"bill" wrote in message
...

"Sean" wrote in message
news:HpNKb.764136$Tr4.2196150@attbi_s03...
"bill" wrote in message
...
I am totally confused:
Bought a game for my son: Lego Bionicles (PC).
Per
the box and website, it requires DirectX 9.0.
The box also says ATI Radeon w/32MB or
NVidia..
http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=14683

OK. I need to get him a new graphics card
(currently cheap built-in graphics, but there
is
an AGP slot.)

When I look at the ads, only the new ($$$) say
the
are DirectX 9. (And obviously nothing with
only
32MB of graphics memory is in that category.)
Can older and/or less expensive boards support
DirectX 9.0?

As the box says it only needs a card with
32MB, I
doubt this is an overly demanding game. What
cards
would you recommend for up to $75 that would
support DirectX 9. And how much more can I get
if
I go to $100. (Bearing in mind that this
computer
will probably get replaced in ~2 years and we
will
move on to PCI Express, etc.)

Thanks in advance.



copy and pasted:

BIONICLE PC System Requirements
Operating system: Microsoft Windows®
98/2000/ME/XP
Processor: 600 MHz Intel Pentium III processor
or 100% Compatible
Memory: 64MB RAM
CD-DVD: 4x CD ROM/DVD drive
Graphics Card: 32MB Direct3D video card with
DirectXT 9 compatible driver
(with hardware T&L support)

It says with a Directx 9 Compatible driver.
Most cards from the past 3
years has the HARDWARE T&L support, even though
they can't do some of the
things done in DirectX 9.0. (such as pixel
shading, etc).


http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc
ription=14-156-005&catalog=48&depa=0

Radeon 9000 for $63.00. That'll be good. But
before I, or anyone else,
starts listing off video cards, what kind of
system do you have? CPU, RAM,
OS, etc???

-Sean


Thanks, Sean.
I noticed this at the Newegg link: Support 3D
API: DirectX®8.1, OpenGL®
When the retail sites, etc. list this info
(DirectX 8.1) are they really just parroting what
ATI put on the box, i.e. what version the board
shipped (or ships) with? (On the CD in the box, I
suppose.) I don't know the production dates for
the various cards, but I assume that a 9000
shipped by Newegg was produced many months ago,
before DirectX 9. Obviously, nobody is going to
repackage a board just so they can put in a CD
with 9.0.

I'll get the specs tomorrow morning. (It would
creep out my 13-year old if I snuck into his room
to start checking out his computer. Although he
may be up playing Age of Mythology. (He figured
out not to leave the lights on because we can see
under the door, but not that I can walk outside
and see the glow from his monitor or gameboy.)




The Bionicle game doesn't need a DirectX 9.0 card. Just one with the latest
drivers compatible with Directx 9.0, not necessarily a Directx 9.0 card. I
doubt the game would need such a card.