Video card question and processors....

[nkuhlwind]

To those who have installed new cards-is there is a significant difference in picture quality and clarity? I've been debating on adding a video card for awhile now-currently I have an onboard nVidia GeForce 6100 which is not even supposed to run Sims 3 but I've had NO problems running either Sims 3 or Medieval. I just don't know if I want to worry about the overheating issues if there is not a great deal of difference. I've been thinking about an nVidia 8400-I know it's not much, but my ol' dinosaur can't run the newer cards.

Also, what kind of processor do you have? I'm a big AMD fan-currently I have a rather outdated AMD Athlon dual core (2.3 Ghz) and despite the low specs, have had very little problems with game freezing and crashing. On the other hand, we've had several computers in the household with Intel Pentium-and lots of crashes, freezing, etc. when playing Sims 2 and 3.

[Simbody]

I have a system with an 8400s and there is no problem with heat issues so if that is what your system can run you would be fine. I don't know how much of a jump in quality you would have but I do know that the 8400 can handle bump mapping and I'm not sure that the 6100 does. With ts2 for a long time the only card I had was the 5200 and while it played the game much better than the onboard graphics card it didn't support a lot of detail in objects or clothes. I couldn't see fish in TS2 unless I used a cheat. When I upgraded to the 8400 I saw a lot of improvement. That system also has an AMD dual core processor and aside from replacing the power supply 3 times thanks to a slim case design that didn't allow for proper cooling the rig runs pretty nicely.

I eventually moved it from the slim case into a medium sized tower and use a regular sized Power Supply unit. The original PSU costs $110 to replace plus 12-15 shipping costs so I needed a much more economical option. I picked up a case with a PSU for $30 almost a yr ago and we've been really happy with it.

I did a quick look at specs and found 2 different cards. Your system should be able to handle the 9500 card and you would see a significant increase in graphics. The only thing I don't know is what kind of heat it would generate running the game.

Spec comparison on the 8400 and the 9500

http://www.hwcompare.com/4370/geforce-84...1gb-gddr3/

The 8400GS
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-512-P2-N738-L..._e_title_3

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004A8SSDE?tag=...DGXB8T7377

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00154EFTM?tag=...DGXB8T7377

The 9500 GT
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001EA6ZA4?tag=...GM02R7DB7G

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-nVidia-GeForc...=pd_cp_e_1

[shad0w]

Have you consider, ati cards, I have used them and had no problems with them some people had problems which each case is different, I would also look to see if the video card has an hdmi hook up in which if your monitor has one you can have great graphics as my Card does have one and is hooked up through an hdmi connection, I use ati radeon hd 5770 1 gig mem, and I have a Pentium dual core 2.6, 6 gig mem, and I had have it over a year without any problems, ran my Sim games at high settings which the game does not set all of it to high when you first install the sims, I don't know why nvidia's have heating problems cuase of these days any card from ati or nvidia should be similar and run without a problem.