Am I wasting my time?

robd55

Hi All,

I recently bought dawn of war 2 but it wont run. I recognise my system is at the end of its game playing days but I get this message

Failed to support a hardware rendering device.

My specs

Dell Dimension 5000
Intel P4 3.00GHZ
1.5G Ram
ATI radeon X300/550X/1500X series
Windows xp

Would I just need a new graphics card or am I wasting my time period. If just a graphics card will looking for a cheap fix for about 30 bucks.

Game specs

xp service pack 2
P4 3.2 ghz
1.00GB RAM
Video Card GeForce 6600CT OR ATI X1800 128MB

Thanks:)

lmimmfn

yeah you just need a new gfx card because those cards in the game specs you listed are directx 9c cards( Shader model 3 ), yours is directx 9b( Shader model 2 )

i.e. Minimum Requirements –

* Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista SP1
* P4 3.2 GHz (single core) or any Dual Core processor
* 1 GB RAM (XP), 1.5 GB RAM (Vista)
* A 128MB Video Card (Shader Model 3) - Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT / ATI X1600, or equivalent
* 5.5 GB of Hard Drive space

Recommended –

* Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista SP1
* AMD Athlon 64×2 4400+ or any Intel Core 2 Duo
* 2 GB RAM (XP and Vista)
* A 256MB Video Card (Shader Model 3) - Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT / ATI X1900, or equivalent
* 5.5 GB of Hard Drive space

from the manual for your PC it says you have a PCIE slot( not the old AGP ), so consider yourself lucky. As your PC is getting old, id suggest picking up a second hand gfx card, you should get an excellent 8800GT second hand for ~50euro, check adverts.ie you might get something for around 30 quid( its rare to find anything decent at that price and for the extra 20euro an 8800gt will play all the latest games really well, best if you run at a high res to get the most out of it though ), besides if you got an 8800gt you could flog it for the same price as you paid when youre finished with the game( if you dont intend playing many games )

robd55

Thanks for that I will look out for one:D

lmimmfn

robd55 wrote: »

Thanks for that I will look out for one:D

no probs dude, good luck on the hunt , if youre still looking for a card mid january PM me as i might know someone flogging an 8800GT( dunno what price he would be looking for, id presume 50-60euro ), but not before then as im using his card now lol( its a long story and i basically have 2 already, 1 in my media rig, 1 borrowed but in my gaming pc to run one of my screens in a 3 screen setup, and one i bought off another mate months ago but his gfx card died recently so he's using it as backup but is planning to get a new one in the next few weeks ).

I looked on adverts.ie for cheap cards for you and i couldnt find any good price/performers, ATI 4850's are about the same as an 8800GT also but theyre selling for ~80euro

robd55

Thanks for the help. I was looking through various sites komplett/pixmania and there were plenty of cards there. All i am looking for is something cheap that will play the game and get me through another few months of gaming before I replae the pc anyway. So I saw this card and was wondering if this would be a good buy as a short term fix?

Gigabyte GV-NX84S512HP GeForce 8400 GS 512MB ATX DVI Graphics Card £25.26

uberpixie

robd55 wrote: »

Thanks for the help. I was looking through various sites komplett/pixmania and there were plenty of cards there. All i am looking for is something cheap that will play the game and get me through another few months of gaming before I replae the pc anyway. So I saw this card and was wondering if this would be a good buy as a short term fix?

Gigabyte GV-NX84S512HP GeForce 8400 GS 512MB ATX DVI Graphics Card £25.26

No, crap card. Waste of time.

Look at least a radeon 4650 or better a radeon 4670/4770 or nvidia 9600GT/9800GT(all cards perform roughly the same). All are cheap and low power requirements as I doubt you have a power supply in that dell to support anything else half dacent....

robd55

Thanks uberpixie,

was looking at this

Sapphire Radeon HD 4350 512MB DDR2 €29

cherryghost

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=575157

just get this. you wont regret it.

jonny72

robd55 wrote: »

Thanks uberpixie,

was looking at this

Sapphire Radeon HD 4350 512MB DDR2 €29

I don't recommend that card. In fact, do not buy any card other than is mentioned here, otherwise you'll just generally have the same problem again. If you simply cannot spend more than 30 or 40 euro then pick up one of the GOOD graphics cards second hand.

From the very minimum ATI
4650 (no power connector required)
4670 (no power connector required)
4770 (recommended and draws v little power and generally faster than an 8800GT, but more expensive, harder to find 2nd hand)

Nvidia
9600GT (a little faster than a 4670)
8800GT or 9800GT (great card, draws a decent amount of power though)

Remember, if you choose a cheap graphics card yourself, you WILL get a lemon. It doesn't matter if it says 4 gigabyte memory!!! all over the cover, it WILL be ****.