Building system for girlfriend need opinions..

[Shroomer]

Okay... She mostly plays simulators such as the Sims and Roller Coaster Tycoon etc... in low res 800x600 (mostly) to 1024x768.

Anyway, would she benefit more from a good video card or a high end processor and more ram?

Possible configurations:

Duron OC'd to 950 (mine)
256 meg sdr on Asus A7V133 (mine)
GF2Ti

or

Tbird 1333
256 meg ddr on a shuttle kt266a
voodoo 4500 or GF2mx (mine)

or (less desirable)

go all out only if it will REALLY help her types of games

[theflyingrat]

I'd tend to think that, unlike games like Quake III and other fast FPSes, these types of games are not fill-rate or bandwidth limited. I know first-hand that games like Age of Kings gained nothing from my video card upgrades, but are significantly faster with my new CPUs and more memory. I'd say go for the CPU/memory upgrades, although new video cards can improve clarity and color brightness.

[Jeff Bolton]

yes i would say the same thing. rollercoaster tycoon when i first got it was slooooooow as crap on my dad's 233 w/64mb ram. looked good (8mb video) but was slow. got a newer box (233 w/128 mb ram, same video card) and it went a lot faster. i think you'd benefit from the faster processor and ram moreso than a higher video card.

a geforce 2 should do for most games anyways.

jeff

[funnyperson1]

the voodoo 4500 is more than enough for thsoe kinds of games...

[Shroomer]

Thanks guys! You have helped more than you know!