A question for the tech heads

[SubparMario]

Of course it will be fine.

Cards like these (or worse) will be what 90% of the market for PC games are using at the moment. These are the kinds of set ups the games will be tested and tweaked to run properly on.

I think PC hardware enthusiasts have a very skewed view of lower end hardware. Sure, it may not be up there with the best kit in terms of performance but it will run all games perfectly fine in most people's eyes.

[PeteBrant]

Of course it will be fine.

Cards like these (or worse) will be what 90% of the market for PC games are using at the moment. These are the kinds of set ups the games will be tested and tweaked to run properly on.

I think PC hardware enthusiasts have a very skewed view of lower end hardware. Sure, it may not be up there with the best kit in terms of performance but it will run all games perfectly fine in most people's eyes.

It will run it at 800X600 with detail lowered - I dont think anyone has said it wouldnt run it - But the point being made was that because it is a "higher" model number than the 4200, it therefore must be better - And this simply is not the case.

THe 6200 will run the sims at a lower resolution and lower detail setting than his GF is already used to. If you try to run at the same settings, it will judder a bit, as mentioned, the Sims 2 is fairly intensive on the old GFX card.

As for skewed perspective - Game are not tested to run acceptably on these cards at alll - They are tested to see if the game will run, that's it - Any minimum spec you see it what you can get away with at the lowest resolution, and the lowest detail setting - Nothing about whether it will run at 5fps.

The 5200/6200 are woeful cards - If you want to do any gaming, it can be bought brand new for around ?35 for a very good reason.

[NeilMcRae]

JR,
What budget do you have? FWIW I'd strongly advise against a Sony laptop. We have tried them numerous times at work and the hardware failure rate is very high. We've been testing Dell's last lot of laptops and they have been far better plus you get excellent service options.

Neil.

[JRMacumber]

I'd like to stick around $2000.