I have been rtying to load Enter the Matrix onto my computer, and though the installation seemed to be successful when I tried to launch the game it said it couldn’t find ‘full screen mode’ and the drop down box in the controls which sets the resolution is blank. I suspect the problem may be my video card. How can I find out what card is in my computer?
Right click on your desktop and select Properties. Click on the settings tab. The “Display:” info may tell you (it does on mine here at work). To figure out what your actual chipset is click on the Advanced button. Then hit the Adapter tab. That will give you your driver info and should also list your Manufacturer and chip type, how much RAM is on the card. My guess is, if you don’t know what video card you have, you probably don’t have a very good one.
Thanks dead0man that works for my laptop at work. ill try it on my desktop when i get home. damn pre built computers and their shoddy soundcards…
current top of the line if money is no object
$387 - ATI RADEON 9800 Pro 128MB
…
great card at a more reasonable price
$160 - Nvidia GeForce4 TI 4600 8x AGP
Just had a look on amazon.co.uk and i get get a
Gainward Nvidia Geforce 4 MX420 64MB AGP
for £50, but they also list a
Gainward Nvidia Geforce 4 MX420 64MB PCI
for £70
What is the difference between the AGP & the PCI, besides the price?
well, if you have an AGP(accelerated graphics port) port, that is the one you will want to use. I think all computers within the past 4 years or so have an AGP port…
AGP has a much faster bandwidth than PCI.
AGP 2X has about 4 times the bandwidth of a PCI card.
AGP 4X has about 8 times the bandwidth… and so on…
I had a similar problem with my computer. I downloaded a bunch of background images then all of a sudden Unreal wouldn’t run any more. It gave an error something along the lines of “couldn’t find a valid screen mode” or some such. It turned out that as I was fiddling with backgrounds I set the display into 24 bit mode. As soon as I changed it back to 16 bit mode Unreal worked fine. You may have a similar problem, in that the game can’t find any valid DirectX mode for your current video settings.
I’ll certainly give that spot of advice a try engineer_comp_geek. Any fix which doesn’t involve me buying stuff is worth a go 
Don’t get a GeForce MX.
If you do decide to buy a new videocard, it’s very important to get one that has support for the games you want to play. Only the nVidia Geforce FX (Note that that’s FX, not MX) and ATI Radeon models 9500 and higher support DirectX9, which is the latest 3D hardware specification. If you want to play a game that is not supported by your videocard, it may work with degraded image quality, or simply throw up a “no hardware support” error message. The cheapest DirectX9-supporting card, period, is the nVidia Geforce FX 5200, selling for $70. The cheapest DirectX9-supporting card with acceptable performance is the ATI Radeon 9500 non-Pro, selling for $130. If your motherboard does not have an AGP slot, you’re out of luck as far as videocard upgrades go.
Not to hijack, or at the very least support a hijack, but why not get the MX? Isn’t it a decent performing card for the $$'s spent? I do not have one but I am needing a new card sometime in the near future.
Geforce MX cards do not feature any of the hardware features critical to run new games (Even the Geforce4MX is essentially a Geforce2), and are also very slow. No Geforce MX card will be able to run Doom 3 playably, for example. You can look at the “What videocard should I buy?” polls in IMHO, but essentially you’d be well off to just forget about MX cards as an option and consider either an ATI Radeon 9100 or a nVidia Geforce FX 5200. The Radeon 9100 is faster, but the Geforce FX 5200 has full DirectX9 support. If you enjoy playing graphically demanding games at decent detail levels, you’ll need at least a Radeon 9500 non-Pro, or a Geforce FX 5600.
Ditto what Alereon said. The MX’s are the touch of death if you want to play video games more complicated than, say, Quake II.
Well I phoned Packard Bell, and at least I do have an AGP slot. The game claims that it will work on the MX4200, buttaking on board what has been said I’m going to look at getting one of the FX ones or a Radeon instead.
I have looked around and come across the following card
128M Abit Siluro FX5200DT TV/DVI
for £58. Does anyone know anything about this card and if it is good value/ good performance etc?
Personally I have had a Radeon 9000 for a while now… I got it for only $100, and I have been very happy with it.
Is this just an obversation or is there a basis for this? I;ve just upgraded from a GeForce 2 GTS to to a GeForce4 MX 4400. Are you telling me that these are basically the same card and there will be no appreciable difference in speed?
Is this just an obversation or is there a basis for this? I;ve just upgraded from a GeForce 2 GTS to to a GeForce4 MX 4400. Are you telling me that these are basically the same card and there will be no appreciable difference in speed?
You are not going to like this bryanmaguire. Check this out, an early review of the GeForce 4 series of cards when they first hit the market. Notice the GR4MX4400 loses to the GF2 ti in the games Giants and Aquanox but the MX wins in Max Payne and Quake3. The MX also did better at 3DMark2001 and does FSAA better. So overall, your new card is better, but very marginally so.
bryanmaguire: There are no appreciable differences in GPU design or features between the Geforce2 and the Geforce4 MX, hence why their performance is very similar. They are both DirectX7-level cards, meaning they have no pixel or vertex shaders. The Geforce3 is DirectX8.0, the Geforce4 is DirectX8.1, and the Geforce FX is DirectX9. When you take a Geforce4 and chop out the pixel and vertex shaders, what you’re left with is essentially a Geforce2. In general, the Geforce4 MX440 is roughly the speed of a Geforce2 Titanium card. The GF4 MX420 is somewhat slower than the GF2Ti, and the GF4MX460 is somewhat faster.
Carl_A_Norris: The Geforce FX 5200 is not a very fast card. It DOES feature full DirectX9 support, but as far as framerates you achieve, it scores on par with Geforce4 MX cards. I would suggest you go for at least a Radeon 9500 non-Pro, which features full DirectX9 support and is rather fast. It costs around $130 USD.