Hi!

I think this is the first time that I post in this sub-forum...
Anyway, I have this doubt, and I was wondering if you guys could give me a hint or two.

I have an Intel Pentium 4 with 3.00 GHz and 1.00 GB of RAM. The thing is, it currently has an NVIDIA GeForce Fx 5200 Graphics Card; but I also happen to have available another Graphics Card, a Ti 4200.

So, which one is better (at least with Civ IV)? I know, I need only switch and compare, but should any of you know the answer to this question, it would save me some trouble...

Thanks!!

your Fx 5200 is the better Card with more v ram. It should be able to run civ quite well in low graphical settings. Your processor might have a few issues though.

Geforce FX 5200 is DX9 card and it has newer shader support. Ti4200 has more raw power. I would say Ti4200 is better

FX5200 can play the BF2 demo on low graphics, the Ti4200 cannot because it lacks something that the game requires.

I would go with the FX 5200, simply so you can play 2 year old games like Battlefield 2. The Ti 4200 though good in its day (over 5 years ago) only has 1.3 pixel shader version so BF2 is not an option, unless you use some unofficial "fix". I've never tried/seen the fix in action and therefore not sure, how stable it is. My old ATI Radeon 8500 used to beat the ti 4200, in fair number of areas and it did manage to run BF2 demo quite well! :)
Have a look this article.... yes its nearly 5 years old! http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MzMy . Maybe a Geforce 7600GT even? That should give the system a good boost. They are quite cheap.

. Your processor might have a few issues though.

Why is this going to have perfromance issues? I thought 3.0 is good when comparing Pent4. I had a pent 4 2.0ghz that was vey sucky compared to my less older 3.2ghz, (all else the same) but still played CIv4 half ass, so this GHz thing does still matter for judging pent4's and 3.0 is better then most true?

I mean 3.0 was better the best pent4 less then two years ago and in that time all thats come out since are dual core upgrades that don't translate into noticable improvements for huge majority of games right now. True? (these "trues" are not sarcastic remarks but actual 'not sures'!) He can overclock it to 3.4 safly even, so isn't 3.4 kinda near the top when all other other things are good like ram ,vcard etc..

Less then two weeks ago, I was forced to buy two 3.2's (dualcore) and it was one of best he had available in pentium 4 line. Thats only .2 better then his processor all else the same cus only one thread counts for games. I may overclock to 3.6 cuz cool fan I bought to :)

If you play games that don't require DX9 capability from your video card then Ti4200 is much better than FX5200. However FX5200 has VERY poor DX9 performance and for example Half-Life 2 recognizes FX5200 as DX8 card though it's DX9.