What's the best PCI card?

Yeah, I've beens shopping around and getting prices. Basically, I'm looking for the best possible card to play Half Life 2 or Unreal Tournament 2004. My current integrated graphics let me play some of the games on the market, but the rest either run at a horrible frame rate or simply won't play at all.

Message Edited by df96817 on 10-30-2004 02:25 AM

Okay, heres a dumb question......

Why on earth did you buy a 2400 if you were going too game on it??

Our old computer was an XPS .333 with 128MB ram, integrated graphics, etc. We had it for seven years. Then suddenly I hear we're getting a new computer with a 2.8GHz processor, 512 ram, 260 GB combined hard drive space and a free flat-screen. I was assuming that because it's brand new it would have an AGP slot. Guess not.

Edit: It looks like the Nvidia is superior in ever way except effective speed; 400MHz (ATI) vs 332MHz (Nvidia). Will that make a noticeable difference during gameplay? If not, I'm definitely buying the Nvidia.

Message Edited by zn3zman on 10-30-2004 10:22 AM

Sartori:

you can ask me the same question as the original poster. 

I have ordered a Dimension 3000 with a P4 and 512K.  Plan to install an ATI Radeon 9200 PCI card.  Why?  Well, I plan to play a game called Morrowind.  On the Morrowind message board, there are plenty of gamers who have already done this and report that it is working well.

I realize that this "gaming pc" is not cutting edge, but but I've only invested $500.  There are probably a few current games that it will not be capable of playing, but I accept this...

on the other hand, I'll admit my ignorance and ask you for advice..... what am I missing?

Can I use PCI express cards? I was told that PCI Express cards were incompatible with the PCI slots in the 2400.

Okay. Thank you for your help.

zn3zman,

The 2400 cannot use PCIe cards. Only PCI cards.