Why do brand new computers come with such weak video cards?

[Lead Cenobite]

I'm not a huge expert on computers, I've had a few but I never really customized them or anything like that. But I'm a gamer and I have a few that barely work at all on a computer I've only had for maybe a year or less. And these are games that were released nearly a decade ago. I understand there's computers that are specialized for gaming and all that, but why don't these powerful video cards ever drop in price and become standard features? I understand the card I have can barely even support 3d. To me, that's ridiculous for a new computer in this day and age, as long as 3d has been around.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

A casual gamer card is between $150 and $200, a serious gamer card is $300 / $500. That is why.

 

[Lead Cenobite]

I know what they cost. My question is why would any new computer come with a video card that can't run a decade old game?

 

[Kane52630]

If you can't run old games it's usually because you have a 64bit computer. As for computers that come with a weak video card, it is because more than likely you got a non-gaming computer.

 

[Teelie]

Or your graphics card is integrated and shares resources with the CPU as opposed to having its own dedicated resources. A decent graphics card can be had for less than $100. One that can play games from 3-5 years ago shouldn't be expensive and as Monisuer said a casual card isn't all that much more.

It's also likely that your computer is just too new. I've had this problem myself with any game pre-Win 2000 (95/98-SE/ME) will have trouble running. Even some that would run on 2000 don't play right. And this is with Win XP.

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

It's common to use an integrated or low end graphics card in computers to keep the overall retail cost down.

As previously said, it is also a fact that Windows Operating Systems have changed so much that the old games just cannot run. This is especially true of DOS based games from the '80s.

This is where DosBox can be really useful. Or if you are running Windows 7 Ultimate, set up a virtual PC running Windows 98, if you own the CD of course.
You can also download Windows XP virtual pc from Microsoft for free, but again you do need to be running Windows 7 Ultimate to use it.