Hi, I've been trying to get a better video card so far I've tried 2 the first one was nvidia i cant remeber which one but the box was X shaped and there was a big freaky dog on the front that one didnt work at all then i tried ati readeon 9800 and I coulnt even see my computer screen. I'm so lost can anyone help me. I have a dell denention desktop, with xp home edition, a celeron processor and 512 mb of RAM. (dont tell me I already know it sucks)
I kind of help ya'll can give would be greatly appreciated. :D

Radeon 9800 Pro cards *will* work with The Sims 2. In fact, it's a great card.

You probably had a problem on installation whereby the card was running at too high a refresh rate or resolution for your monitor, or there was a general problem.

My advice? Stick with the 9800 and try and get it working.

Regards
Delphy

delphy maybe you can help me too whit my choise of videocard. i have a geforce 5200 128 mb now is the point that the one said you must have a ati radeon 9800 and the other said a geforce 5700 128 mb what is your advice?

An FX5200 is a fairly low range card. It'll play the sims, but you probably wont be able to select a good Anti-Aliasing (Smoothing) level without slowing the game down considerably.

The FX5700 128mb card is a 128-bit one, the Radeon 9800 is a 256-bit card so it's inherantely faster.

For a good comparison, see http://www20.graphics.tomshardware...._charts-04.html

Note that the 5700 scores a lot less than the 9800

It's really up to what you want, and your budget. A good card now will serve you for a fair while, and can play things very well other than TS2.

Hope this helps
Delphy

I have a FX5200-and TS2 runs very smoothly and doesn't loose shadowing, reflections, bump map any for me ( graphics settings on high) . I'm using Forceware 67.66 drivers

I agree. stick with the ati readeon 9800. In my Opinion ATI's are the best mainstream grafx cards. The problem is probably the way you have it set up.
Oh yeah, A Dell Dimention... you said: "I've been trying to get a better video card so far I've tried 2..." It is likely that the problem you are having is this:
Your old grafx card is actually built right into the motherboard of your computer and you would need to disable it first in order for the computer to recognize the new one you put in. Your computer manual or Dell's (award winning) technical support wil be able to tell you the specifics on how to do this.
If you pull out your new grafx card, load windows, and view "system information" (it's in start menu-accessories-system tools) it will tell you what kind of grafx hardware is built into your system, AGP or PCI. Assuming that your new grafx card is the opposite type, turn your system back off, install the new card, enter setup (usually the <DEL> key) right after the computer beeps, and look for a setting "primary graphics controller" and change it to what type of card your new one is. This may work. If it does not, you would have to look in your manual or contact dell.
Also, try posting the exact model of your computer, had I known that I might have been of more help.

Oh, you might actually see a setting "disable onboard graphics controller" or something similar pertaining to "onboard Graphics" or "onboard video"...

aafuss, thanks for the clarification. I don't own an nvidia card so I wouldn't know ^^;;

I've updated my post.

Regards
Delphy

where can i get one for a good price

Somebody from MTS2, referred me to pricewatch.com.. do a search for the ATI RADEON 9800 PRO there.. and it will come up for only about $148.. that's the cheapest I've seen it for so far

thanx delphy for your reaction. my computerstore told me that the mb is not important only how fast a card is and yes my fx5200 runs fine but i am prommised the card to my son so i must have another one, so i want one who is better dan the 5200

Ditto . . . The 9800 Pro 256 is great!

A word of caution to all... Stay away from the X series ATI cards, they are having major compatibility problems.