My newest computer (an HP) came with SiS Mirage2 integrated graphics (up to 128MB). Personally I thought the quality was fine when playing "basic" games which do not have intense graphics. However, for action-based games, watching DVDs, etc, I found the quality to be "acceptable," but noticably choppy and grainy. Thus, I bought a VisionTek Xtasy Radeon 9550 (128MB AGP 8x) graphics card from Best Buy. While it's only an "average" graphics card, the added clarity and increased frame rates were well worth the $48 (was on sale at half-price) I spent.
For a game like Sims 2, it should be fine. While it will look a LOT better than on your old system, there will still be room for improvement, though not readily noticable (SiS is pretty good at simulating a "real" graphics card...better than Intel, IMO). Just remember that integrated graphics use your system resources, so overall performance will be lower than with a graphics card. But, with 1GB of RAM, it shouldn't be that noticable either.
Hope this helps,
John
My wife has been beating me down about getting her a new computer for quite some time now. She is huge SIMS 2 gaming fan, and our old DELL Inspiron w/16MB of video memory and integrated graphics just won't do the trick anymore.
I came across a deal on a compaq/hp computer with an AMD 64 processer, 1GB RAM, and "128 MB integrated video memory." All I could get from the computer's hardware list and from the site is that it is a SIS product. It is also worth noting that there is one 8x AGP slot available.
Does anyone have any insight on whether this integrated video card is going to get the job done for a rather simple game like the SIMS? If it won't, is installing an after-market AGP video card a simple operation? Thanks.
Jon

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