Will I be able to play CIV5?

[VimesUK]

It's getting to sound like it would be worthwhile investing in a whole new computer.

As noted before sometimes these things have a domino type effect where by upgrading one component you see little or no advantage and / or you then have to upgrade several more to get that one to work. You can quickly get to the point of realising due to the restrictive points of the system you might have got that a new PC in the future is more viable.

 

[Martynblackburn]

You might just pick up a AMD Radeon HD 6450 1GB DDR3 for around that price (if you are lucky) or just look at second hand choices.

But you are going to have a problem getting Civ V to work at anything approaching an acceptable level, even with all the eye candy turned down, as you are running at 1680x1050 and Civ V is a pretty demanding game.

Having a budget of £25 is simply not going to give you what you need. Then again the GeForce GTS 450 I first noted (over £60) might bring a hole new load of issues as it does require an additional 6 pin plug.

If you get the 2GB of memory and then just a £25 new GPU you will be no further forward than you are now.

If you can have 4GB or memory in that system then great (but it would cost) if not then 2GB would simply have to be ok. That also is quite slow DDR 2 memory.
If you could afford the £60 plus card then great but that might throw up issues with your PSU.

Tough choices

I'm not sure my pc would take 4GB (2x2GB) anyway. I suppose I could look for a middle of the range GPU from an internet fare or something. I would buy the RAM from Crucial though as it sounds relatively cheap.

 

[VimesUK]

I have dealt with Crucial in the past and the good thing about buying from them direct, after running their own system detection utility, is that they guarantee that their memory will be both compatible and continue to work for life.

2GB is nice 4GB, if possible, with your OS would be great.

But only do the above if you are confident that the PSU etc etc is up to the job of accepting a GPU which in turn is capable of play in Civ V @ 1680x1050 at an acceptable level.

Upgrading the memory is only one part of the problems you face.

 

[tokala]

CiV isn't that demanding on the video card side of things, unless you have a beast of a CPU.

If it's just a question of getting it to run without errors, you will get by with that 2GB DDR2 RAM and a HD 5450, for about 55 £

BUT, for about £25 more, you could already get a HD 6570 DDR3. which is vastly superior, while still able to work with your old PSU.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&subid=1984
Or even less:
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...R3+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+?productId=47594

When CiV came out, we had feedback from several people with comparable systems (slow C2Duo, 2GB, HD 5570/5670) who were quite happy with that.

 

[timtofly]

This system maxes at 2 Gig. 4 will never work.

It does have a PCIexpress x16 slot.

I would assume that it being a tower has at least 300 Watt PSU, but that needs to be varified.

The Nvidea GT430 runs from 40+ to 55+ on the UK web sites. I don't think that it needs extra power input, but just uses the rail. It only needs a 300 watt power supply. You can look on the motherboard to see what wires are plugged in. There should be a large socket that is two connectors wide by eight long. Then there should be an extra 4 making it 12 long. So you are looking to see if the connection uses all 12 (wide) or uses 8 (wide) in one spot and there should be another separate 4 spot connector elsewhere. If there is only one 8 connector and no 4 spot connector, then the card will not get power.

Upgrading the memory and trying this card would be as far as I would go in upgrading this computer.

 

[VimesUK]

I have the GT 430 in my HTPC and it runs a treat with no additional power connection required. However I am using that card to run via HDMI a Plasma TV and not to game.

The OP is only willing to spend £25 on a GPU - as he noted.
IIRC, although it was a long time ago, my father in law had an old PB system which was powered by a 250w PSU.

I would not upgrade the memory at all unless the OP is willing or able to spend more than £25 on a GPU or buy second hand something more capable, as I noted previously. Then that throws up the question of the capability of the PSU and for that any numbers etc related to the output of it would be required.