- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Welcome to the PCI Fanclub! (Well, no actually cause I got a soldered AGP slot on my mobo now) but yes I know how you feel. Actually, very recently, the Radeon X1300 Pro was ported out for PCI, making it the best PCI graphics out there. However its about $120 us. If your parents don't mind you spending an etra 10-20 bucks, then I'd highly recommend. The BFG Tech is okay too. About 2x the performance of the 5500 you have right now. I'm getting two of those, I'll tell you how it goes. Techincally that's a really crappy PC, but with the right parts, you will be able to crank it to do decent gaming. So yes if PCI is all you have then I say go for it.
For your second question, you could force the game to use a diffrent pixel pipeline. -use10 is use Shader Model 1.0, -use11 is 1.1 and use14 is 1.4. They will decrease the quality (shadows, shiny), but you will get better fps. Or you could always lower your settings :P
Finally, welcome to the Maw!