What do you recommend?

[JiggyG1]

I'm currently hooked on "Plants Vs Zombies" on my pc and notice that the game constantly freezes up once the gameplay gets hectic (lots of enemies/plants on screen at once and they're all firing away).

I'm not convinced that it has heating problems because my fan is working correctly and the game never used to freeze until I upgraded my ram to 1GB. I'm looking into a better video card (my pc currently has an integrated one--it's about 7-8 years old) and was wondering which you think is best suited for this type of game. I meet all the requirements from the game yet it still freezes up on me after 20 minutes of gameplay.

One website recommends either the Radeon HD 3470 or a Geforce 6600 GT. The computer I play this game on doesn't need anything fancy.....in other words, I don't plan on playing Crysis on it. The card I currently have installed works fine for general websurfing and other functions. I just wanna be able to play this game without it freezing up. I'm not interested in applying any type of gel/cooling to my computer. I don't think that's the problem as the game was working fine before. Could it be the ram?

Which video card under $100 bucks do you recommend? I don't know the first thing to look for with these cards. Is a 512 card enough?

[floop12444]

Hi JiggyG1,
Well first off we'll need your Full system specs (CPU, RAM, GPU, Motherboard, Power Supply brand and wattage etc.),
A good program to use is Everest from my signature.
And also the brand and model of your motherboard.
It may not be worth getting a new GPU if your processor is weak because your computer will be bottlenecked.
And with buying a new video card, you'll probably need to buy a new Power Supply also.
But we'll see once you posted back,
Thanks.

[5NIPER_WOLF]

Like Floop said, we will need all your system specs, but for the moment, I recommend at least 2 GB of ram and an Nvidia 8800 GTS that can be bought for under $100.

[JiggyG1]

Alright, I downloaded and installed Everest and this is what it told me:

Windows XP Pro SP3
DirectX 9.0
P4 2.8 Mhz (21x133)
Dell Optiplex 170L Tower
Chipset> Intel Morgan Hill i866GV
Ram> 1152 MB (PC3200, DDR, SDRAM)
GPU> Intel 82865GV Graphics Controller (Extreme Graphics 2)
GPU Clock> 266 mhz

Couldn't find the power supply brand or wattage. In "Power Management" is says "AC Line" under Current Power Source.

So....where does that leave me? Am I even able to upgrade with integrated cards? Oh, and Dell's bios stops me from getting temperatures on my motherboard. Damn them. Do you think it's worth buying a new card?

[RockmasteR]

Hello Jiggy, I don't know if your PC is able to handle a PCIe card
for two reasons

1- your CPU is old and slow and can't keep up with a PCIe card
2- I think your board has an AGP slot

so let's see what your board has
download CPUz from my sig
open it and choose "Mainboard"
take a screenshot of it and post it here

[Lord Sirian]

Hi.

You won't be able to play anything much on Integrated graphics, so yes it will definitely be worth it if you wish to play graphically intense games. Also, there isn't any software that can detect your PSU, since you have a Dell, can you please post the model.

[JiggyG1]

Sorry guys, but how exactly do I do a screen capture? I did ALT+Print Screen and then tried to paste it here but it didn't work. What am I doing wrong?

I'd like to learn for future posts. Please explain.

[RockmasteR]

to take a screen shot
press "Alt + Print screen", open Paint and paste it (Ctrl + V) or edit -> paste
then save it on your PC
to attach the picture, create a new reply, look at the smily face, on its right there is a pin, just click on it and a page will open
select the picture that you need to upload, and click on upload when it's done close the window that's it

[JiggyG1]

Here it is:

http://img406.imageshack.us/i/specs.png/


Hopefully I did it right. Oh, and I contacted Dell and found out I'm using a 250W Delta or Hipro power supply.

[5NIPER_WOLF]

You don't need to press ALT and Print Screen, just press Print Screen.

[JiggyG1]

Alright....now that we got that cleared up, can someone please help me out here??? I posted what you guys asked me to...so let's move on.

I'm pretty certain I have AGP slots since my pc is at least 5 years old or more. I don't really wanna spend alot since I won't be using this pc for gaming. It's just that I really love this game and want it to play without freezing everytime it gets hectic hence why I don't wanna fork out megabucks. My pc at home can handle this game because it's much more powerful than the one at work.

Are there any decent AGP video cards for around $50 bucks? My power supply is 250 watts and would I need to upgrade that as well?

