Need video card suggestions wanted

[robboo]

specifics: Dell 8200 2Ghz 768MB RAM

It had a GeForce4 TI 4200 w 64MB RAM. The fan stopped on the board and so did the card.

I had to get a card quickly so I could get back online to research and buy a new one from somewhere better than Walmart(very small town 2 hours form a decent computer store).

I purchased a GeForce MX 4000 with 128MB RAM. Civ runs but movies skip and stutttter. Also the only card was a PCI and VGA output and I needed the the digital output and AGP so I can reinstall my firewire card.

I am looking for a card that will have very little problems with civ and most of the game coming out today. Obviously I would like it to be as good as I can get but I am limited by money...say $75 to $125. ( wife and 2 kids)

If you have any suggestions how to get this card to work without movie stutters...let me hear it...if I can wait till October more money should free up and I can go bigger and better.


ALSO when I do the devmgmt.msc it says I have a GEForce FX 5200. So what do I have?

 

[InGen]

I bought this not to long ago for my setup.
NVIDIA® GeForce 6200
So far Civ4 runs on it without any problems, and to me it is very cheap in price. I hope this helps, if not the site that is selling it also has a large number of cards.

 

[Conroe]

Civ runs but movies skip and stutttter.
...
if I can wait till October more money should free up and I can go bigger and better.

Why not just turn movies off in your .ini file until October?

 

[robboo]

i did that prepatch...i kinda like them now...

thasnk for reminding me...

 

[opticaljim]

I gotta tell you. I went round and round with video cards and ended up in complete frustration.

Then one day I said, Heck! As much as I love this game and as much time as I invest in it I might as well make a committment. So I went all out.

I got a Radeon 1300 AGP 512M card. I got a 19 inch flatscreen LCD moniter.

All my prolems are solved. For months I was playing blind. Exploring was worthless because as soon as I left it was covered up again in darkness. Map trading was worthless. I didn't know where anyone else was unless I switched to global view to get a general idea.

The graphics are beautiful, the color is awsome. The game is far more enjoyable.

I guess it's the way of the gaming future. if you spend serious time playing you might as well go out and get the very best graphic card that your unit will take. It's worth it just to get rid of the frustration.

 

[Zanmato]

If you're looking at the long-term get a PCI-e system. As a temporary stop gap the series 6 nvidia cards or higher should be able to handle most games perfectly.