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ok, been shopping around but I can't decide on anything. I am doing some shopping for a video card. Not that mine is broke, but simcity 4 keeps crashing. I get to step 7 and about 1-2 seconds later I get a blue screen BAD_POOL_HEARDER. Upon restart windows error report says its a device driver problem. Now I have played HL2, Icewind Dale2, star craft, command and conquer 3, (i have black and white 2 installed but havent ran it yet), to name a few. I have been troublshooting for about 4 days now with EA tech support and so far nothing has worked. These games ran with no problems on this card. I just want to rule out my card. Budget - under $100 and needs to be AGP. Doesn't need to be the best, but better then my Chaintech Geforce 6600.

So that SimCity game is getting expensive, eh? I wouldn't replace a perfectly good card just because that one game won't work with it... perhaps you can try newer or different video drivers...

ATI Radeon X1650
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102085

This one looks nice... it'll be like 25-30% faster than your 6600 vanilla.
In any case, thats going to be your expected minimum price.
Probably best to avoid getting another 6600, and in that regard.. probably avoid all other 6-series cards. Then again I've never heard of anyone else having a problem with SimCity 4 so back to trying to fix it through software try other drivers yet?

Yea, I tried 2 older drivers and I now have nvidia's new beta drivers in. Nothing worked. Manual uninstall, disabling background tasks, etc... nothing worked. I have tried everything I can think of. Even EA game just sent me a link to there warrentee info, probably because I have exhausted all troubleshooting steps. If I do get a new card it will be a 6800GT or better. I would shop for ATI but I have no idea of the comparison numbers to geforce. Thanks palm. Anyone else see a good deal on a video card?

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2006.html

I used this, love the TH charts :]
X1600 and up will all be faster than your 6600 vanilla. I don't believe I saw any of those on newegg yesterday so thats why I linked X1650 which is faster by like a friggin one whole frame per second!

I would shop ATI because if the problem you're having has anything to do with that card of yours, you can't beat going to an entirely different brand.

It had to do with my sound card drivers. I have a diamond card and had to turn the acceleration down to basic and it ran to step 10 for a few min before closing. I will be testing it further soon.

Well, with the audio acceleration at this level the game runs fine.

Just a side question, what is the best way to tell the ATI and Geforce comparisons? Like I have a 6600, what would the ATI equivalent be? Does anyone know a site the list these for several cards?

Look at the benchmarks. Cards that perform similar to another card are the competing (equivalent) card. tomshardware.com has those VGA charts listing virtually all the models so its very useful for that.

How is this for a few dollars more?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... _-14121066

Stay the hell away from that thing, if I remember correctly it has only a 128bit bus.

If your talking memory interface, then yes. Both video cards, the one palm suggested and the one I suggested, have 128bit interface. Do you, 2005, have a recommendations for a comparable 256bit card for under $100? That one palm listed looks great and that toms hardware site has great info. Also, I have NEVER used ATI before so I am wondering if I can get a cheaper card from ATI for the same performance as a more expensive geforce. That X1650 and X1650pro are comparable to the geforce 6800, Go 6800, 7300 GT GDDR3, 7600 GS, Go 7700, 8600M GS cards for under $100. Seems like a great deal to me.

I'd go 7600GS out of all of those cards.

Wait so like... the game works now? Problem with the sound card? If you're no longer looking for a video card to get the game to work, but still want a new card.. why not overhaul and get the best card AGP has to offer?

But anyway, the 7600GS looks nice, still 128-bit but not like I was the one who cared about that A little faster than the X1650 for a little more money. meh. w/e.

The next card I buy will be either a 9800 series or ATI's next series.

palmboy5 wrote:Wait so like... the game works now? Problem with the sound card? If you're no longer looking for a video card to get the game to work, but still want a new card.. why not overhaul and get the best card AGP has to offer?

But anyway, the 7600GS looks nice, still 128-bit but not like I was the one who cared about that A little faster than the X1650 for a little more money. meh. w/e.

Yea, the game works. I'm not going to get the card soon. I was just looking for info as to comparisons between Ati and Geforce cards. I should be getting one tho sometime before the end of next year. Maybe even around Christmas this year. I'll defiantly look at the 7600GS.