Need to upgrade my computer to play Ship Simulator

[TullyK]

Hi, I'm new to these forums so if I've posted this question in the wrong area please forgive me.

The computer I have is the rather poor Dell Dimension 3100, i usually use my ps3 for gaming but I want to play ship simulator and it is only on PC. I downloaded the demo and it ran at 4-6 fps and some of the graphics did not appear (such as the sea!)I have run cpuz and it says 1024mb ram, 2.7 ghz and give no information for graphics that i can find. (sims 2 runs fine). No idea of graphics card I'm afraid.

What would I need to do to be able to play the full version of ship sim 2008, how much would it cost, and do I need to replace my current graphics card or can a new one work alongside?

Here are the system requirements of ship sim 2008

Hardware Requirements

* Microsoft® Windows 2000®, XP® or Vista® Microsoft® Windows 2000®, XP® or Vista®
* 2.4 Ghz Intel® Pentium® IV or AMD® processor 2.4 Ghz Intel® Pentium® IV or AMD® processor
* 1 GB RAM (XP), 2 GB RAM (Vista) 1 GB RAM (XP), 2 GB RAM (Vista)
* 4x CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive 4x CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive
* 500 MB free hard disk space 1GB of free Harddisk space
* NVIDIA® GeForce 5900 or ATI® 9600 Pro / X600, 128MB memory NVIDIA® GeForce 5900 or ATI® 9600 Pro / X600, 128MB memory
* DirectX® 9.0 compatible sound card DirectX® 9.0 compatible sound card


I would also like to play the 2010 version of the game when it comes out which may be more demanding.

Thank you very much for any help and all advice is very welcome.

 

[The Chad]

From what I found, your computer has a intergrated graphics card. A Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900. You have, from my source, 256Mb of RAM, with 128Mb ready to be used for graphics.

You have one PCI-e x1 graphics slot avaible for an upgrade. I read somewhere that the ATI X1550 can be used by the Dell Dimension 3100 without upgrading the PSU or anything. I'm not sure about this one but check it out too, 3DFuzion GeForce 6200 Google that one and see what you think.