Just bought new GeForce graphics card, doesn't work!

[johnbro23]

I'm trying to play RCT3 on my PC, but it told me yesterday that I didn't have enough Video RAM. So today I went to Circuit City and bought a 128 MB GeForce MX4000 PCI graphics card. It seems like it works, but when I launch RCT3 again, it still comes up with a message saying my doesn't meet requirements! But this time it doesnt specify the Video RAM.

Here's what I know about my system:
Windows XP
877 Mhz PIII
512 RAM
supposedly a new 128 MB graphics card

Requirements from the RCT website:
Operating System: Windows® 98/Me/2000/XP (Windows® XP recommended)
Processor: Pentium® III 733 MHz or compatible (Pentium® 4 1.2 GHz or compatible recommended)
Memory: 128 MB RAM; 256 MB for XP (256 MB; 384 MB for XP recommended)
Hard Disk Space: 600 MB free
CD-ROM Drive: 4X CD-ROM or faster (8X or faster recommended)
Video:Any ATI Radeon™ or GeForce™ 2 with 32MB or higher; or other video card with 32MB and hardware T&L (ATI Radeon™ 64 MB SDR or GeForce™ 2 Pro or other video card with 64 MB or more memory and hardware T&L recommended)*
Sound: Windows® 98/Me/2000/XP-compatible 16-bit sound card*
DirectX®: DirectX® version 9 (included) or higher

Could it be my sound card or CD-Rom speed? If thats possible, how can I check what they are?

 

[johnbro23]

Also, the directions didn't tell me to remove an existing graphics card. It seems like its common sense that I should have removed something. Any thoughts?

 

[MacNeXT]

Also, the directions didn't tell me to remove an existing graphics card. It seems like its common sense that I should have removed something. Any thoughts?

First of all, did you install the (latest) driver for your card? This should be on CD supplied with card or can be downloaded from NVIDIA.

You should also make sure DirectX 9.0 is installed (as the game seems to require). It's possible that the game installation procedure takes care of this, but it's also possible you have to do this yourself.

And yes, unless you want a dual screen setup, it's wise to remove the old card. Your old video card was probably an AGP card.

By the way, AGP cards have much better performance than PCI cards, AGP is a high speed (up to 8x faster data transfer) variant of PCI specially intended for graphic cards. Were you aware of this?

 

[mklos]

Buy a Mac and you won't have that problem!

 

[johnbro23]

I have a Mac, but they don't make RCT3 for Mac. I love my Mac, but I'm stuck with Windows for this one. This whole ordeal is reminding me why I switched.

At Circuit City, I asked the guy which one, PCI or AGP and he told me PCI. I guess he was wrong on this one. I put it in my PCI slot, and it didn't work. I'm pretty sure the other one was AGP, not quite sure. Are PCI and AGP the only 2 kinds? So if its not PCI, then its AGP?

Thanks.

 

[fistful]

PCI slots are the white ones, if you have a brown one off center above the white ones you have an AGP slot. I don't know if this helps, probably wont but when I replaced my integrated video card with a PCI card in my pc a few years ago it wouldn't work until I selected it in the device manager. might want to give that a try.

 

[johnbro23]

Yea you're definitely right. I do have a brown slot thats off center. That means I do have an AGP slot.

I'm taking it back to Circuit City. They should let me since it was their fault I got the wrong one. I've been looking on eBay for some that are a lot cheaper than Circuit City... should I do it eBay or get one at Circuit City?

 

[MacNeXT]

I have a Mac, but they don't make RCT3 for Mac. I love my Mac, but I'm stuck with Windows for this one. This whole ordeal is reminding me why I switched.

At Circuit City, I asked the guy which one, PCI or AGP and he told me PCI. I guess he was wrong on this one. I put it in my PCI slot, and it didn't work. I'm pretty sure the other one was AGP, not quite sure. Are PCI and AGP the only 2 kinds? So if its not PCI, then its AGP?

Thanks.

Yes, altough there are other kinds of interfaces (both older and newer), your system has one AGP slot and probably more than one PCI slot. The Circuit City guy was WAY off to recommend PCI. You should consider taking it back and ask them to trade it in with an AGP card.

Search with images.google.com with keywords "PCI", "AGP", "slot" for comparison if you can't identify them with certainty.

