Any help here would be appreciated

I'm planning on buying a graphics card for my pc (only have integrated graphics right now) but I don't really know much about graphics cards so I was hoping you guys could help me pick out a nice one. I'm going to get a job soon so I have enough money for Live 2004 and a graphics card. For once, I'd like to run the game at it's highest detail and smoothly so I'm willing to spend considerable money on this. My system info., to the best of my knowledge is:

2 GHz
128 MB
Windows XP
CD/DVD rom drive

I'm planning on buying a graphics card for my pc (only have integrated graphics right now) but I don't really know much about graphics cards so I was hoping you guys could help me pick out a nice one. I'm going to get a job soon so I have enough money for Live 2004 and a graphics card. For once, I'd like to run the game at it's highest detail and smoothly so I'm willing to spend considerable money on this. My system info., to the best of my knowledge is:

2 GHz
128 MB
Windows XP
CD/DVD rom drive

Is your computer an Intel or AMD?..
what motherboard?

Let me start by saying that this game is VERY difficult to run at max details regardless what graphics card you have. I have yet to find anybody with a computer that can claim to run this game with MAX details at 1024x768 constantly at 60+ fps on anything short of the top of the line graphics card. Evidence points to poor programming on EA's part.

With that said, if you are willing to spend "considerable" amount of money on a graphics card, then there is no competition here: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256 megs or the GeforceFX 5900 Ultra. Overall the fastest graphics cards available. I would personally pick the ATI over the Geforce.

If for some reason you don't have $499 US to spend on a card (not many of us do )..here are my rankings for the next best choices:

1. Radeon 9700 pro
2. Radeon 9700 non-pro
3. Radeon 9500 pro (discontinued and hard to find but faster than 4 and 5)
4. Nvidia GeforceFX 5600 Ultra
5. Radeon 9600 pro

I am not an ATI fanboy, but hands down their cards are better for the moment. I highly recommend these first 3 options if you don't have enough money for the 9800 pro.

You should try to buy some RAM memory too... 128 mb is too little for Live 2004.

Thanks! I had also looked at the Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB but I was wondering what exactly is the difference between the 128MB and the 256MB? As for the money part, I figure that I'm going to be working for while so I might as well work a few more shifts to get the best card out there. I think that the Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB is listed as about $410 US. Also, Tales, how much memory do you think would be good for Live 2004?

Thanks! I had also looked at the Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB but I was wondering what exactly is the difference between the 128MB and the 256MB? As for the money part, I figure that I'm going to be working for while so I might as well work a few more shifts to get the best card out there. I think that the Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB is listed as about $410 US. Also, Tales, how much memory do you think would be good for Live 2004?

There are really only two differences between the 256meg version and the 128 version. The first is the obvious difference of double the amount of memory. This serves very little to no purpose as of right now, but when new games come out (half life 2..doom3) they may require more memory for large textures. If you want to be future-proof longer, than get the 256 version. For NBA Live 2003, 128 is good enough. Don't know about 2004 though.

The second difference is that the 256 version uses DDRII memory instead of regular DDR memory, and the memory is running 10mhz faster. Again, very little difference in performance of using DDRII memory as of right now in today's games.

IMHO, you should go and buy the 9700pro, and use whatever remaining money to get a faster CPU. Even this card will be an overkill for the CPU clock speed you're running at. It requires something in the range of at least a 2.5Ghz and up to truly see the potential of this card, nevermind a 9800pro. NBA Live 2003 is a very CPU-bound game, which means that even if you have the fastest graphics card available, your CPU is the main bottleneck.

Thanks bishibashiboy! One more question, what place would you recommend to me for increasing the speed for my computer? I live in the US and the only place I know of is Best Buy. I have a dell PC, not quite sure what series though! Thanks again!

I actually have 256MB of memory not 128MB. Sorry for the misinformation!

Thanks bishibashiboy! One more question, what place would you recommend to me for increasing the speed for my computer? I live in the US and the only place I know of is Best Buy. I have a dell PC, not quite sure what series though! Thanks again!

no probs!
As for where to buy it, I don't know of any good places. I live in Vancouver, BC and here, we have really crappy "big" computer stores. I always buy from little junkie computer shops which assemble PC's and allow you to choose the parts for them. You can try to check one of these places out. They normally have more competitive prices than the bigger guys and they allow you to customize your system.
If you need any help on which parts to choose, I'll help you out.
I just picked out the parts for my dad's new Pentium 4, so I'm pretty up to date now with the stuff that's out.

But just a word of warning. If you intend on upgrading your cpu, you'll have to change your motherboard and ram as well if you want the best performance possible. This will not be cheap!

If you want a "door-stop" solution for the time being, just upgrade to a good graphics card first, and slowly upgrade the rest of your system. An ATI Radeon 9700 pro and up should last you for another year at least.

All right! Thanks so much!