I am geting a new desktop and I was wondering if fallout 3 game of the year edition will work on it, it is a Gateway 310,
and the best graphics card I have is a ATI radeon x1300 will run it, so please help.

The X1300 was slow when it was new, and couldn't play Oblivion correctly five years ago. This is the same engine, upgraded, not DOWN graded. Whatever CPU you have, if also five years old, is almost certainly equally unusable. Looking up the 310 number, I see many OLD PCs, all at least six years old, with the AGP video bus, and the Intel Celeron model processor. This does not look at all promising.

Minimum System Requirements:

* Windows XP/Vista
* 1GB System RAM (XP)/ 2GB System RAM (Vista)
* 2.4 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
* Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 256MB RAM
(NVIDIA 6800 "GS" or better/ ATI X850 or better)
{Added my note here, the X800 Pro & up also, and
avoid the Geforce 6800 SE, and 6800 XT}

An X850 is MILES above the performance of any X1300, even the renamed X1600 that became the X1300 XT. Both cards, though, are now over five years old, and totally obsolete. The desktop versions can not be purchased new any longer, and no reputable manufacturer should still be using either one (then again, it's Acer that owns Gateway now, so you are planning tp buy a USED computer that's is already obsolete?).

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=349&card2=54

I looked it up and it says that the ati mobility radeon x1300 pro will work and I am just making sure it will.

It will work. Just don't expect the greatest settings....think low. The money spent on that Gateway can probably be spent better spent elsewhere, How much is that costing you?

Do you think I should get a DELL insted?

Dell sells some junk, same as Acer does; in order to obtain a game-capable system, however, you simply cannot pick from the cheapest two or three things that are offered at any thrift shop, which is what I am betting must have been the case for the particular Gateway you asked about. Based on the specifications, revealing the 310 to have been a 2004 model PC, however, the 310 seems to predate the purchase of Gateway by Acer.

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Would a PNY GeForce 8400 GS 512 MB PCI Video Graphics Card work?

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=448&card2=529

Let's be more clear right here, please. The PC you asked about, the elderly Gateway, has been identified on the Gateway support site as having been a 2004 model with the old AGP video bus (and may also have only had a Celeron Processor instead of a full-power CPU). That Geforce 8400 GS, whether it was game-capable or not, is strictly a PCIe graphics card, not AGP, and the two interfaces are not at all interchangeable.

Therefore, either we are not discussing upgrades for a any proposed Gateway PC purchase, or this question is a waste of time (of course, the answer already exists, since I didn't take the precaution of looking the model number up until after the fact).

It is not sufficiently better than the X1300 to consider, and only a year newer, so still quite obsolete, save for the better count of shader processors than the X1300 had, so it will still be slow, just better looking while being slow. Gaming cards have a "600" in their names for Radeons and older model Geforces. Newer model Geforces have a "50" to show that they are for games (except for one, the GT240 that has GDDR5 RAM).

You want an HD 5670, at least, or a GTS450. If you are shopping among seconds and refurbished old models, the HD 4670 from two years ago was good, ad the HD 3850 from three years ago was very good at the time (although it will need a very good power supply to match it). Similar cards from the other camp have been that GT240 already named, and the Geforce 9600 GT. I cannot recommend any graphics cards, for current purchase, any more out of date than those, and I skipped the HD 3650 from three years ago as not having held up with the onrush of increased game demands.

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=579&card2=619

(This presumes a different PC is involved than any Gateway 310.)

No and don't bother.

Again, how much are you looking to spend on a PC? If you want a suggestion, state the budget.

Let us know what you need other than the PC tower too. Things like monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc....these can affect the price.

I have everything but the destop, anyways I am geting destop for free at my job so I just want to know what would be best for fallout 3 g.o.t.y edition.

The only thing you started out saying was whether the Gateway would "work", not how well it would do so. Now you say you want what is best for F3, and that is easy, beat the Recommended level:

For $800 at Newegg, there is this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227291

Recommended System Requirements:

* Windows XP/Vista
* Intel Core 2 Duo processor (or the equivalent AMD Phenom)
* 2 GB System RAM
* Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512MB RAM
(NVIDIA 8800 series, ATI 3800 series)
* 4.6 GBs of free hard drive space

To the High End of these, add a few:

-Supported Video Card Chipsets:
ATI HD 4800 series + HD 5800 + HD 6800 + HD 6900
ATI HD 4600 series
ATI HD 3800 series
ATI HD 3600 series
ATI HD 2900 series
ATI HD 2600 series
ATI X1900 series
ATI X1800 series
ATI X1600 series
ATI X850 series

NVIDIA GeForce 200 series (not including 210, 220, 230, or 240 for "best") + 460, 470, 480, and 580
NVIDIA Geforce 9800 series
NVIDIA Geforce 9600 series
NVIDIA Geforce 8800 series
NVIDIA Geforce 8600 series
NVIDIA Geforce 8500 series
NVIDIA Geforce 7900 series
NVIDIA Geforce 7800 series
NVIDIA Geforce 7600 series
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series

would a XFX ATI Radeon HD 4570 650MHz 1 GB DDR2 DVI PCI-E 2.0 work because I found one for a good price?

