PCI game card for eMachines T5010?

[csfour1950]

Can anyone recommend a good PCI card, I can't use PCI-Express cards and have been limping along with the installed Intel Graphics Media Accel. 900 card.

Something that would be reasonable for playing Second Life.

My Machine is: eMachines T5010, Pentium 4 516, 2.93Ghz 1MB L2 533Mhz FSB, 1.5GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM, 200GB 7200rpm SATA hard drive, Windows XP Home Edition, 10/100 Ethernet 56k v.92 modem, Intel Graphics Media Accel. 900.

I access the Web thru Time-Warner Cable.

Thanks

[Psymon]

Does the motherboard have no AGP port?
If it does then you have a much better choise than if you're stuck with a plain PCI slot for the GPU.

According to the second life website for recomended spec:
Video/Graphics Card
* nVidia GeForce FX 5600, GeForce 6600, or better
* OR ATI Radeon 9600, X600, or better

If all you've got is a PCI slot then the best you can do is nVidia 6200 or ATI 9250 which are pretty poor cards. The ATI 9250 is mentioned in the minimum specs. I think the best card to get is the 6200. You aren't going to be impressed with it however. If you want anything better than I'm afraid you'll need a new computer.

If it does have an AGP port then maybe look for a 6600GT or a plain 6800. If you have a bit more money to blow go for a 6800GS. But only do that if you intend to get games other than second life that are fairly new.

[Dave_Lethal]

I have an ATI Radeon 9200 and Second Life runs pretty nicely with it. You can get a better ATI for around 100 bucks now though. But I hear NVidia runs much better with Second Life, so it's really a personal prefrence.