Hi, I'm running a Dell Dimension 2400 with a 2.4GHz Celeron and 256MB ram and (shudder) Intel Extremely Idiotic Integrated Graphics. As you may guess, I'm not planning to run Oblivion, but good old Morrowind goes rather slow. I'm thinking of buying a new PCI (not PCI-E) GfX card or more Ram, so I can hopefully enjoy Morrowind at the full 1440x900 my monitor supports instead of 800x600, or at the very least, at a framerate that never goes below 20fps. I know Ram is really cheap, but the motherboard only has 1 slot free. A new Graphics card, methinks would be the better option, but they cost more and being PCI, may be hard to find. I'm also worried about what'll happen to my Linux Fedora Core partition if I upgrade the Gfx card, although I don't care which Gfx system it uses.
So which upgrade would you advise? A new gfx card or more ram (yes, I know I need both really but which is more important?)
Thanks in advance!
Full Version: Which upgrade is a better choice?
I go for the new gfx card.
Graphics card for sure. I upgraded my old GeForce 2 MX to a GeForce 5600xt (I know not much of a jump but it was free) and I got better performance. I also have 256MB RAM too. For a nice big list of PCI video cards, check out the newegg PCI video card section here.
Yay, its nice to see another Linux user for a change 
As for the Fedora core, it depends which version your using. I have Fedora 7 (Moonshine), and it has a pretty good VESA driver which works with most graphics cards. Generally, if you get an ATi or NVidia card, and then download the proper drivers once its installed, it should be fine. You should probably change to the VESA driver before you install the new card though, otherwise it'll try to use the intel drivers with whatever new card you get. Which won't work, obviously.
There is a command you can type which runs a command-line program that reconfigures X, including the drivers to use, but I can't quite remember what it is, sorry.
Anyway, to answer the actual question, you should definitely upgrade the gfx card. Intel integrated graphics cards are terrible for gaming. And when you think about it, getting a new card would actually get you more RAM anyway, because the intel card uses RAM for video memory, and if you got a seperate one, there'd be more available to use as RAM.
As for the Fedora core, it depends which version your using. I have Fedora 7 (Moonshine), and it has a pretty good VESA driver which works with most graphics cards. Generally, if you get an ATi or NVidia card, and then download the proper drivers once its installed, it should be fine. You should probably change to the VESA driver before you install the new card though, otherwise it'll try to use the intel drivers with whatever new card you get. Which won't work, obviously.
There is a command you can type which runs a command-line program that reconfigures X, including the drivers to use, but I can't quite remember what it is, sorry.
Anyway, to answer the actual question, you should definitely upgrade the gfx card. Intel integrated graphics cards are terrible for gaming. And when you think about it, getting a new card would actually get you more RAM anyway, because the intel card uses RAM for video memory, and if you got a seperate one, there'd be more available to use as RAM.
Thanks!
Good to see Linux users around. The less people using Vista, the better, IMO.
BTW, do you play Wesnoth? It's a cool open-source strategy game that runs on Linux (And Windows, and Macs...). Go have a look at www.wesnoth.org
I'll go for the Graphics card then. It'll cost more, but I should be able to afford it.
I'm using FC5, and I find it a real hassle to configure the graphics. It won't recognise that I upgraded to a widescreen monitor and I have to use an external modem. Still, it's so much more reliable.
If I have to, I'll reinstall Fedora. The only important software I DLed (Wine) wasn't too big.
Even with a new graphics card, I can't run Oblivion, but well, I haven't even completed the main MW quest. So I'll finish that and the two expansions off. And by then I'll be able to run Oblivion!
Then again, there'll be TES5 by then. Nevermind...
Good to see Linux users around. The less people using Vista, the better, IMO.
BTW, do you play Wesnoth? It's a cool open-source strategy game that runs on Linux (And Windows, and Macs...). Go have a look at www.wesnoth.org
I'll go for the Graphics card then. It'll cost more, but I should be able to afford it.
I'm using FC5, and I find it a real hassle to configure the graphics. It won't recognise that I upgraded to a widescreen monitor and I have to use an external modem. Still, it's so much more reliable.
If I have to, I'll reinstall Fedora. The only important software I DLed (Wine) wasn't too big.
Even with a new graphics card, I can't run Oblivion, but well, I haven't even completed the main MW quest. So I'll finish that and the two expansions off. And by then I'll be able to run Oblivion!
Then again, there'll be TES5 by then. Nevermind...
Oh yeah, Wesnoths brilliant! I ususally spend most of my time playing Unreal Tournament though, so I havent played it in a while.
If you get an ATI or nvidia card, it shouldn't be too hard to set up. If its an ATi Radeon, the you can download the proprietary drivers from their website, install them, then you can generate distro specific packages (you might have to do this bit from the command-line), install them (there should be four rpms), then it should all work fine.
