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I decided to upgrade my computer, give a year or two of extra life. This involves replacing the shit integrated sound/video card with a real Graphics Card. My computer, being old, only takes 32-bit PCI cards. Which is fine, it doesn't need to run current games, I mostly just Operation Flashpoint, Rome: Total War, and Morrowind to not look like ass.

So anyone know of any good cards of that type?

You could try this one.

The Radeon HD2400 Pro is probably the best you're going to get for PCI. It's a 64-bit PCI card, but from what I've read it will fit in a 32-bit slot and simply run on a 32-bit bus.

Executor32 wrote:The Radeon HD2400 Pro is probably the best you're going to get for PCI. It's a 64-bit PCI card, but from what I've read it will fit in a 32-bit slot and simply run on a 32-bit bus.

That's a 32-bit PCI card; it's also otherwise identical to the one I linked but more expensive

phongn wrote:You could try this one.

Damn, good performance, good price, and with a rebate! It's perfect, thank you very much.

Ah, my mistake. You replied while I was hunting for a card, and I hadn't refreshed the page before posting.

The ATI Radeon 3870 has done me wonders and cost a whopping $160 bucks. It doesn't need a lot of power (It says 450 watt power supply, even though I'm running it on a 375), it's cheap, and it performs quite well in graphics intense games, all things considered.

Joviwan wrote:The ATI Radeon 3870 has done me wonders and cost a whopping $160 bucks. It doesn't need a lot of power (It says 450 watt power supply, even though I'm running it on a 375), it's cheap, and it performs quite well in graphics intense games, all things considered.

There's the minor problem that the R3870 can't be used in a PCI slot.

Hmn, since the question seems to have been answered. I have a similar question, is there anything like add-on GPUs for laptops?
I'm stuck with a craplet SIS integrated which can't even render GalCiv2 properly.

Ace Pace wrote:Hmn, since the question seems to have been answered. I have a similar question, is there anything like add-on GPUs for laptops?
I'm stuck with a craplet SIS integrated which can't even render GalCiv2 properly.

Join the club. I've got an integrated R200 or something that was outdated before it left the factory sometime during the Industrial Revolution and as far as I can tell - and unless your laptop model is ridiculously customizable - there's very, very little chance of replacing the graphics hardware on anything that isn't a desktop.

If your problem is *just* GalCiv II, zoom out until you get icons and try to forget there's supposed to be pretty ships there.

Reduce the tactical view distance; that way it stays as icons for longer. You can lower it such that it only draws ships so close in there isn't much onscreen to improve performance.

Unless it doesn't even pass muster for GalCiv2, in which case it's time to laugh at people who play games on old laptops.

Bounty wrote:
Join the club. I've got an integrated R200 or something that was outdated before it left the factory sometime during the Industrial Revolution and as far as I can tell - and unless your laptop model is ridiculously customizable - there's very, very little chance of replacing the graphics hardware on anything that isn't a desktop.

If your problem is *just* GalCiv II, zoom out until you get icons and try to forget there's supposed to be pretty ships there.

Ah, if only my problem was just low FPS. It just won't even display some menus properly. I got into the options scene and turned everything off. Don't think it'll help too much. Seems this card was just never meant to do anything 3Dish, can't even find Linux drivers for it.

EDIT: Turning everything off, GalCiv2 displays, might be playable, though it's rather ugly. I'd still like to know if theres add-on GPUs.

Seems this card was just never meant to do anything 3Dish, can't even find Linux drivers for it.

What card is it?

Unless it doesn't even pass muster for GalCiv2, in which case it's time to laugh at people who play games on old laptops.

Hardy, har-har. Some people like to invest in a proper gaming platform (read: a console) and leave their computer to do computery stuff. Gaming on this junker is a bonus, not a feature.

phongn wrote:

Joviwan wrote:The ATI Radeon 3870 has done me wonders and cost a whopping $160 bucks. It doesn't need a lot of power (It says 450 watt power supply, even though I'm running it on a 375), it's cheap, and it performs quite well in graphics intense games, all things considered.

There's the minor problem that the R3870 can't be used in a PCI slot.

Whoops. Missed that part. Oh well.

Bounty wrote:

Seems this card was just never meant to do anything 3Dish, can't even find Linux drivers for it.

What card is it?

SIS 760 M760, integrated GPU, seems to have this thing called Video Bridge Chip, SiS 302 Rev E1, I have no idea about laptop integrated.

Unless it doesn't even pass muster for GalCiv2, in which case it's time to laugh at people who play games on old laptops.

I never even considered using it for games, then decided to try GalCiv2. Hoped it would work, no huge loss if it doesn't.

SIS 760 M760, integrated GPU, seems to have this thing called Video Bridge Chip, SiS 302 Rev E1, I have no idea about laptop integrated.

If I google'd right, that chip is... nasty. Tried the VGA drivers?