An nVidia 9600GT card will probably give you more bang for the buck. Or an nVidia 8800GT. Really you can go all the way to a Radeon 3450 or nVidia 8600GT if you're not picky.

 

Define "cheap." My Radeon HD3850 cost $180, and that's marked up due to my buying the AGP version.

Go to Newegg and browse around. You'll get better deals from them than you will on eBay.

 

Image will look fine regardless, depending on resolution (i.e. size of screen projected onto screen). It's performance that matters, especially frames per second because if that's low, expect a lot of glitches and hangups.

 

The 8600 is pretty old, and not ideal for Team Fortress 2.

What are your computer's specs? Processor speed, RAM total, AGP or PCI, that kind of thing. Also your budget.

 

You can find it cheap and though not ideal, again it's cheap.

 

It would be alright if you want to set all the display properties in game to medium-low. If you're just aiming to play the game, it's fine. If you want nice resolution and framerates, I'd go with a 9600GT and 3850. If you want to splurge a bit, you could go with the 8800GT. It's possibly the best value card out there. I have two in SLI.

 

I'd upgrade that first.

 

It probably was on low or medium settings. Games are definitely playable on an 8600GT but they won't be ideal.

 

Haha, just be happy I'm not charging you consultant fees. :lol:

 

ouch...sorry about that celery processor...

 

you better fill out those mail in rebates....i hate MIR's so much :(

card's pretty good, it will do what you want it to I'm sure...

 

Nope. For starters, it uses a PCI-Express slot, which is something your current computer lacks--it's too old to have one, as it's a relatively new invention.

And second, your processor and RAM simply cannot handle the game even if you got a new video card.

To run TF2, you need a new computer outright. A decent self-built system will run you about $800.

 

go here and tell us what it says...i figured you knew your mobo could take pci-e and pc26400 ram

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest

 

Check out earlier in the thread. He's running an old-model Celeron and less than 1 GB of what is very likely DDR1 RAM.

It ain't happening.

 

It's an absolute no-go.