Forum Overview :: American McGee's Honda Civic :: What is the bare minimum for a video card in the "New Doom" era?

[quote name="foolio"]1st: thanks all for your <A HREF="http://www.caltrops.com/pointy.php?action=viewPost&pid=19460">informative small-LAN gaming advice</A>. Noted, hugs all around. I want to buy a video card RIGHT NOW. I am running a nVIDIA card--the "ripe with age" TNT2. This allows me to play intense, exciting games like "Descent" and "Descent II", and "Descent III" at a severely reduced framerate. And Counter-Strike, which has sustained me in times of need. But I need to upgrade. I saw the Fry's ad today, advertising a GeForceFX 5200 (regular, not ultra) for $80 straight plus tax. That places me $86.50 + 2 hours away from gaming glory, or so I think. And all at (approximately/close to) the speed of a GeForce4 Ti4200! I've done some rudimentary research and found that every game can be played at decent speed with a GeForce2 or greater. But I want to be able to play the new Doom when it comes out. And HL2, of course. I don't think either of those will run <i>well</i> on any of the cheap boards. So here (<B><big>FINALLY</big></B>, I know) is the question: What's the bare minimum to run the new Doom as it is meant to be seen (read 1024x768, reasonable AA)? I'm running a PIII 600MHz / 256MB of zippy PC100 SDRAM. And of course, a crappy video card.[/quote]