Posts by Benjamin King2

I mean, seriously—what do you actually need a high-end card for when you're just running Photoshop? 😕

Honestly, just grab something like this—you really don't need to blow your budget on some high-end beast—it's got 2 DVI outputs plus an HDMI port:

It really just depends on what kind of antenna you plug into the thing—but honestly, whatever signal you actually manage to pull in with that setup isn't even worth watching.

urbanpilot said:thanks. I honestly figured someone who actually finished IT school—you know, the kind of person running their own computer shop—would have a better clue than I do, but apparently not.
The easiest thing to say is just "buy a new one," right? Until now, I’ve always handled my own PC stuff—reinstalling Windows, dusting out the tower, swapping RAM, all that little stuff—so when this happened, I thought it was just the monitor or something simple, and I leaned on someone who *should* have known the answer.
But hey, from now on, this forum is my go-to No. 1.

Well, yeah—if it were his money on the line, he probably would've actually tried harder. ☕

Oh, for crying out loud. 😁 You already asked about this on the last page.

Something like this should do the trick:

You’ll need to pick up the drives separately—and honestly, you really ought to stick to the exact same model, regardless of whether you’re running them in a RAID setup or just playing it safe. When it comes to transferring files, the network is going to be your bottleneck, not the drive speed itself. If you've got a standard 100 Mbps connection, you shouldn't run into any issues streaming 720p movies, provided the video bitrate stays within a reasonable range—say, 5-6 Mbps. And please, don't even think about using Wi-Fi for this kind of thing; unless you want a headache, stick to a wired connection. 🙂 Besides, the NAS has a Gigabit LAN port, but I’m guessing your router isn't exactly top-of-the-line Gigabit gear, so that extra speed probably won't even matter for you right now.

👍 Look, there’s no real need to go chasing driver updates if everything is running smoothly—honestly, don't fix what isn't broken—but the second you start seeing some weird display glitch or a flickering screen, the very first thing you should do is grab the latest driver version from the manufacturer's site.

Yeah, they're wired directly into the router—totally hardwired. And as for the second part of your question? Yeah, that’s a definite yes.

urbanpilot said:So, we went ahead and nuked the drivers for that card—just completely wiped them out—and then tried plugging back in the old monitor. Absolute disaster. Nothing. Not a single signal. We were staring at a black screen like it was some kind of magic trick. Then, we swapped things around and hooked up this newer monitor, and suddenly, everything’s fine. It’s working perfectly, I guess—except, obviously, there are still no drivers installed for the card itself. But hey, the monitor is actually displaying an image, so at least we aren't staring at a brick anymore.

The guy is out here claiming the monitor is G-Sync compatible—which we can all see is a total lie—and now he’s trying to pin the death of his graphics card on the screen. Like, really? That's just not how any of this works. 🤷

What else am I supposed to try besides just buying a new GPU?

Look, if the monitor is behaving itself when you strip out the drivers—assuming I’ve actually followed your logic correctly here—then you’re looking at a software issue, plain and simple. I mean, if the image looks perfectly fine on the screen during the POST process before Windows even starts loading, then the hardware isn't the culprit. It's clearly the driver causing the headache. Period. Right here.Look, just head over to the "Support & Drivers" section—it's pretty straightforward—then pull up that dropdown menu and navigate through Desktop Graphics to the Radeon X series, then specifically the Radeon X3xx series. Once you're there, pick whatever version of Windows you're running and try installing the latest available Catalyst driver. That should do the trick.

Look, let's just get this straight—a monitor can't damage your graphics card, and a GPU can't go around wrecking your monitor either. It’s physically impossible. They’re two separate components doing their own thing through a cable—it's not like they're feeding off each other or anything—so there's zero chance one is going to fry the other. Period.

Gary Johnson64 said:Hey Smartic, it’s me again. 😁 😁 So, you're asking about the Nvidia GTS 250 1GB DDR3? Honestly—it’s a bit of a weird one to weigh against the 9800GT. If we're talking raw power, the Nvidia GTS 250 1 is definitely going to come out on top—it's just a beefier card overall—but that DDR3 memory swap changes the math a little bit. Usually, you'd want the GDDR5 version if you actually care about performance, but compared to the 9800GT? Yeah, the GTS 250 1 still holds the edge, even with those slower memory modules. It's basically like comparing a reliable old Chevy to a slightly newer Ford—one's got more under the hood, but they're both pretty much relics at this point. 😁 😁 Hey, sorry to be a pain—don't mind me, just being a nuisance. 😁 Thanks.

The GTS 250 1 is definitely punching in a much higher weight class here.

Look, a monitor isn't going to brick a graphics card—it just doesn't work like that. Have you actually tried testing that "broken" monitor on the integrated graphics... or maybe plugging the new monitor into the "broken" GPU? There's just way too much guesswork happening here, and honestly, none of this logic is adding up.

Try something like this instead:

Stay away from those DDR2 cards—they're ancient history. So, did your old graphics card finally kick the bucket or what?

It’ll run better on DirectX 11—assuming the game actually supports it, obviously—but that really just depends on how the devs handled things. You don't necessarily need a beefier rig, you just need an operating system that actually supports DirectX 11, and the same logic applies to your graphics card.

You could probably slide an SSD into something like this:

Just make sure it’s a 2.5" drive—you'll need that USB 3.0 support and a standard SATA interface.

Yeah, given your processor and that HD 6850, the XFX 450 should be more than enough for you.

The only thing you actually got right about $100 is

Gregory Ward said:I mean, it literally says it right there—ATX 500W P4. "ATX" is probably just the model type. There's nothing else listed, period.

Just grab an XFX 450 w instead—that should be plenty for you... clearly, we're dealing with some off-brand, no-name power supply here.

Michael Brooks13 said:Thanks for all the help so far!
I somehow managed to get it running—it’s not exactly smooth, but at least it isn't freezing. I set the shortcut to run in compatibility mode for Windows 95 and the game is actually somewhat playable... if I had known this thing was such a buggy mess from the start, I never would've bothered downloading it!

Man, from everything I've read, this game relies way more on having a beefy processor and a fast drive than it does on the graphics card. Just keep an eye out for patches; they'll likely fix the performance issues eventually.

Gregory Ward said:I already mentioned in my first post—it's an ATX 500W P4

Look, don't be lazy—just go ahead and actually open the case to check the label on the power supply. You need the actual brand and specific model, because just seeing "500W" on there doesn't mean a damn thing. 🙂

Gregory Ward said:Does anyone else have any suggestions? I’d love to see a few options—just so we aren't stuck picking from a single choice. 😁

So, what kind of power supply are you actually running in that rig right now?

rustyfox7, man, that’s rough—you’ve only got 150W on the 12V rail, which is basically nothing. You're definitely going to need to pick up something beefier than that.

Yeah, the RAM will work just fine—no issues there. As for thermal paste, the Arctic MX-4 is easily the best option Arctic offers at Links, though honestly, the Cooler Master Hyper 212 stuff is also solid—it just tends to dry out a bit fast if you're running temperatures north of 70 degrees, but since your CPU shouldn't be anywhere near that range, you could probably grab that one too if you wanted.