Trouble playing games!Plz Help

[mattcannon5]

Hi i recently bought a dell dimension 3000
Intel Celeron 2.66GHz
512mb of Ram.
I no nothing technical about computers and just want it for music and to play games. I bought call of duty 2, it installs fine, but when i try to play i get lots of gibberish about my video card being unable to do polygon offsets and other things like this. My graphics card is Intel 82865G. I want to just be able to play games no trouble. does anyone have a solution for me PLEASE! i won't mind a paying a small amount of money but i don't know what to get! if possible is there anything i could download?
Thanks for your time
Matt Cannon

 

[Sharkfood]

Your PC has an extremely limited on-board integrated video card. While some games can indeed play on it, newer games are designed for true gaming 3d cards. Integrated video cards like the Intel's are best suited for mainly desktop/surfing the net and running Office.

On top of this, most Dell Dimensions aren't easily upgradeable if you wish to add 3d/modern gaming capability. They lack an AGP slot inside, so this severely limits your choices for upgrading to a new 3d card. They also often have a very limited power supply- so it's possible you may need to also upgrade this in order to have enough power for a new videocard.

That being said- Dell Dimension 3000's do have PCI slots, so a few aftermarket 3d cards can be installed cheaply by disabling the on-board video and installing a PCI 3dcard. :knock:

You can find the following PCI cards on sites like NewEgg.com:
ATI Radeon 9250
NVidia FX5500
NVidia 6200

It's important to be 100% sure you're getting the PCI version of these cards and NOT AGP or PCI-E.

If you're planning on performing this, you should also check your power supply. This can be done by opening the case and looking near the top/back inside the case. They usually have a sticker listing what WATTAGE they are rated at. I'd hope yours is at least 250 Watt, which should be just enough for the above upgrades. If it's a 180 Watt, I would recommend a new power supply (likely from Dell) as well.

 

[vnf4ultra]

You need a pci video card.
Here's the best you can get.
http://www.chumbo.com/Info.aspx?id=304966

If you do need a power supply(if you don't have enough power your pc will sporatically reboot on you), you can get any atx power supply of 300w or more of reputable make, like antec, enermax, fortron(fsp), etc. I have a antec sl350 350w psu in my dell 2300, and it works nicely. I've seen some nice fortron psus that are fairly cheap as well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104953

 

[mattcannon5]

thanks

thanks alot. would i be able to a pci video card and power supply thing from pcworld?
so there is nothing i can download?

 

[vnf4ultra]

would i be able to a pci video card and power supply thing from pcworld?

I doubt it, I think pcworld only reviews/tests new products, not sells them.
If you don't like the e-stores I list, many walmarts(the actual store, not online) have a "bfg nvidia fx5500 OC PCI" card for about $130 usd(united states dollars) in the elecronics/computers section. It's not as good and it costs more than the pci 6200 I listed, but it'd be better than your integrated graphics. Either way, I think you'll have to lower the graphics settings to a lower quality in the game to get it to be playable, because on high settings it likely will stutter badly.

You can download the latest "intel extreme graphics 2" drivers, but I doubt it will help much at all. Integrated graphics are not very good at playing games.

Your dell 3000 has a 250watt psu, so it probably would be enough power and not need replacing.

 

[MysTikaL]

i already bought COD2 and if you want a tip when you update your graphics card unless you pay about £200 then u wanna turn auto aliasing off and turn the direct x to 7 instead of 9. this should make your game alot less laggy but doesnt sacrifice too much on the graphics.