«

[Juanca]

I have a friend who's buying a new machine.
Intel original mother board (945), cpu intel core 2 duo, 2gb of ram...

He will use it mostly to play games like warcraft 3, games like the ones at abandonia, watch some videos, movies, home work, etc (nothing very different than a home's computer)

His question, which i could not answer is if he needs a 256mb graphic card (nvidia or ATI) or if it is enough with the graphic card built in the mother board (i think it is 64mb)?

[ianfreddie07]

Do not play with integrated graphics chips. They're too slow. Really really slow. What OS will he be planning to get? XP or Vista?

[Juanca]

he is planning to use windows xp

[Eagle of Fire]

Integrated chips are never good for gaming. Coma.

It's only good if you have nothing else, as it's still better than nothing. But any serious computer user will upgrade to a real hardware as soon as they can.

[dosraider]

The amount of available memory for the onboard vidchip can be altered in the BIOS (so called 'shared' memory).
That said, I agree with the others, onboard vidchips sucks, really.

If he's not interested in the latest vidgames any 128/256MB vidcard will do.
But on a new PC I would advise at least a 256MB card.

[Eagle of Fire]

I just checked, and the graphic card I have on this computer is 128 megs. However, I purchased this computer 4 years ago...

I'd advise with 256 megs minimum. 512 if he can.

[Juanca]

thanks all this clear doubts. he is going for a 256mb nvidia graphic card.
thanks again

[_r.u.s.s.]

Originally Posted by Juanca

thanks all this clear doubts. he is going for a 256mb nvidia graphic card.
thanks again

which one?

[Blood-Pigggy]

Did you guys really not read the OP?

He said he'd use it to mostly play Warcraft 3 and abandonware. I don't know about you, but the integrated chipsets today can play those obviously.

Is he really going to play ANY newer games? Otherwise it's a waste of money, my graphics card is almost never taxed on my PC, it's a 256 ATI Radeon and its existence is entirely pointless.

[Rogue]

I second Blood-Pigggy's opinion.

Integrated card should do well with Warcraft 3 and games on Abandonia.

I personally have only one computer with integrated video card, but as that computer is actually a server (without monitor ) that probably doesn't count. :laugh: