I would recomend an MSI. I love mine and it runs great!

Check out one of these and see which fits you. Note that on amazon, some of them are 100 bucks cheaper. Like the -018US is listed as 1400 but i got mine for 1300. same with the lower end one, it's listed there as 800 but you can get it for 700.

ok, good to hear. I also found a 4350 from MSI (love them) for 30 bucks, i'm assuming it doesn't need a PCI power thing?

Ohhh really? Thats good to know. Here's the thing though, you guys are doing exactly what i would do. Go for the best you can get, no matter what. Spend a little more, get better performance. I know it makes sense to you or me but not to her, she just wants to play and not spend much money (i know, crazy right :P) So while i would love to see her buy a 4450, i can't see it really happening. Is there anything under the 4450 and in the same series? And, as i asked earlier, what about an 8400 gs?

[QUOTE="Geek12"]Ok, thanks for the help. But remember, i'm not looking to run the game on high or even medium settings. Low and at 680x800 resolution will be just fine. I'm going to have her update the drivers here pretty soon, but i just wanted to know if a 7200 or even 7300 could do it. I mean, i found them for 25 bucks.Marfoo

The Xpress 200 is based on the ATI Radeon X300, which was bottom of the barrell back in the day. The GeForce 7300 was a competitor to the Radeon X1300, the successor to the X300, so the 7300 will probably perform better. However I would consider the Radeon HD 4550, it can be had for as little as $30 after a $10 mail in rebate, and it would absolutely crush a GeForce 7300. If you're willing to spend $15 more bucks and then get a $10 rebate, you could be playing it on max for only $5 more. The Radeon HD 4550 performs near the X1900, which was the top of the line when the X1300 was the bottom of the same generation.

Here is the link if you are interested: LINK

I'm currently working on upgrading my Girlfriends computer so she can play the sims 3, and i wanted to ask a couple questions before i give her the "report".

Right now she has an Xpress 200 chipset which can just barley run the sims 3 (I know right, amazing), but it cuts up terribly when acutally playing the "real game". (Create a sim and the simple neighborhood view are fine.) So, I'm looking to get her something inexpensive that can run the sims 3. It doesn't even have to run it well. See, unlike a lot of us here (and myself :), it's not all about getting the best. If it starts up and runs, she's happy.

After some looking around, i've come across the 7200 GS (7100 isn't supported and neither is the 6100). I was also looking at the 8400 GLS, but that might be a bit much (she only plays the sims). Will the 7200 do the job, even just barley? She has only a PCIE x16 slot, so it has to fit there. Also, what is the Radeon Equivilant to that? I don't know my ATI cards as well as i should.

Thanks in advance

-Trueno07

It's because the devs are far too used to making games for PC where they have no size limit constraints and can code as sloppily as they want to. MS disc policy is to force developers to smarten up their act and code more efficiently.

If RAGE can't fit the game on two disc, what they are saying is they need in excess of 18GB, which is utter rubbish when you see what other games have managed with one.

MS should stick to their disc policy as we don't want to be changing discs throughout a game, and ID just need to be more efficient at putting their game onto a disc

Hell if the whole of The Orange Box can fit on one 360 disc, then it shows you what can be done when the devs put their minds to it.

Avenger1324

And sloppy code makes stuff slow becuase the game has to process more things at once, not very good.

So its been a dry spell for me, no Xbox live for a few months and i'm missing my call of duty 4. My brother also wants live and has his own account which is also set up for live, but my question is if i were to buy live for my account, could he still play on live on his account, or vice versa.

Because it sound pointless for both of us to have to buy a subscricption ya know?