I want to buy a graphic card but...

[Nivekiller]

Hi!
The other day I went to a computer shop asking about a graphics card with I could play some "modern" games, like Grand Theft Auto 4, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, The Sims 3 and Guitar Hero 3, of course
The store's employee suggested to me to buy a ATI Radeon HD 4350 with 1gb DDR2
and well, I know there are better graphic cards, but there are more expensive and I don't have enough money to afford them
So I was wondering if this graphic card can be useful to me? I don't want to play in a high resolution, if the games that I mentioned above can be played in 1024x768 resolution without problem, that's good to me

Here are my computer specs:
Microsoft XP Professional SP3
Intel Pentium Dual CPU E2140 @ 1.60 Ghz
1 Gb RAM
VIA/SG3 Unicrome Pro IGP

Thank you!

[RedShadow]

Bro, you need a better everything.
A new CPU, a dual core with around 3.0Ghz would do it.
More RAM, at least 4GB.
And also switching to Win7 would be good.

Btw, what's your budget?
I found this card, cheap but kinda good. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=3669

[Nivekiller]

well, I don't have a budget at this time, and well, maybe I will have only the money to buy a graphic card :(
maybe $150 - $200 (I'm mexican, so the budget in pesos will be around $1500 - $2000

[aander91]

Just make sure you have the power to run a better card.

[Rapt0r]

Yeah, highly doubt you'd be able to play GTA4 on that rig ever. You really just need to save up some dosh and buy/build a new rig.

[Nivekiller]

well, I think that run GTA IV would be better with an Xbox or something similar :D
but what about the other games? I only can buy a graphics card at this time u_u

[crazy.neo]

GTA4 will not run well in anything other than a 3 core CPU up. That GPU isn't anything to write home about, either. You have a crappy pre-built computer and it's important that you understand that it would be better, more efficient and probably cheaper to buy a new one, built by yourself, that to upgrade your current one when it will never perform up to par.

[amak11]

Yeah... Some high end dual core CPUs can run it, like mine. Just a half decent video card is required

[aander91]

http://www.onlive.com/

[crazy.neo]

Yeah... Some high end dual core CPUs can run it, like mine. Just a half decent video card is required

Define "run". I can crank it all the way up on my crappy integrated laptop nVidia GPU but my Core2Duo cripples me. It's obviously not very taxing on the GPU.

[raynebc]

If you don't need it to be higher end graphics wise, and you don't want games that are exclusive to PC, you could go the route Nivekiller suggested and just buy a game console instead. You won't have to worry about upgrading the console.

[aander91]

Also I've heard that GTA4 has a terribad PC port, so yeah.

[Rapt0r]

Yeah... Some high end dual core CPUs can run it, like mine. Just a half decent video card is required

Define "run". I can crank it all the way up on my crappy integrated laptop nVidia GPU but my Core2Duo cripples me. It's obviously not very taxing on the GPU.

My laptop I bought back in '08 could run GTA4 at around 30ish FPS on a 2.4 C2D, 4GB of ram and 8600GT. Did I play it? Nope. Constant 60 fps or NOPE. I run BF3 at medium settings even though I can run ultra just so I NEVER EVER EVER drop in frames. Frame rate and AA is most important.

[crazy.neo]

Yeah... Some high end dual core CPUs can run it, like mine. Just a half decent video card is required

Define "run". I can crank it all the way up on my crappy integrated laptop nVidia GPU but my Core2Duo cripples me. It's obviously not very taxing on the GPU.

My laptop I bought back in '08 could run GTA4 at around 30ish FPS on a 2.4 C2D, 4GB of ram and 8600GT. Did I play it? Nope. Constant 60 fps or NOPE. I run BF3 at medium settings even though I can run ultra just so I NEVER EVER EVER drop in frames. Frame rate and AA is most important.

Basically this.

[Nivekiller]

well, then I have to forget about GTA IV with my conputer :D
but, this graphic card can be useful to me to play Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, The Sims 3 and Guitar Hero 3?
thank you :D