Help Please

[SoulTaker*]

this is my first experience with PC games, and I istalled F.E.A.R on to my computer, but when I go to click on the icon the screen goes black, then it says that my video card is unsupported, does anybody understand this? I have Windows XP, do I need to buy a video card, or download something, can somebody give me answers, because I am getting pissed.:mad2:

[edczxcvbnm]

You bought a piece of software for your PC without knowing the minimum requirements of that piece of software and without knowing your own PC hardware. That is an unforgivable mistake.

Yes you most likely NEED a video card to run the game in any way, shape or form. This isn't a PS2 where the hardware is set. PCs don't have to play games and are always coming out with new hardware. If you want to play games on your PC you need to learn about them and understand them so you can successfully run them.

Your computer most likely has some sort of video card in it. Figure out what it is or ask the company that put out F.E.A.R. to help you out.

[SoulTaker*]

Well, If I cant figure it out I will just take the damn thing back, and i also have the sims which is working just fine on my computer, so do all my emulators, if its this much damn trouble to run a stupid game, why bother with a pc, I installed the damn thing, and my computer is fairly new(as in may 2005) it should work. Also I did check the requirements, one of those being windows XP, I just dont understand the video card, if I had a crappy computer then no I wouldnt have thought the game would work. i would prefer somebody that has the game F.E.A.R to respond with what he/she uses to run the game.

[Epiphany]

From what I know F.E.A.R is a pretty graphic intense game.
* 128 MB DirectX ® 9.0 Compliant Video Card with hardware T&L and pixel shader support*

That is what's needed for F.E.A.R, and if you haven't bought a graphics card for your computer and it's something standard like HP or Dell or something, chances are the default graphics card doesn't have pixel shading.
ATI Radeon 9800 pro would run it just fine, but those are a bit costly.

[edczxcvbnm]

Well, If I cant figure it out I will just take the damn thing back, and i also have the sims which is working just fine on my computer, so do all my emulators, if its this much damn trouble to run a stupid game, why bother with a pc, I installed the damn thing, and my computer is fairly new(as in may 2005) it should work. Also I did check the requirements, one of those being windows XP, I just dont understand the video card, if I had a crappy computer then no I wouldnt have thought the game would work. i would prefer somebody that has the game F.E.A.R to respond with what he/she uses to run the game.

Just because your computer is new doesn't mean it is good. My friend's girlfriend recently got a new computer about a year ago and it had NO graphics card on it. It didn't even have an AGP or PCI express slot on the mother board. I thought they all just put at least the AGP slot on the motherboard now and days. Point being that if you think it is good just because it is "new" you are flat out WRONG.

The sims and any emulator for NES and SNES games does not actually need a graphics card to run. Those can run straight from your CPU with out much of a problem(mainly refering to the sims).

My friend has the game but he has a GeForce 6600GT AGPx8 card in his computer. About 1 gig of RAM and I believe a 2.8 Pentium 4. He runs the game pretty damn good. The card can be kind of pricey though.

[SoulTaker*]

Anyone have an estimation on how much the graphics or video card might cost?

[Epiphany]

The one I mentioned is usually 200$+ a pop. You can sometimes find it cheaper on the net, but around here that's what it sells for in stores like Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. Really, if this is the only game you're planning on playing it's not worth it.
The one ed mentioned is about 150$.

[SoulTaker*]

I was also thinking of getting city of villians, and Half life 2, but Im guessing Half life 2 wouldnt work with my current card, My info says chip type a NvidiaGeforce4 Mx integrated GPU Dac type: integrated RAMDAC and I do have DirectX 9.0, I dont know if this has anything to do with the video card.

[Epiphany]

Ah, well. That'd have pixel shading then but if I remember right MX is only, at highest, 64MB. CoV you could run with that, and it meets the very minimum for HL2. If it's not one of the 64MB ones then you couldn't.

[SoulTaker*]

yep it says 64.0 MB.

[Epiphany]

You'd be alright with those two but chances are you'd have to set it at the lowest settings, just to do away with lag and stuff.

[SoulTaker*]

Ahh, thanks for the info, you say that Best Buy, and Circuit City will carry the video card i need to run this game, i guess I'll have to make a decision on wether I want to pay a boat load of money for one game when other games work okay for my current card.

[Epiphany]

Well, I think I'd go for modding the video card because there might come another high-end graphics game that you want to play, then you won't have to worry about not being able to run it. And yeah, both of those should carry it.

[edczxcvbnm]

I recommend that you open up your computer and see if you have AGP or PCI Express. If you just have regular PCI and nothing better then you are not going to do much better than 64 Meg. I think they make a 128 but who knows how much better it will actually be.