If its an nvidia card, you should be able to just pop open Synaptic, search for nvidia, and install the two packages there. One'll be the actual drivers, the other'll be the development libraries. Unless you use Yum, in which case it might be a bit different- I havent really used it much, so I don't know.
If you get an ATI or nvidia card, it shouldn't be too hard to set up. If its an ATi Radeon, the you can download the proprietary drivers from their website, install them, then you can generate distro specific packages (you might have to do this bit from the command-line), install them (there should be four rpms), then it should all work fine.
If its an nvidia card, you should be able to just pop open Synaptic, search for nvidia, and install the two packages there. One'll be the actual drivers, the other'll be the development libraries. Unless you use Yum, in which case it might be a bit different- I havent really used it much, so I don't know.
Yeah, Unreal Tournament Rocks. Didn't know you can run it on Linux.
Good to know that Linux won't mind me installing a new graphics card.
Now all I have to do is go out and buy one
Good to know that Linux won't mind me installing a new graphics card.
Now all I have to do is go out and buy one
Yeah, Unreal Tournament 03 and 04 (and 3 when its out) all have Linux installers on the disk. The original UT doesn't, but theres a client you can download and install (you'll need to get the data files from a Windows install first, though. Just install it in Wine.) And whatever you do, don't buy the Unreal Anthology DVD. They removed all the Linux installers, and its Windows only. I made that mistake, but luckily I found some (pretty complicated) instructions to install UT2004 from it, by extracting all the cab files, and installing the Linux patch.
And I have a feeling that the ATi drivers are in the repository as well, but I think its an outdated version, so you might want to be careful. Also, there are some separate open-source drivers too, but they're nowhere near as good as the proprietary ones, and unless you absolutely have to go open-source, you shouldn't use them.
And if when you try and start it after installing the new card, and get a 'no screens found' error when starting X, it means you need to install new drivers before it'll work, then reconfigure X (you'll have to Google for the right command though, I'm afraid I really can't remember it. The only reason I know about it at all is because I used to have Ubuntu, and that wouldn't start at all until I'd installed the proper ATi drivers.
And I have a feeling that the ATi drivers are in the repository as well, but I think its an outdated version, so you might want to be careful. Also, there are some separate open-source drivers too, but they're nowhere near as good as the proprietary ones, and unless you absolutely have to go open-source, you shouldn't use them.
And if when you try and start it after installing the new card, and get a 'no screens found' error when starting X, it means you need to install new drivers before it'll work, then reconfigure X (you'll have to Google for the right command though, I'm afraid I really can't remember it. The only reason I know about it at all is because I used to have Ubuntu, and that wouldn't start at all until I'd installed the proper ATi drivers.
Cool!
I never thought Linux could support so much. I tried Wine, but it didn't run Starcraft, or much else for that matter
Good to know UT03 runs on Linux. I suppose it's faster on Windows, but I suppose it all depends on the Graphics cards support of OpenGL...
I really must use Linux more often. I've had it installed for a year but I only boot into it once in a blue moon, even though it can run most of my programs. It's just those few which don't. And the few wierd differences between Windows and Linux. I'll set it back to the default boot, so then I'll end up using it more...
I never thought Linux could support so much. I tried Wine, but it didn't run Starcraft, or much else for that matter
Good to know UT03 runs on Linux. I suppose it's faster on Windows, but I suppose it all depends on the Graphics cards support of OpenGL...
I really must use Linux more often. I've had it installed for a year but I only boot into it once in a blue moon, even though it can run most of my programs. It's just those few which don't. And the few wierd differences between Windows and Linux. I'll set it back to the default boot, so then I'll end up using it more...
Yeah, more and more companies are porting their games to Linux now, its great
If you go to http://liflg.org, they have a load of Linux installers for some games, but sadly the company that made them went bust
Also, http://www.tuxgames.com sells a lot of games for Linux (although usually its possible to just get the Windows version preowned somewhere and convert it somehow.
As for UT2003, I was under the impression that it actually ran faster, because Linux is so much more efficient than Windows- and the graphics drivers are fine.
If you go to http://www.happypenguin.org, that lists pretty much every Linux game ever. Its how I discovered UT runs on Linux in the first place (As well as Quake 3)
Happy gaming
If you go to http://liflg.org, they have a load of Linux installers for some games, but sadly the company that made them went bust
Also, http://www.tuxgames.com sells a lot of games for Linux (although usually its possible to just get the Windows version preowned somewhere and convert it somehow.
As for UT2003, I was under the impression that it actually ran faster, because Linux is so much more efficient than Windows- and the graphics drivers are fine.
If you go to http://www.happypenguin.org, that lists pretty much every Linux game ever. Its how I discovered UT runs on Linux in the first place (As well as Quake 3)
Happy gaming
Awesome!
I think that fixes the last reason I have for not using Linux all the time...
I think that fixes the last reason I have for not using Linux all the time...
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