Recommended T&L-supporting card

[Kizyr]

Hi everyone,
I've been having the usual "black terrain" problem with Civ4, unable to work around it. I figured since I bought my notebook in April this year, there wouldn't be any problems; but it seems that my video card is an Intel 8** and won't support T&L (my computer is a HP Pavilion dv1000). After looking around here, I have two main questions:

1) Should I buy a new video card?
Civilization has always been my top non-RPG series, and I spend a lot of time playing it. So I really want Civ4 to work on this. Is buying a new video card my only option, then? More importantly, will a new card be able to be installed on my computer? I don't know if an integrated video card is a problem or not.

2) If so, what card should I get?
What works best with Civ4? I'm not so good on computer hardware, so I don't know precisely what to look for. I'd prefer a card less than $150 (maybe $200 if I really need it).

By the way, if I do buy a new card, then I'm going to go ahead and get a memory upgrade (512MB to 1GB) while I'm at it. Been meaning to do that soon as I can afford it.

Sorry if this repeats too much some other topics. But although I've seen plenty on the 'black terrain' and T&L issues, I'm still not sure what video card might work the best for me. KF

 

[bio_hazard]

Most laptops have integrated video cards, which mean you can't install a new card. I don't know about your particular computer. We are pretty much screwed, although apparently some people have had moderately playable games even w/out seeing the terrain. My game routinely crashes after 20-30 turns, so I've uninstalled and will either return or keep until I get a computer that will run it.

 

[nomo]

i dont know how to fix your problem , but I can tell you that it's almost impossible to upgrade graphics cards on laptop(or notebook computers.). Try looking through this fourm for fixes and stuff, sorry i cant tell you more.