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[stoutfellow]

I've been playing Civ IV for quite a while, but my computer is slightly underpowered for that game. Reading tygerr's description of the visual effects has prompted me to remedy this situation.

The manual says that, at minimum, the game requires a "64 MB Video Card w/ Hardware T&L (GeForce 2/Radeon 7500 or better)"; it recommends a "128 MB Video Card w/ DirectX 8 support (pixel and vertex shaders)". I think that's the only respect in which my system falls short. Does anyone have a recommendation as to what video card I should order? Money's not too much of an object.

Comments

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Does your motherboard support PCI-Express or AGP?

If the former, something like this:

http://www.bfgtech.com/7950GT_512_PCIX.html
or
http://www.bfgtech.com/7950Gx2_1G_PCIX.html

if AGP, then:

http://www.bfgtech.com/7600GS_512.html

(This is, of course, taking you at your word that money is no object. Of course, there's also:

http://www.bfgtech.com/8800GTX_768_PCIe.html

But I tend to try and stay one generation back from the top of the line.)

I've bought several video cards from BFG, and they've all been exceptional.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Mm. I'm feeling rather stupid at the moment; I'm having trouble finding the docs for my computer.

Does your motherboard support PCI-Express or AGP?

How would I determine this? I've been poking around on the Control Panel, but there's no indication that I can find. I get the impression that PCI-Express is a fairly recent development; I bought my current computer in 2002, if that helps. (Of course, that may just push the question back to PCI vs. AGP...)

[khavrinen.livejournal.com]

I get the impression that PCI-Express is a fairly recent development; I bought my current computer in 2002

Yes, according to Wikipedia, PCI-e came out in 2004, so it is a pretty good bet that what you have is AGP. Video cards for the old, original PCI are pretty rare now, and even if you found one it would most likely be more expensive and less powerful than current AGP cards.

To determine for sure that your motherboard does in fact have an AGP slot, you will probably have to either check the BIOS settings ( usually accessed by pushing "Delete" or "Escape" just after you turn it on ), or by opening the case and inspecting it visually. Your motherboard may or may not have the helpful "AGP" label printed on it like the one in the Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port), but as you can see from the picture, they are clearly different. Not only are they set farther from the back edge of the motherboard than PCI slots, but if you look at the right end of it you can see a gap which does not have connector pins. AGP cards have an L-shaped extension on this end so that a clip on the slot ( the little grayish-white tab in the picture ) can hold that end down -- the other end is usually screwed or latched to the case itself, where it sticks out the back.

Since both ATI and nVidia usually come out with a trio of cards ( "good", "better", and "I'm compensating with this instead of a Porsche" levels ) every six months, there are an enormous number of choices out there, but I'd say most of them with 128MB or more of RAM should suffice for improving CivIV. Despite your comment about the money, I wouldn't recommend spending more than about $200, because at levels higher than that it is likely that any increase in performance would be limited by the power of the other components in your system, and each additional dollar spent would result in less and less noticeable improvement.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that helped a lot!

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

I would recommend a nVidia GeForce 6600GT. It was their "1 notch below top of the line" card when Civ IV came out, and readily handles the graphics. When I upgraded to one it was a tremendous improvement and I got all of the graphics I'd been missing.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Thanks, you've been very helpful.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Glad to help! I see that khavrinen answered your other question. I'd tend to agree with most of what K said, except to note that I wouldn't personally buy a card with less than 256 meg of ram these days. The difference *is* worth it, IMO.