gfx card question for old pc

[staticwarp]

someone on jay1 mentioned today that et ran pretty well on a pentium 3 with an ati 7200 gpu. I play on a pentium dual core with integrated graphics with medium graphics settings and get about 45 fps stable. i also have an old pentium 4 pc sitting around that i just use for netflix in the living room, and it would be way cheaper for me to get an old radeon 7200 than for me to get a gpu for my newer computer (and psu upgrade that it would necessitate). 

 

if i got a radeon 7200, would i be able to use higher graphics settings and get a higher fps on my old pentium 4 pc? I don't really need a graphics card in my newer computer since the only game i play is et. XD

[excedo]

If you upgrade for your Dual Core PC. Get a cheap Nvidia GT610/GT620 or AMD/ATI 6450/6670. They are around the 40-75 Dollars, you will be able to run ET smooth.

Edited February 7, 2014 by MOTA.FIED

[honeysing]

U can run on lowest settings possible. It would run much smoother. Else u can buy cheap gfx card as mentioned above.

[staticwarp]

thanks guys. it's crazy to me that this game came out like 12 years ago and my 10 year old pc still won't run it at decent settings with a video card upgrade.

 

 

If you upgrade for your Dual Core PC. Get a cheap Nvidia GT610/GT620 or AMD/ATI 6450/6670. They are around the 40-75 Dollars, you will be able to run ET smooth.

 

thanks for the recommendation, i'm considering an amd 6670. my only concerns are overheating in my small form factor case, and that the stock 220w psu might not be enough to handle the upgrade. i used a psu calculator and it recommended a 227w psu for my current setup+the 6670. Think I can get away with being 7 watts under the recommendation, or should i just upgrade the psu as well?

Edited February 8, 2014 by staticwarp

[Xernicus]

I wouldn't... power supplies get awfully finicky, and you might get the "red power light of death" in the middle of a file operation, high CPU/GPU usage, etc... just get a 300w PSU for like 20 bucks.

[SunLight]

ET uses more cpu than gpu imho, when I play my gfx card usage is about 24% my cpu 100% (I mean, the core used by ET) and I get poor fps when there are too many players (even down to 40 which is unplayable imho)

 

I would probably go faster on a Pentium 4 and a bad gfx card if the cpu has enough ghz.

 

edit:

cpu: Intel® Core™2 CPU 6300  @ 1.86GHz

gpu: Radeon HD 5600

Edited February 8, 2014 by SunLight