PCI video card for FEAR

[dfritz]

Hello all.

User bought a new Dell 8100 (I think these start at $299), then bought FEAR which requires a GeForce 4 TI, or RADEON 9000 or better video card. This mainboard doesn't even have an AGP slot, just 3 pci slots.

So, is there a PCI video card out there with up to 256MB? It can use Radeon 9000 series, 9500 series, 9600 series, 9700 series, 9800 series, X600 series, X700 series, X800 series, or X850 series chips from ATI. or these nVidia chips, GeForce 4 TI, FX 5900 series, 6600 series, 6800 series, or 7800 series.

I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "you get what you pay for". I nearly bled to death.

Being the non-offesive businessman that I am, I will try to please the customer if it can be done.

Thanks for any help.

Dean

[Platypus]

Being as PCI has less than 10% of the throughput of 8x AGP, it's hard to find a performance chipset on one.

This was the best prospect I found on a recent search for someone:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143032

[rgharper]

It won't matter if you can find a video card with 256mb that will fit in a PCI slot. You simply won't find one that meets the minimum chipset requirements because they're all AGP-only chipsets. That means it won't support features that the game expects it will, and the game either won't work or will work but the graphics will suck.

[confus-ed]

..I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "you get what you pay for". I nearly bled to death.

Being the non-offesive businessman that I am, I will try to please the customer if it can be done..

Yeah but there's times not to be pleasing the customer too

Imho spending money on some pci add in card is not the way forward for this person, I'd call it good money after bad

For the price of some seperate pci vga card, you can probably source an 'all onboard' motherboard with a spare agp slot, & 'just about adequate' gpu already in it which probably is a much better deal for your customer in the long run ..

[Platypus]

With a PCI card, you can really only take advantage of games that produce great looking rendered environments, not action games that need decent frame rates. I agree it's simply the wrong computer for FEAR, people are having trouble running that with high-end AGP cards.

[dfritz]

Thanks to all who responded. I'm not looking forward to telling them that they wasted their hard earned money, but I don't see any way around it.

I want to wish ALL Windrivers Forums Contributors a very happy and Prosperous New Year.

Dean