Help me please

[Kaka]

Hi,

I just got cfs3 and my girlfriends pc wont run it... the graphics card is old and stuff, infact the pc is old.  It has 700mhz cpu with 64mb of ram and a 32mb graphics card.  So anyway, i was just thinking about buying that new 256mb graphics card and 512mb of ram to make her pc a bit better and run all the stuff we want.  Would it make alot of difference or not?  i need some advice before i go out and get that stuff tomorrow :S

[Iroquois]

You really only need a 128mb graphics card for CFS3. You'll want a relatively new graphics card. Radeon 9000 or Geforce FX series at least. 512mb system ram is enough.

Do you know what brand and model the motherboard is? You may be able to upgrade the CPU as well. CFS3 tends to be quite CPU heavy.

[Kaka]

hmmm... its quite old thats all i know. The most the motherboard can take is 512mb of ram. I was gonna just get the 128mb graphics card but the price between the 2 isnt that much. Plus when i get more money i'll be getting a new motherboard and a kickass cpu.  which will be in 2 years no doubt.  so by then the 128mb one will stink.  But then im having to get a pci graphics card because theres no agp slot on the motherboard.  Whats the difference anyway? can you fill me in on that please

[congo]

A PCI graphics card on that system is a waste of money. You are still going to have serious problems trying to run CFS3 on it.

The PCI bus is nowhere near as fast as an AGP bus for video data transfer, that's why PCI graphics are not acceptable on gaming machines.

CFS3 is a controversial piece of software. It is difficult to run well even on high end machines.

A much better solution, would be to purchase an nForce2 ultra 400 mainboard with onboard graphics, probably would cost about the same as an addon PCI video card and run twice as fast! These mainboards are cheap, have an AGP slot for a better graphics card later on, and they support 400mhz FSB CPU's up to an XP 3200+

CPU's for that mainboard would be very cheap indeed if you got a 266mhz one, but a slightly more expensive 333mhz CPU is much better.

Getting back to my previous statement, I never, ever recommend onboard graphics to anyone........ they just don't offer enough power either.

Sure, you can get a cool mainboard and kickass CPU (compared to what you have now) VERY CHEAPLY......
but, you need RAM as well, and you will want at least a single 512mb stick of PC3200 - 400mhz ram, and another to match it later on.

This added ram cost is the real burden of upgrading for you now.

What about a decent operating system? Do you have WinXP ?
That is another cost........ if you are running ...say... Win'98 on that old machine, you are getting further and further behind current technologies very quickly. Even the hardware I describe above is now 2 yr old technology!

It's time to ask the boss for a raise I'm afraid.