Now you say "I put it in my PCI slot, and it didn't work" but in your original message you said it seemd like it worked. It's possible that the card does display everything ok, but doesn't work with games because the right drivers aren't installed. Anyway, when I once replaced a card, this is what I did:

- Remove old card
- Insert new card
- Remove old driver
- Remove DirectX
- Install latest new driver (www.nvidia.com)
- Install latest DirectX

Altough it's possible that Windows gives you some headaches along the road (removing/installing drivers), this is essentially everything you need to do.

BTW. You are aware that this isn't the best forum to get help with PC problems, I assume???

 

[johnbro23]

Yes, altough there are other kinds of interfaces (both older and newer), your system has one AGP slot and probably more than one PCI slot. The Circuit City guy was WAY off to recommend PCI. You should consider taking it back and ask them to trade it in with an AGP card.

Search with images.google.com with keywords "PCI", "AGP", "slot" for comparison if you can't identify them with certainty.

Now you say "I put it in my PCI slot, and it didn't work" but in your original message you said it seemd like it worked. It's possible that the card does display everything ok, but doesn't work with games because the right drivers aren't installed. Anyway, when I once replaced a card, this is what I did:

- Remove old card
- Insert new card
- Remove old driver
- Remove DirectX
- Install latest new driver (www.nvidia.com)
- Install latest DirectX

Altough it's possible that Windows gives you some headaches along the road (removing/installing drivers), this is essentially everything you need to do.

BTW. You are aware that this isn't the best forum to get help with PC problems, I assume???

I actually searched google a ton for "pc forums" and all that... all of the results returned dead forums, with no one posting.

I've decided to only go with 64MB. I'm not really that big of a gamer, plus I don't want to put too much money into my crap PC. Did you say I should just exchange them, and get the difference in the games? Or is there any way to bitch and get something for free (since the guy was basically an idiot about everything)? I don't really know how these things work, but its worth a shot asking here first.

Thanks for your help... I'm going to bed so I'll check this in the morning. Thanks again

 

[crachoar]

Buy a Mac and you won't have that problem!

Buy a mac and you won't have games...(and if you do, they're half-assed, years old ports).

I've decided to only go with 64MB. I'm not really that big of a gamer, plus I don't want to put too much money into my crap PC.

If you spent over $35, you got ripped off.

I would suggest returning it to Circuit City and telling them you explained the situation to a sales rep, he informed you to get the card, card doesn't you, you want your money back.

CC is a lot better than Best Buy when it comes to returns. You shouldn't have a problem getting your cash back.

However, I would suggest to you that you research some more about your PC so that you know what you're looking for next time. You can't really blame the CC salesman, if you didn't know what you were looking for yourself.

 

[absolut_mac]

Why am I not surprised?

Exchange it for an ATI video card. I always had probelms with nVidia. ATI - a superior product with superior support

Besides, nVidia do not make their own cards, they only design the GPUs. Whereas ATI make the card, and also sell the GPU's to be used by OEMs. Lastly, ATI updates their drivers far more frequently and reliably than them too.

And no, I do not work for them!

 

[caveman_uk]

Exchange it for an ATI video card. I always had probelms with nVidia. ATI - a superior product with superior support

Funny, as when I was in PC land, I always used Nvidia cards as ATI's windows driver's sucked. I've heard they're a lot better now though.

Similarly, it used to be the case that Nvidia's Linux x86 drivers were MUCH better than the ATI ones - don't know if they still are.

 

[johnbro23]

Thanks for all your replys... I'm going to exchange it after school today. I'll tell you how it goes.

 

[absolut_mac]

Funny, as when I was in PC land, I always used Nvidia cards as ATI's windows driver's sucked. I've heard they're a lot better now though.

Similarly, it used to be the case that Nvidia's Linux x86 drivers were MUCH better than the ATI ones - don't know if they still are.

I think that ATI has been very aggressive the past few years in trying to keep ahead of nVidia, so consumers everywhere win big time

And obviously ATI's strategy seems to be working, hence nVidia's premature release of their latest FX 6800 super duper deluxe card that forced Apple to delay the introduction of their 30" cinema display.

Plus I think that nVidia is achieving that *impressive* performance from that card by overclocking it. A sure way to ensure that the consumer will end up having to replace that card after only a short while. Not encouraging for an expensive card like that IMHO.