More video card questions

[roomwithamoose]

I went out and purchased a ATI Raedon 9600 SE vid card when I realized taht my MOBO doesn't have onboard video. When I begin my build in a few days (once I get my OS in the mail), will I be able to put the card in the AGP slot, plug in my monitor and power up, or will I have problems with drivers? I can't think I'll be able to install anything for the vid card if I can't see because the vid card needs driver, right? I hope I'm not stuck.
Also, will this card run Doom 3 and other such demanding games? It looks like it's pretty good, and I got it for $100 brand new, so it'd be great if I didn't have to worry about upgrading for a little bit.

[kram 2.0]

Well, with the card installation, it should be fine. All you have to do is insert it into the AGP slot, boot it up, then install the drivers/update them. Sorry to tell you but I do not think the Radeon 9600SE will run Doom 3 all that well. The better solution might have been to go with the Radeon 9600 for 95 USD, or the Radeon 9600 Pro for 110 USD. Those cards are both 128-bit buswidth, so more data transfered from the video card to the system at any given time. However, you should be able to play Doom 3, probably not at the highest settings - it does meet the requirements fine.

Hope that helps,
kram

[MrAustin]

About Doom 3, I run it just fine at 800 x 600 on High with my 9200. I know it's not the highest settings, but it's not that bad either.

[kram 2.0]

About Doom 3, I run it just fine at 800 x 600 on High with my 9200. I know it's not the highest settings, but it's not that bad either.
The only thing that the Radeon 9200 lacks mostly to a Radeon 9600 (non pro) is the DX9 support, which really didn't matter in this case since Doom 3 is a OpenGL based game. Do also remember that Radeon 9200 is also a 128-bit card.

kram