Will my computer run Fallout 3?
I want to get Fallout 3 for my computer but want to know if it will run it...
I have
--------------------------------------…
Acer Aspire 5516 (Laptop)
Windows Vista Home Basic
AMD Athlon Processor TF-20 1.60GHz
2.00 GB RAM
32-Bit Operating System
I think an ATI Radeon X1200 Video Card
--------------------------------------…
And that's all I know right now
--------------------------------------…
Fallout3's Specifications are
Minimum System Requirements

DirectX
9.0c
Operating System
Windows XP/Vista
Processor
Pentium 4 @ 2.4 GHz or Equivalent
RAM
1 GB (2 GB for Vista)
Video Card
256 MB (nVidia GeForce 6800/ATI Radeon X850)

Recommended System Requirements

DirectX
9.0c or 10
Operating System
Windows XP/Vista
Processor
Intel Core 2 DUO
RAM
2 GB
Video Card
512 MB (nVidia GeForce 8800/ATI 3800 series)



Please tell me if I need to get any upgrades.
Thanks!

Probably, but not very well. I don't see the X1200 on the list of supported video cards, but the X1300 is second from last. Maybe if if you turn everything right down you might end up with sluggish gameplay, but that's about it. I wouldn't bother myself, it will look like crap and perform poorly.

Do you know how much an upgrade would cost?

You can't upgrade the video card of a laptop, you'll need to buy a new machine. The video cards in those types of computers are integrated into the motherboard and can't be replaced.

Integrated graphic card will not run Fallout 3. Desktop graphic card is better than on mobile. even they are same specs...

I may have a tower around somewhere...

For everyone's information, TTBOMK, the Xpress1200 chip built into the AMD chipset for that laptop is essentially an X300, which had previously been the Radeon 9600, back in 2003, seven years ago. It had the pixel shader SM-2 version from Dx9.0"a", and no SM-3 at all. Only the High End from the Xn00 generation had the opening notch of SM-3, from Dx9.0"b" (X700, X800, X850). None of the prior year cards, not even the 9800, had pixel shader Sm-3, so none will work for Dragon Age, or for either recent Fallout game (I haven't heard of anyone running F: NV on an X800 / X850, & that generation wasn't named, that I know of, as being supported. There were Xpress200, Xpress1100, & Xpress1150 chips as well that are also related to that Radeon 9600 through its X300 connection.

Performancewise, none are quite as good as the very low performance X300, and although the Xpress200 is the oldest of them, the Xpress1100 and 1150 are both lower powered than the 200. I think I will visit Notebookcheck.Net ( http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Radeon-HD-3100.20165.0.html )

AFAIK, the X1270 differed from the Xpress1200/1250, being functionally related to the newer X1300 cards, but I'm not certain where the break was between the 1270 and the next chip series, that was based on the HD 2400 card. I don't pay a lot of attention to either laptops or to onboard video chips. {Edited: I didn't find any AMD onboard chip with SM-3 pixel shaders prior to the HD 3100 (same core as the HD 2400). }

Easy way to find out.. check this link: http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/

That is not at all an accurate way to determine is your system can run a game, you really need to take what they say with a grain of salt. They're quite often very wrong. The best way is simply to know what your equipment is and compare it to what a game requires. Almost every game has a list posted somewhere of system requirements, and if your system doesn't match that list then simply presume that you can't run the game. You don't need some inaccurate third party software telling you if you can run a game or not, you should be able to figure that out for yourself.

well you can give it a shot but personally i doubt that you can, and really if you can it will be in low settings.