I need graphics card help!?

Question

I got Team Fortress 2 a little while ago but got a message saying I had broken drivers or something. My friend told me I needed to get a better graphics card and found this: http://www.provantage.com/jaton-video-px8500gt-256~BJATM043.htm Is this what I need or is there something better/cheaper. I don't want something to amazing just enough to play it at a good or average quality and it has to be under 75 bucks. Plus the computer I have is from 2003 I think, is that too old to play it anyways?

Answer 1

If your computer is from 2003, you need an AGP card.  Or if you don't have an AGP slot you need a PCI card.  You need to open your case and confirm visually what expansion slots you have.  You also need at least 512 MB of memory.

Answer 2

Uh, if you have broken drivers, why not head over to the video card maker's site and download new drivers. If it's a desktop, both Nvidia and ATI update their drivers fairly often.

If it's laptop you can't upgrade your video card...

Answer 3

Your friend maybe wrong especially if you are running Windows XP. However if you have recently upgraded to Windows Vista then your card maybe too old for Vista to recognize it or it may be incompatible with Vista.

In any event have you tried downloading any updates for your graphic card? All you have to do is go to your graphic card's manufacturer, find the card version, and download updates for it. Make sure you download the update that corresponds to your Operating System and read the install instructions. It is my feeling that this will most likely it will resolve the issue for you.

If it does not resolve the issue then I would go to Team Fortress 2 web site and see if there are any patches, fixes, or updates for the game. It could be there is a display issue with the game and downloading may resolve the issue for you.

Moving on, if the two issues above have not resolved it have you tried your display settings? Display is accessed from your Control Panel you may need to reset the resolution or refresh rate.

Finally if you have tried the above and notice other problems with display then you may need to update your card. However  if you are using a laptop then updating the card is most likely impossible especially if it is integrated to the motherboard and for me updating the card would be my last resort.

Answer 4

get a new computer. your processor and memory will bottleneck your new video card. if you insist on keeping that old hunk of junk, go for the 8600gt. MUCH better than the 8500 and only a little bit more expensive