New Video Card Suggestions?

[Graz73]

I just installed Bioshock and its patches, along with updating all the drivers and direct X stuff that I can think of.

The game starts, but runs very poorly with lots of textures missing and the top right corner of the screen flickers strangely. It's unplayable, of course.

So I need to know if this will require a new video card or what?

The only think I am aware of that my computer lacks is "Pixel Shader 3.0" My video card apparently has "2.0 Pixel Shader"... Will I need a new card or other components just because of that?? I cant afford a bunch of PC upgrades right now. How can I get this working for the LEAST amount of $$$ ? Any suggestions??

My current specs:

Win XP w service pack 2
1 Gig of memory
Pentium 4 2.4 gig processor
13 gig of free hard drive
Graphics card: Radeon 9800 PRO ATI w 128 ram from AGP

THANKS!

Might I also need a new power source? I dont even know how to find the rating of my current power source.

[CherryIcee]

You could try a community created fix to at least try and play the game:

http://www.paolofranchini.com/shshock/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=323

[james1701]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102730

Also another gig of memory would help out a lot. Can you overclock your processor any, or are you stuck with a locked bios? I would get the memory and the video card if you could. Now is the best time to get memory, because its dirt cheap right now. A new power supply would be a good idea. You probably have a 300W or so unit. I think it would power a new card, but you would not get all you could from it, but on the other hand with a bottleneck from a 2.4ghz P4, it might not matter. Its your call.

[Graz73]

I CAN overclock my processor. How far can I most likely clock it without killing it?

Also, how can I find out what capacity my current power supply is? Is it in the windows control panel somewhere?

[james1701]

As long as you dont put too much voltage into it and get it too hot. I doubt you can get 3.6ghz, but if you hit 3ghz or above you will be doing good, 3.4ghz would be great. If you take out the power supply, it should say on the side the voltages. This would be a good power supply to pick up that will work really well and does not cost a fortune.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153057

Any name brand with modular power cables would be your best bet, but I use either Thermaltake or Antec myself.

[Graz73]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. THe game now works with FlintFix_2.0!

I tweaked some of my settings, but dont know how to overclock the processor. I went into the BIOS and could view my settings, but not edit them. Very frustrating...

[headkase]

I don't really recommened overclocking at all. It shortens the life of the components and you run the risk of physically damaging them as well. Theres nothing worse than destroying your hardware by accident. I won't overclock anymore because I sent a Voodoo 2 (I think that what it was and it was also long enough ago that it cost me $300 bucks) to an early grave unintentionally once.

[PimpDaddy]

The performance from overclocking your system will be so small you will think it wasn't worth it.

I could run this game on a P43Ghz, 2GB DDR400 & X1950pro very smoothly at high settings iirc. . . .