nVidia GeForce FX 5500

[dirgeKananga]

I recently purchased the GeForce FX 5500 graphics card for my PC. I'm not a huge gamer, but I got it because my PC came with a graphics card built in to the mainboard. This was stealing RAM from my PC making it slower. This card has 256MB integrated, and I only wanted it to play Civilizaton 4. I still get slowdown every now and then, even though I upgraded to 1 GB of RAM from 512MB. Is this card just not powerful enough to handle this game?

Also, I believe I have all of the lastest drivers, but nVidia doesn't even list this card on their website. Is there any other way to find out if any updated drivers have come out for it?

Sys specs:
AMD Sempron 3400+ (2.0GHz), GeForce FX 5500 gpu, Soundblaster Audigy sound card, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD.

 

[talldude123]

the graphics card is good enough for Civilization 4, since the requirements suggests 64MB Radeon 7500...

Maybe its the processor. Im not a genius when it comes to AMD, but the Sempron is the Celeron's competitor, which means low cache, low FSB...

Its not really a gaming processor.

 

[dirgeKananga]

I see. What would you recommed for a better processor? I know that the AMD Athlon 64 is more geared towards gaming. Should I try that?

 

[talldude123]

you could try that.

An easy thing to do is overclock your processor, and buy some more/better fans.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/sempron-3100-oc.html

Fans should cost $5 each, so its a very inexpensive upgrade.

 

[talldude123]

also to add: if you are really lucky, you can overclock that Sempron to 2.5 Ghz, that would make gaming a breeze!

 

[dirgeKananga]

Cool. Thanks, homie.

 

[talldude123]

np

 

[Crysalis]

agreed - i have that card and i play better games than CIV4...

It would come down to processor and RAM, but also background programs. What else is going on other than the game... I.E. the taskbar.

 

[dirgeKananga]

Normally, I'll shut off anything that's connected to the internet. The only thing that will be running is the McAfee security center.

 

[NayNay1991x]

can the GeForce FX5500 play Call of duty and Call of duty: UO ?