I'd like anyone's opinion please. What card would you recommend for my situation? Again, I'm not looking for a card that will play the latest stuff.

[5NIPER_WOLF]

You will have to upgrade your PSU.

Try something like a Corsair 650W

Here is one video card you can consider: Radeon HD 4650 Video Card

Anything cheaper is not worth it at all.

[JiggyG1]

Originally Posted by 5NIPER_WOLF

You will have to upgrade your PSU.

Try something like a Corsair 650W

Here is one video card you can consider: Radeon HD 4650 Video Card

Anything cheaper is not worth it at all.

Thanks for the info WOLF but to be honest, I'm not going to spend $200+ for just one game. I know I could probably play a bunch of newer games with nice new hardware like that but I don't plan on it. I'll just take a look around for a used card that I can hopefully find for say $40 bucks or less.

If it involves me replacing a power supply too I'll most likely do nothing and I'll just have to play this game at home. I don't feel this game is worth all this trouble. I'd have to take my pc in which would set me back even more because I don't feel comfortable yanking anything out. Last time I tried installing something I killed my motherboard because I didn't properly ground myself.

If it was just the video card I could most likely do it....but I'm not going to touch the PSU on my own. Maybe if I buy both from my local computer store they might overlook the installation charge.

Thanks again.

[floop12444]

Well unfortunately you will never be able to get a dedicated graphics card without getting a new PSU.
And if you need any more help just come back to this thread and ask :)

[Mcninjaguy]

This is what I recommend. It doesn't even have a AGP slot so don't bother upgrading it.

[JiggyG1]

Well....here's what my friend told me today.

He said that buying a new video card won't get rid of the freeze ups....he says that I should be tinkering around with the settings in game and see if it'll fix the problem before I go out and spend the money.

He says that a video card will only help if the game runs choppy. Is that true? Plants vs Zombies doesn't slow down....it just completely freezes up my pc and I have to unplug it from the back and reboot in order to get back into windows. What are the usual culprits when games freeze? Could he be right and it NOT be the lack of graphical power?

[Mcninjaguy]

If your computer can't run Plants VS zombies which has extremely low graphical power requirements then you should know that is very slow.

I've played Plants VS Zombies before and there is virtually no graphical options to choose from.

[JiggyG1]

Originally Posted by Mcninjaguy

If your computer can't run Plants VS zombies which has extremely low graphical power requirements then you should know that is very slow.

I've played Plants VS Zombies before and there is virtually no graphical options to choose from.

I realize that my pc isn't a powerful beast....I never said it was. It's going on nearly 8 years old and hasn't had any upgrades other than ram. All I'm saying is that the game plays perfectly fine in the beginning without any sign of freezing or crashing. Once the screen gets flooded with enemies and plants is where the problem arises.

My friend said that if it was my video card, the game would be running choppy from the beginning. Plus my pc meets and exceeds PopCap's requirements for this game. On their site they don't even recommend a certain type of video card like most games do. So what the hell could it be? If memory serves me right, this game requires Direct X 8.0 or higher, P4 1.8 mhz and 512 ram. I'm running Direct X 9.0, I have a P4 2.8 system and just added 1GB of ram totaling 1152 mb in total.

So why then can't my pc hold the fort down when it gets crazy??? If it didn't meet the requirements I wouldn't be posting this because it's obvious that it needs an upgrade. I was under the impression that if you exceed a game's requirements that everything would play fine. Others have told me it could be a over heating CPU. Would applying this paste/cooling gel really help? Since I own a Dell pc I've tried to get my temps read but no 3rd party program can give me any readouts. Any suggestions folks?

[5NIPER_WOLF]

Look, it's not that hard to understand. Your power supply unit is old and weak, your system freezes because sufficient power during gameplay is no longer being satisfied and the only way to fix this is to buy a new PSU.

Another thing, your computer being so old should not be running Vista, that's bad news as it is because Vista requires at least 2 GB of ram to run efficiently.

Also, you never just unplug the system, you hold the power button and that will force it to shut down.

[Mcninjaguy]

I agree with 5NIPER WOLF with the PSU being old and probably failing. Dell PC's usually don't have temperature sensors built into them so that's why you can't get a reading.

The only time where i see Vista using less than 1 gb of ram or Windows 7 for that matter is the basic version.

Yo9ur PC doesn't need an upgrade it need to go to the closest recycling center or you just keep and and buy a custom PC.