device manager. Click on the + beside display adaptor and that again will tell you what card you have.

When you find out what it's called reply back and we can then assess if it's the problem. If it's a reasonable GF4 (ti4200, 4400, 4600) or above or a fairly recent ATI card like a 9200, 9600 or above you should be ok with that system. I'd have thought that even lower cards would have run the program but you would have to play on low detail.
 
i've just checked the box and the game requires a direct x 9.0b compatable video and sound card - if you are using onboard video this may be a factor.
 
Thanks for your help so far.

I have just checked and when i click on adaptor is says i have a VIA/S3G KM400.

Not sure what sort of graphic card that is! Does this mean i need to get one of the graphics cards that you have mentioned?

If i do what one would you recommend for playing the odd game? I dont mind spending a bit extra if that means the card will be ok for games for a good while
 
That's onboard graphics and probably ill be the reason why you game is not working. The best value for money card at the moment is the ATI Radeon 9800 pro (about £130) that will make a HUGE difference to your machine and is not that expensive.
 
I will buy one as soon as i can.

You have been a lot of help. Thank you very much
 
Last questions (I hope!)

Where is the cheapest place to buy it from? I have had a quick look on the internet and £140-£150 seems about the cheapest i can find.

Also there seems to be 128MB and 256MB versions. Would the 128MB version be ok for my needs?
 
No probs, glad I could help.

This is the best deal i've seen, someone else posted the site (the company is actually part of Evesham Micros) on another graphics card thread below.

http://www.lowestonweb.com/Products/DisplayInfoMain.asp?e=2F99A0AD-B9A8-470B-B643-2A672531F699

The performance gain of the 256 mb version is only minimal over the 128mb version and isn't worth the extra £100 or so that the 256mb card costs.

I am personally going to wait for the next generation of cards and get a model from that range but you are looking in the £250-£400 price range for those cards. The 9800 should give you good performance for some time and that much power for £130 is superb.
 
I will be ordering 1 from the site you have given me shortly.

Thanks again for all your help
 

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