Sorry - Uru on GeForce - Simple Graphics Card Question...

I apologize profusely for this newbie question, but I just now got Uru and
the darn thing won't run on my graphics card.

I was a big Myst fan, I enjoyed Riven, and just now got Uru from Amazon for
$15. It seems a wonderful game, but won't play with my video card.

I have an ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon (pre-7000), with 32MB RAM.

Okay, quit laughing, it's not been a problem before.

Anyway - the game is unplayable. I start, and press-and-hold the up arrow.
After about 12 seconds, the avatar takes a single step forward. If I
continue to hold the up arrow, I get about one frame of graphics every 5 or
6 seconds. It took me about 3 frames of graphics to realize this wasn't
going to do. This is with all the graphics settings scaled back to the
minimum. Ugh.

I've done a bit of Googling, and I know I could drop $300 on a really sweet
graphics card. However, I can think of many other good uses for $300, not
to mention the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) spending $300 to play a $15 game
won't pass. So, I was wondering about the GeForce FX series?

It seems the GeForce FX 5500 with 256MB RAM can be had for around $80, and
that feels more like my price point.

But, before I go dropping even $80, I wanted to verify that it will play
(and play well) the game I'm specifically buying it for -- Uru.

Can anyone validate that this card will handle Uru well? The rest of my
system is okay -- not great, but okay for a 2-year-old system. I've got a
2.6Ghz P4 (Intel), 1GB dual-channel DDR RAM (2 banks of 512), 2 7200rpm
drives with 8MB cache each... Will likely be upgrading Motherboard/CPU/RAM
this Spring. Current MoBo will do AGP 4x. I plan on the upgrade doing AGP
8x.

I no longer need the video capabilities of the All-In-Wonder, so am just
looking for an AGP 8x/4x graphics card with a decent 3D processor to handle
Uru and continue to handle general computing well. I'm comfortable dropping
$80 on the GeForce FX 5500 with 256MB RAM -- but if a significantly better
card can be had for $120... I'm listening. The main reason for this post
is I don't want to waste any money on a card that won't play Uru well.

Thanks in advance, and again I apologize for such a newbie question. My
guess if you guys frown on hardware questions in this group, but I also
figured you guys would best be equipped to answer my question. Thanks so
much for your tolerance.

Answering my own question...

www.uruobsession.com had many postings related to this topic, and I just
read up online and think the GeForce FX 5500 with 256MB RAM should run Uru
just fine and is a good value at $80. I read up on Amazon about the 6600,
and it got pretty bad reviews, so I think my sweet spot is the 5500.

Cool site, by the way. I can't wait to get into this Uru thing...

"John" <john RemoveThis @NOSPAM.com> wrote in message
news:OJuuf.1530$Dh.1318@dukeread04...
>I apologize profusely for this newbie question, but I just now got Uru and
>the darn thing won't run on my graphics card.
>
> I was a big Myst fan, I enjoyed Riven, and just now got Uru from Amazon
> for $15. It seems a wonderful game, but won't play with my video card.
>
> I have an ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon (pre-7000), with 32MB RAM.
>
> Okay, quit laughing, it's not been a problem before.
>
> Anyway - the game is unplayable. I start, and press-and-hold the up
> arrow. After about 12 seconds, the avatar takes a single step forward. If
> I continue to hold the up arrow, I get about one frame of graphics every 5
> or 6 seconds. It took me about 3 frames of graphics to realize this
> wasn't going to do. This is with all the graphics settings scaled back to
> the minimum. Ugh.
>
> I've done a bit of Googling, and I know I could drop $300 on a really
> sweet graphics card. However, I can think of many other good uses for
> $300, not to mention the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) spending $300 to
> play a $15 game won't pass. So, I was wondering about the GeForce FX
> series?
>
> It seems the GeForce FX 5500 with 256MB RAM can be had for around $80, and
> that feels more like my price point.
>
> But, before I go dropping even $80, I wanted to verify that it will play
> (and play well) the game I'm specifically buying it for -- Uru.
>
> Can anyone validate that this card will handle Uru well? The rest of my
> system is okay -- not great, but okay for a 2-year-old system. I've got a
> 2.6Ghz P4 (Intel), 1GB dual-channel DDR RAM (2 banks of 512), 2 7200rpm
> drives with 8MB cache each... Will likely be upgrading
> Motherboard/CPU/RAM this Spring. Current MoBo will do AGP 4x. I plan on
> the upgrade doing AGP 8x.
>
> I no longer need the video capabilities of the All-In-Wonder, so am just
> looking for an AGP 8x/4x graphics card with a decent 3D processor to
> handle Uru and continue to handle general computing well. I'm comfortable
> dropping $80 on the GeForce FX 5500 with 256MB RAM -- but if a
> significantly better card can be had for $120... I'm listening. The main
> reason for this post is I don't want to waste any money on a card that
> won't play Uru well.
>
> Thanks in advance, and again I apologize for such a newbie question. My
> guess if you guys frown on hardware questions in this group, but I also
> figured you guys would best be equipped to answer my question. Thanks so
> much for your tolerance.
>
>