A question that requests an answer!!!

[Bryan1187]

OMG after reading all of these posts I am struck with the worst news in my life. I currently have a nVidia GeForce4 MX-440 64 MB DDR graphics card, which means I cant play? Why is this so, I have never heard of such a thing where I pay money for a game and yet I am not allowed to play it? So what are my choices, and why did eidos do this-it is unfair. Please help anyone!

[Barret232hxc]

you need pixel shader.. mx doesn't have pixel shader.. its time to get a new card anyways if your stuck with an mx I got a geforce fx 5900 for $197 check http://pricewatch.com and you can find yourself a good card for not too expensive. It runs smooth and perfectly on my card

[MaxxQ]

From my post on another thread (re: the reason pixel shaders are used in the game and can't just be "turned off"):

(sigh) The difference between DXIW and all the other games mentioned is that the pixel shaders used were intended to be an integral part of the gameplay. In other words, you could hide in the dynamically created shadows that PS 1.1 makes possible. This is a great feature for those that like to play stealthy.

However, it seems that it's very difficult to do this in actual practice, so yeah, it seems a bit superfluous.

All the other games mentioned (added for this post - Halo, Max Payne 2, and a few others), and also including Half Life 2, use pixel shaders as simply eye-candy that doesn't affect gameplay at all. That's why you can disable it in most of those other games and not have it affect anything to do with actually playing the game.

I honestly feel bad for those that can't play it, because of the card fiasco, but there were many who owned non-Voodoo cards back when DX came out that couldn't play it, until the patch came out. I wasn't around these and other boards at the release of DX, but I'm sure there were many saying that IS alienated half the user-base out here for not making the game compatible with non-Voodoo cards.

[Bryan1187]

what card do you guys recommend, I am shopping on a budget and i prefer nvidia. Id say I am willing to spend no more than 80 bux-im cheap and poor,lol.

[Mr. Perfect]

You can't get **** for $80 dollars. If you've been reading the boards you will also see that 5200 owners are getting horrible performance in the game. If you're a Nvidi fan boy, then go for a 5700 Ultra. A 5600 Ultra might be ok, but Nvidia rebuilt parts of the 5700's core, making it significantly faster then the 5600 Ultra. You can also purchas a Radeon 9600 Pro, which is the 5700 Ultra's competition.

If you really can not afford a Radeon 9600 Pro or a 5700 ultra, you could look around for a GeFrorce 4 TI4600. It should get you better performance then the rather crippled 5200.

[Gandalv the Gray]

Apparently, some FX cards are not as good at pixel shading as the more expensive models, so you might want to read some reviews.