Let's define "work", shall we? That was where you started with the Gateway and its antiquated X1300 graphics, but later in the thread you used a different word with far different implications. The HD 4570 is below the game requirements, again. Very often, the cost per frame rate per dollar is much higher in the lower ranges where everything you ever name always sits.

I have already told you to ignore any Radeon numbered below 600, and already gave you the entire list. There was no HD 4500 there, although I lined out the HD 4600 because you were momentarily talking about much higher performance than Mainline cards offer.

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I am sorry but I ment the 4750.

The HD 4770 was sitting at the top of the Mainline, medium range two years ago, and is still a good Mainline card today, if that is what you want (but GPU Review doesn't list any "4750" for a desktop PC that I could find). The game developers tend to have two categories they are interested in being sure run the game well enough. If your card meets their minumum, it should run at a good speed of at least 35 - 45 FPS, in Medium resolutions, with the image quality on "Low". At the gamer's discretion, a lower resolution or a slower animation rate can be chosen to obtain higher image quality settings.

The game has not been designed around the idea of Low animation speed, low image quality and low resolution all at the same time, but there are people willing to accept some serious compromises to avoid buying a good graphics card.

My immediately prior discussion was for the RECOMMENDED requirements, which typically are based once again on Medium Resolutions, but this time, with high frame rates in the 50 - 70 FPS ranges, and with image quality settings mixed about half and half between Medium and High.

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=612&card2=301

I just found a ati hd 4850 for a good price and you said that the 4800 would work so should I get that?

The HD 4850 is an excellent video card (I have one), that performs very well. It is a true High End card from two years ago that still stands up well over that time span. High end cards always come with a "Gotcha" because the standard OEM power supplies in the ready made branded PCs aren't strong enough to handle them, so there is a two-part cost involved. First, the card itself, then a quality 500 watt power supply to replace the stock one.

THANK YOU very much I will get that card.

Define a good price. The Radeon 5750 is basically the replacement for that card. And then there's the Radeon 5770 that is better than that card. Should be doing a price comparison with those cards.

Furthermore, you need to be wary of power supply requirements. Very rarely do PCs from Gateway come with a power supply adequate enough for cards like these.

It cost about $95.00 and it is a xfx brand.

The Toms Hardware Bang for a Buck for January was a tie between the GTS 250 and the HD 4850.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-radeon-hd-6870-radeon-hd-6850,2782-2.html

It say that fallout 3 needs a 2.4 ghz proccessor would a AMD Phenom X4 9600 2.3 GHz quadcore work?

The game engine that Fallout 3 was created in is ancient, as such things go. It has very low, very generous requirements. A single core Pentium P4 was still considered useful back when this old antique game engine was being developed, and the Phenom runs circles around that, whether twin core, tri-core, or quad-core (and same for any C2D other than the atrociously bad Celeron Core and Pentium Dual), so don't worry about the X4 9600!

Nevertheless, you certainly should share with us more of the details about your proposed purchase, instead of concentrating on just one aspect at a time. It is the total package that will have to play the game, this one or any game. Your questions make us anticipate the potential of your making some purchase that just won't be suitable, in spite of the accumulated information assembled here in your message thread. For instance, I shudder when the idea comes to me, but you are the one who started out talking about buying an old clunk of a computer, but a Phenom needs an AM-2 or AM-3 socket, and matching chipset.

You can't buy one by itself and expect it to fit just any AMD-based motherboard. Just since moving from 32-bit to 64-bit CPUs, the s939 socket has come and gone, and while AM-2 and AM-3 are compatible back and forth, the AM-3 won't reach its potential without an AM-3 chipset, and if headed the other way, an AM-2 CPU can't take advantage of all of the functionality in an AM-3 motherboard..

2.4GHz Pentium 4....the Phenom processors...even the old ones...are far more efficient clock-for-clock.

Remember, frequency only matters when talking about the same line/model of processors.


BTW, is this PC of yours a slimline model? I can't really find much details on it

I do not get the sense that any "tower" has been purchased so far. I did (finally) get around to looking up the very opening message's subject line Gateway, and there were a lot of them, back in 2004, with AGP, and Celeron CPUs. (And see also http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/R/1015005R/1015005Rsp3.shtml )