Ok, for an early Christmas present, I bought a new pc for the family. Nothing fancy, just a $598 Walmart special. Basically, my younger daughter watches youtube, does a little e-mail, and does facebook. Of course, my wife just plays solitaire on the thing. So, for that it's sufficient enough.
Here are the stats.
Anyway, to no surprise to me, my eldest's $500 Dell laptop doesn't run SWTOR very well. Crap, surprised me that it ran it at all :) . Anyway, I want to adjust this pc so it can run it without too much difficulty. The last weekend Beta I logged in with it, and it was playable, but really laggy.
I have decided that it will be decent enough if I just put in a new video card instead of using the built in Intel G45/G43 Express chipset.
For those unfamiliar with SWTOR minimum requirements, for the video, it wants an ATI x1800 or better, nVidia 7800 or better, or Intel 4100 chipset or better.
OS Windows XP, Vista/7
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better · Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0GHz or better
RAM Windows XP: 1.5GB · Windows Vista and Windows 7: 2GB · PCs using a built-in graphical chipset, 2GB RAM recommended.
Video ATI X1800 or better* · nVidia 7800 or better* · Intel 4100 Integrated Graphics or better*
DVD-ROM 8x or better
*Minimum of 256MB of on-board RAM and Shader 3.0 or better support.
So, what I am needing to know, is what video card to get??
Bestbuy has 1 GB PCIe video cards (here) ranging from $40 to $400.
I really don't want to put a $400 card into a $500 machine.
TL/DR: TREKKAN!! FIX IT!!!!
:D
Here are the stats.
Anyway, to no surprise to me, my eldest's $500 Dell laptop doesn't run SWTOR very well. Crap, surprised me that it ran it at all :) . Anyway, I want to adjust this pc so it can run it without too much difficulty. The last weekend Beta I logged in with it, and it was playable, but really laggy.
I have decided that it will be decent enough if I just put in a new video card instead of using the built in Intel G45/G43 Express chipset.
For those unfamiliar with SWTOR minimum requirements, for the video, it wants an ATI x1800 or better, nVidia 7800 or better, or Intel 4100 chipset or better.
OS Windows XP, Vista/7
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better · Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0GHz or better
RAM Windows XP: 1.5GB · Windows Vista and Windows 7: 2GB · PCs using a built-in graphical chipset, 2GB RAM recommended.
Video ATI X1800 or better* · nVidia 7800 or better* · Intel 4100 Integrated Graphics or better*
DVD-ROM 8x or better
*Minimum of 256MB of on-board RAM and Shader 3.0 or better support.
So, what I am needing to know, is what video card to get??
Bestbuy has 1 GB PCIe video cards (here) ranging from $40 to $400.
I really don't want to put a $400 card into a $500 machine.
TL/DR: TREKKAN!! FIX IT!!!!
:D