[ChevTruckGal]

Hi how are you!? My name is Heather and I am a newbie to this site. Anywho. I have a Dell GX 280 (Windows XP Professional) that I wish to play the Sims 3 on. I want to make my computer at its best for this game... as I know I will be playing it a lot. I am having trouble finding a video card to fit it. I have already ordered 2 GB for this computer, so I am not worried about that. Please help me upgrade my computer.

PS: Here are the Sims 3 System Requirements.. please let me know if I am missing anything else:



"THE SIMS 3 MINIMUM HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS - from thesims3.com

FOR WINDOWS XP
* Windows XP (Service Pack 2)
* 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 1 GB RAM
* At least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content
* 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0

FOR WINDOWS VISTA
* Windows Vista (Service Pack 1)
* 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 1.5 GB RAM
* At least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content
* 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0

For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires at least:

* Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA X3000 or above.
* 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent
* 0.5 GB additional RAM

SUPPORTED VIDEO CARDS

NVIDIA GeForce series
FX 5900, FX 5950
6200, 6500, 6600, 6800,
7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
8400, 8500, 8600, 8800
9600, 9800, GTX 260, GTX 280

ATI Radeon™ series
9500, 9600, 9800
X300, X600, X700, X800, X850
X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
2400, 2600, 2900
3450, 3650, 3850, 3870,
4850, 4870

Intel® Extreme Graphics
GMA X3x00 series



Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slower. Standalone cards that are installed in vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly. Intel integrated chipsets featuring underclocked parts will not perform adequately.


Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA TurboCache variants will have low settings selected, but should run satisfactorily.


Please note that attempting to play the game using video hardware that isn't listed above may result in reduced performance, graphical issues or cause the game to not run at all.


The NVIDIA GeForce FX series is unsupported under Vista."

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ok, what you need to know is that your computer is agp. most computers today are pci-x. Makes the choices a little limited, but you can still find a decent card.

I would recommend something like this: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814131134

That seems to be the best option (at least from newegg).

[starjax]

ok, what you need to know is that your computer is agp. most computers today are pci-x. Makes the choices a little limited, but you can still find a decent card.

I would recommend something like this: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814131134

That seems to be the best option (at least from newegg).

[ChevTruckGal]

Thanks for the reply... I don't think the x1650 is listed as an approved graphics card for the sims 2. (please see the list in the original message.)

[starjax]

yes it is... ati x1600 series.