Need recommendation on video card

[lindanell]

Actually, I have been unable to play ZT2 with my current video card (Sapphire's ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Atlantis) and have tried just about everything ... and had given up.  Then, last night the card bit the dust ... or crashed and burned is more to the point.  The fan broke free and the acrid smell of the melting parts was awful.

Now I am on a search for a new card.  Can't pay a fortune ... maybe around $150 or so ... and would like your recommendations of what is working for you.  Afraid it has to be AGP 4X/8X ... no PCIx on MB.  I really would love to play this game I have owned for months now.  By the way, RCT3 used to play fine on the now dead card.

Also, card needs DVI to support my 19" flatpanel monitor.   System is an ASUS MB w/Athlon XP 3000 CPU and 1 GB of memory.  I built this system in July, 2005 and (except for ZT2) it has worked great until now.

Thanks ahead of time for your suggestions.  Hope this is the right place on the forum to post this.  Let me know if it is not (and where I should post it, please).

LindaNell

[Penguino]

Welcome to Zoo Admin, Lindanell.

Moving to ZT2 Tech Support.

[alin90210]

This link might be useful:  http://users.erols.com/chare/video.htm
There's technical data on nearly all the 3d chipsets out there, as well as his own subjective ranking of nearly all the chipsets.

You can then check out online stores as to what the prices are.  I don't think there's that much selection for AGP cards these days, especially one that is acceptable with ZT2 and in your price range, so that should make your life easier.

I use an ATI-built 9600XT AGP 128MB with a P4 2.8G on a FSB800 w/1G DDR400.  Running 1024x768x32 and assuming a fully packed and populated medium size zoo (about 120 guests and 120 animals), I have to use Medium detail to have acceptable frame rates.  Definitely no anti-aliasing.  Also, "acceptable frame rate" is a relative term.  I'm talking about 10 to 20fps assuming a typical line of sight, definitely not playable in terms of first-person shooters or racing sims, but ok for this game.  If I take a line of sight that has a very long and broad view of a medium size and fully packed zoo (like standing on a hill or bridge overlooking the entire zoo), it goes down to like 4fps.  I haven't built a fully packed large zoo yet, so I don't know how bad that's going to be (the processor might start to limit as well).  If I use anti-aliasing and High detail level, the game will always crash within a couple of minutes of walking around in a medium sized fully packed zoo, not to mention the frame rate is down to like 1/4fps.

My recommendation is to definitely get something equal or better than a ATI-built 9600XT if you want to enjoy the game with at least medium detail.