hi there i know how all of you here are so well educated in the kind of thing i need
help 
well the problem i need a grafix card that will play et thats better
than the stock card that the comp has which you all know suck…
i dont have much money (yea college students >>… :eek: :moo: ) i mean i relaly dont… so dont suggest those kicck a ss models that cost as much as a comp 
ok as for price range… i cant say im waiting totally for your comments jeez thanks … alll
Post your system specs …
Everything above and including geforce 3 / radeon 8500 is good enough for ET. If it’s still slow with that kind of card, it’s because of your cpu or memory.
Hmmm, I remember beeing a student. I’ve never had as much money to spend on Comps and accessories as I had back then 
Just buy noodles and chicken along with a 9800Pro and you are all clear 
My specs""""::
Report Date: 11/03/2004
Report Time[hr:mm:ss]: 18:39:56
Operating System: Windows XP
Default Language: English
DirectX* Version: 9.0
Physical Memory: 512 MB
Processor: x86
Processor Speed: 2.5 gighz
as for money… well lets just say anything over 100 is pushing it…
you can get a VERY good GForce FX**** card for that…
Try a FX5500 or even a 5700… 128 or 256mb
i got a 128mb FX5900 for £70 about 1 year ago (it was half prive at PCWorld.
These cards will run anything out there at moment.
i upgraded from an fx5600 to a geforce 6800 and still got horrible low dips in framerate at hectic moments, even tho my avg fps was way higher and i was able to bump up the resolution and still cap at 76. i tried lowering the res and got zero improvement on timedemo scores - that means a cpu bottleneck - still i was dipping into the 30’s and even 20’s on occasion. so i did some overclocking tests on my p4 2.53 and sure enough, i was able to squeeze out a few extra frames.
ET is extremely cpu greedy. i’ve heard others say this as well. i can run newer, more intensive games much, much faster than ET and with much more eye candy on and not get lowspots like i do in ET. i’m no brain surgeon but that tells me ET will really benefit from all the processing power u can throw at it, and hungrily ask for more.
so i should get _________ card to play et with average fps and spend less than 100 american
aghhhhh
For ET is doesn’t matter because it’s the cpu that limits your fps, only if you have a really old graphics card (geforce 2 for example or a crappy gf4MX) you will be limited by your videocard.
If you have 100$ to spend, go to the shop and buy whatever card is just under 100$, that should be a geforce 5500 or 5700 or radeon 9500 or something like that I guess. Don’t buy a FX5200 or radeon 9200 because they suck.
regardless of what ppl say i wouldnt get an fx5900 for ET
i upgraded from an 128 gf4 to a 128mb fx5900xt and went from having a pretty constant 125 fps to a very poor sub 76 in most places
although dx9 games ran a lot prettier, et seemed to suffer, that woz also on a similiar specced pc to urs im guessing(p4 2.53 ghx)
although it depends on the level ur playing at, if u need*** 76 fps constant in gun fights then get a 128gf4(tis v cheap too), otherwise the fx5900 is a good card to enjoy all ur games(just remember to dl rivatuner ), as for the ATI cards i’ve no idea how they perform
@ techie ppl
i realize ppl often say that cpu governs et fps, but i’d really like to know y the gf4 kicked my 5900xt’s ass in et?
edit* although since moving from a p4 2.53 to a amd 3500+(with an increase of a few fps pre o/c’ing) i’ve bin able to get a steady 76fps, mostly tbh due to a larger case with a windtunnel and 3 fanswhich allow me to o/c the card enuff to get 76 constant