New game -- Do I need a new card?

[digs]

I'm afraid the answer is yes.

So my son's all excited -- just got Tony Hawk 4 for his birthday. So I finally got it installed -- opening graphics/music/etc are great... Then the game starts. Arggh! It's just white & grey geometrics... I check the box:
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: 733 MHz G4, Radeon or GeForce2.

Well, sorry, son. We have a G4, but it's 450 MHz, with an ATI Rage 128. (Cube)

So, no one knows of some way to run this game on 16 MB of VRAM, do they? (Do the newer games all need 32 MB?).

Do I tell my son "Sorry, the games have finally passed us by. Here's a book." or "Well, maybe we can find a cheap card."?

Where do I find a cheap Radeon or GeForce2 or GeForce3? Any place that isn't eBay?

Thanks!

 

[G5orbust]

well, there is usually juch leeway in terms of game req.s and things of that nature, but you may be out of your graphics league here.

Ive personally never played that game before on a mac, so I dont know how it runs or if it indeed runs at all on older systems, but I know that if the req.s for the game are a 733MHz G4 and a radeon or geforce 2 or higher, then there isnt much negative headroom for older systems.

 

[G5orbust]

Sorry for the double post, but I thought I pressed edit and I responded without even looking.

Anyways, youre best bet is to find a used, mac version Geforce 3 on ebay and install it in your cube. Theyre releatively cheap, though a bit hard to find.

Other than ebay, though, you may have to look online at some local mac dealers (resellers) who can try to dig up things like that.

 

[baby duck monge]

the only problem is that you're also pretty far under the proc requirements, too. you may be looking at a game that is not going to play well even with a new graphics card.

not all games require this much power, though, so you don't have to tell the kid that games, in general, have passed you by - just the really complex ones.

fortunately, the cube is pretty upgradeable, and you could bring it almost up-to-date in bits and pieces for not too terribly much (i think it's worth it since the cube is such a beautiful piece of work).

just some things to think about.

 

[jamall]

You should check out OWC. They have nVidia GeForce 4MX 32Mb cards for $75, which isn't bad. That will give you Quartz Extreme as well which will make OS X a bit zippier. I bought a G4 tower at the same time as the Cube's were around, and man I wish I'd gotten a Cube instead. I've only ever used one PCI slot (for more USB ports), and the Cube is just as upgradeable in terms of video and processor cards.

 

[bousozoku]

You definitely need an upgrade. You might be able to get along with either the processor upgrade or the video card upgrade. I'm surprised that the game played at all, being that you're so far off the minimums.

OtherWorld Computing can help you with the hardware upgrades.

 

[tagy]

that game does not run well at all on my G4 700 + GeForce 2MX

sorry but i dont think a new gfx card will make it run great, G4 450 is just too slow.

 

[mangoman]

Hate to bring bad news, but I'm running THPS4 on a ramped up G4: used to be a 933MHz, then I added an OWC 1.4GHz processor upgrade card, maxed out the RAM, and replaced the old GeForce 4MX 64MB video card with a new GeForce Ti card (128MB). The result? Tony Hawk 4 plays well, but I STILL can't max out the settings without the game gettin' a little choppy in certain maps. Believe it or not.

Sounds like you're in the zone for a G5, amigo. Hey, you're kid's worth it, right?

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

you can allways upgrade that cpu to a 1 gig or better and get a better video card and you will be back in the game for another year or two. invest 300-400 dollars into that cube and you should good to go.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Yep.

At work we upgraded;
from:
G4 Cube
450 Mhz
192 MB RAM
ATi Rage 128 (16 MB VRAM)

to:
G4 Cube
1.2 Ghz
512 MB RAM
Geforce 2 MX (32 MB VRAM)

WOW! What a difference!
Ofcourse the GeForce 2 also enabled Quartz Extreme.... (got the grfx card out of a 733 MHz QuickSilver)
But if you seriously love your Cube (as you should, it is still argueably the most beautiful computer ever made), you should really do these upgrades.
Over at xlr8yourmac.com they even forced a Radeon 9000 grfx card in there..... so if you like the challenge.
I would try to keep your precious Cube alive as long as possible!

 

[yoda13]

my friend runs that game on his 800 mhz iMac flat panel just fine, so I would upgrade the video card and processor. You will be really happy that you did. 'Cause that is one sweet looking computer

 

[neoelectronaut]

Well, I just got a eMac 1Ghz with 512MB Ram...and it came with Tony Hawk 4 preinstalled....

Well, even at 640x480, the game runs pretty damn choppy.

Why the heck does Apple package programs with a computer that won't run it well?

 

[sonofslim]

if you're thinking about upgrading, head over to cubeowner.com. they've got the scoop on your upgrade options, where to get them, how to install them, and anything else you can think of re: the cube.

and from one cube owner to another... rock on!

 

[Gymnut]

I'm playing Kelly Slater's Pro Surf on a a Dual 1Ghz MDD with 2GB RAM and a Geforce4 Ti and it is choppy with the settings at max so, best of luck getting Tony to ollie in that cube.

 

[7on]

TiBook DVI, 1Ghz, 1Gb of RAM

Lowest settings run pretty choppy during action scenes (so pretty much the entire game). Though I'm wondering if THPS3 would run better.