PCI DX9 video card?

[weezerisrock]

can anyone recommend a PCI DX9 compatible video card? I tried the ATI 9200 but it only seems to be DX8 compatible. I know its hard to find PCI video cards these days but the customer is adamant they don't want to upgrade.

[bombledmonk]

You can buy the FX5200 in a PCI version, but It won't give you any better performance than the 9200. The reality is that even though the fx5200 is DX9, no PCI card is fast enough to run DX9 games with the special features of DX9 turned on. So it doesn't really matter what you get. If you still have the 9200 you might as well keep it because there isn't anything noticably better.

[weezerisrock]

thank you for your reply, however the problem my customer is having is that the game she is trying to play is saying please use a direct x 9 compatible graphics card. i thought the 9200 was until this message kept popping up. I have tried to install the latest reference drivers from ati and reinstall direct x but I keep getting the message. So I am assuming that the 9200 will not support DX 9 but 8? Anyway the customer does not want a new computer so I was trying to find the right card to get them.

Thanks!

[johnnyis42]

i believe that the radeon 9200 actually does not support dx9. no mention of directx 9 is made on ati's site for the 9200, yet it is plastered everywhere for their other cards.

i was trying to look and see where i had seen the break down list of ati cards and features, but that's all i could come up with. i would imagine that ati would adverties it if it did support dx9.

[bombledmonk]

What game? I don't think any games "require" a dx9 card that would lose a whole lot of buisness for the company. Even Doom 3 will run on a DX7 card with a little coaxing.

The official statment by ATI is that the 9200 is compatible with DX9, but that is just a fancy way of saying that DX9 games will run on it. It makes no claims as to being a DX9 capable card. (as in the DX9 features) The 9200 is a derived from the old 8500 core meaning that it is in fact a DX8 card. However that should not have an effect on whether the game should be able to be played or not.

[weezerisrock]

The game is eagames Sims 2. I cannot get it to run on their machine. I keep getting that darn error message. What I am worried about is that I am going to have to return the video card and not sell them another because I won't be able to find a DX 9 PCI video card. Thank you for all of your input and if you guys have any other ideas please let me know!

I checked eagames' website and followed their instructions for games not loading but I didn't see anything for the error message they got.

[johnnyis42]

like bombledmonk said, look for a PCI geforceFX 5200

[bombledmonk]

The official requirements for Sims 2. You're problem lies elsewhere.
I'm sure you've tried turning all the settings down to their lowest?

The following are the latest system requirements for The Sims 2. These are official requirements from Maxis, however, as the game is still being fine-tuned, these requirements may change at any time without notice. You can download a program to check your System Specifications from here.

* Windows 98, 2000, ME, or XP

* 256MB of RAM

* A graphics card on the supported graphics card list (preferably one with T&L support)

* CPU: 800MHz Pentium 3 or equivalent (if you have a graphics card which supports T&L). Those who do not have a graphics card which supports T&L will need a 2.0GHz processor.

* At least 3.5Gb of hard drive space.

* Monitor Resolution: 800x600 minimum, 1024x768 recommended. Higher resolutions available.

* Keyboard, mouse, speakers

Below is the current list of graphics cards supported by The Sims 2:

* ATI RadeonTM series (7000 or better)
o Radeon 7000/VE series (non-T&L; requires 2.0 GHz processor)
o 7200, 7500
o 8500, All-In-Wonder 8500
o 9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800
o X300, X600, X800

* Nvidia® QuadroTM series
o Quadro, Quadro2, Quadro4

* Nvidia® Geforce series (GeForce2 and better)
o GeForce2
o GeForce3, 3 Ti
o GeForce4, 4Ti, MX 420, 440
o GeForce FX 5200, 5600, 5700, 5800, 5900, 5950
o GeForce 6600, 6800

* Intel® Extreme Graphics (non-T&L; requires 2.0 GHz processor)
o 82845, 82865, 82915

[weezerisrock]

The official requirements for Sims 2. You're problem lies elsewhere.
I'm sure you've tried turning all the settings down to their lowest?

They can't even get into the game to change the settings.... They meet the minimum system requirements, at the minimum. It should run like crap but still run. Not sure whats going on. I may have to go to their place and call maxis from there.

[johnnyis42]

directx9 compliant drivers usually help.