Video Card Question

I bought Starcraft 2 and a few times I’ve played online a message will come up saying that my computer is slowing the game down and to try and turn down my resolution or something. My friend said my video card may be the problem. It’s a Intel GMA 3100 128mb card. My computer has 2g of ram, 2.33ghz, 250g hard drive but the game still has issues. Any help? If it is a video card, any recommendations? How do I know how much power I can run, what size I can fit, etc. Thanks.

Video card sucks…What’s your budget? Can you post the error? Check in the event logs to see if it shows up in there also.

Well I’ve been doing a lot more research today and I guess I’m pretty limited as to what I can get because my computer isn’t really designed for gaming. I have a Dell Inspiron 530s. I guess the slim tower and 250w power supply make it pretty hard to get a decent card. I don’t mind spending $100 or so to get a card that will make my game play a lot smoother. Thanks for any advice.

GIGABYTE GV-N98TGR-512I GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125288

XFX GT240XZNFC GeForce GT 240 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150451

The 1st one requires a 400w power supply, the 2nd one a 350w power supply. I’d change the power supply but I guess there are very few that fit in a dell slim tower. Also, I’ve been told I need a low-profile ready card to fit this tower. I appreciate the help though.

Ah IC I did a quick search on your model and it came back with what appeared to be the new dimension cases. Have you budgeted for a new PC?

ASUS EAH5550/DI/1GD3(LP) Radeon HD 5550 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121386

I’m not really a pc gamer I just thought the new SC looked cool so I got it. I already have 2 laptops and this desktop so I’m not really looking to get into a new computer just for a game. The game still works, just during big battles it lags a bit. Hopefully a new card will help a bit. I’ll spend the extra $ for a power supply if there is one that will fit easily in my case. So far I haven’t found any.

Most of Dell’s PSUs are propietary, so it will be a bitch trying to upgrade it. It’s not worth it IMO.

yea it says min of 128mb or video ram to run the game…your a bit behind

you dont really want to run with the min to be honest

on board graphics = the suck

would probably get better results of it was not that

Well I got an ATI Radeon 4650 card. It runs perfectly with my computer and the difference is amazing. Everything is so much sharper and the detail is ridiculous. I read on a bunch of forums that this card works with my computer even though it suggests a 300w power supply. The game plays 10x faster with no lag or anything. Thanks for the advice guys.

yea I had some issues when i first installed the game, and the system i just build is no slouch

turns out the motherboard was underclocking my processor to 6 cores @800mhz lol

now running
3.2ghz on 6 cores
4 gigs of ram
ati 4600HD 1gb video card

haha that sounds like a pretty impressive computer. I knew almost nothing about computers til about a week ago when mine wasn’t doing what I wanted it to.

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