game says i need a graphics card that supports pixel shaders v 1.1

im having a problem on this pc i have gotten for my son. all his games play, but when he goes to play his legos star wars 2 game it throws up an error on his screen saying the it needs a graphics card which supports pixel shaders v1.1. can anyone tell me what the deal is? this game plays fine on any of our other pc's and our laptop. this is an older dell dimension xps t 600 with a pentium 3, it has been upgraded to xp. is the graphics card just too old? any help would be appreciated. thanks.

 

It sounds like the graphics card is just outdated. To get a card that supports Pixel shader 1.1 you will need a GeForce4 Ti/Radeon 8500 or above. At the very bottom of this long list of cards available to you, you can probably pick one up for under $20 and you will be able to play the game. It probably won't do you much for more modern games and applications but if LEGO Star Wars is where you'd be hanging around for a bit you will be ok until you need to move onto a newer computer. Keep in mind that you have to make sure your motherboard supports the upgrade. Your current graphics chip could be built in, but just make sure you have an AGP slot on the board, which is usually a brown slot above the white/tan ones. If your computer has this, you can upgrade to an AGP based graphics card, just stay away from the newer PCI-express cards as they will not be compatible with your system. I looked up the requirements for the game here is a list of compatible graphics card models:

AGP Slot:


"ATI Radeon 8500/9000/9200 family, ATI Radeon 9500/9600/9700/9800 family, ATI Radeon X300/X600/X700/X800 family, ATI Radeon X1300/X1600/X1800/X1900 family, NVIDIA GeForce3 family, NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti family, NVIDIA GeForce FX family, NVIDIA GeForce 6 family, NVIDIA GeForce 7 family."

 

And counting on your processor, by the time you need a new card, it'll be easier to get a new computer.