How well will this card run GW?

GeForce FX 5500 AGP 8x/4x 256 MB DDR

It seems to be way above even the recommended requirements but my guildies told me it would only be mediocre at best?

I don't understand.

It will work fine, most high settings btw

It will run well with highest settings?

See that's not what I've been told.

The PC specs are good too.
3 GHZ, 512 MB ram.

I have connected to GW at a family member's house whose computer is worse than yours with basically the same video card and it runs GW fine. 1024*768, max details, no AA and the game runs fine.. no lag except for maybe in sections with huge fight's..

As long as you only have GW run and don't mind not running with AA... you should have no problem with running GW at amx settings - about the only setting you might need to drop is shadow's.

with AA? what's that?

Anti-Aliasing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aliasing).
It makes images smoother, but we lived without it for quite some time : always a plus, but you won't miss out too much (and you need a serious card upgrade to run AA without lowering your settings)

I ran that card for a couple years, worked fine oced it for a lil more performance and must say its fine for Gw.

What about a Ati Radeon x300? I think its 64 mbs. i read somewhere that it will work, but i want to make sure. Also, what settings would it work on? (If it works)

I used to have the x300 (128mb) and it ran GW with all settings maxed at 1280*1024. It really that intensive of a game, graphics-wise...

If it's an x300se then you're going to have to turn some stuff down, an x300 vanilla should be able to handle 10x7 pretty well.

Good cause i just got the money to buy the game.

Im running a Nvidia Geforce 5200 FX, at MAX settings, never have problems.... no OC or any of that shit

mines only 128 mb, 256 can handle more also..

Listen to your guildies. Dont get an FX card unless you hate yourself. I sure hated myself after I got mine last year.

Sometimes advertising can be misleading- yes 256mb, but if the bus size is only 64bit then you wont really USE the memory.

ill tell you from experience DO NOT GET a 5xxx FX card!!!!!!!! ya they are cheap, but there are much better cards out there for about the same price.

if you are looking for a good agp card, go with the x800xt, x1600, x1800 (for ATI- I realize you might want NVida tho....?)

i got a 5200FX, and it did not run very well at all - FPS was still slow, shading was horrible.... TRUST ME MAN DONT DO IT!!!!

Keep your 64mb card for now. You can get a mediocre 75 dollar card, or a guildwar killing 100 dollar card.... do i really need to convince you any other way?

When you buy a new card-

1.Make sure the AGP bus size is 128bit or bigger (for bigger mb cards..)
2.Ask about it on these forums.... OR (dont flame me now) if you really want some good help, go to the ELDER SCROLLS FORUMS- Oblivion is way deeper into the video card race- and the techies on that forum will tell you the real deal on this stuff.

On a side note:
Like I said, I was running a 5200fx - my new x1600pro makes this game absolutely beautiful, and when I say i run at max settings, i really do mean it now.

The x1600pro is also a little less power hungry than some of its running mates. My old powersource was only 160W and I didnt have a problem when i installed it.

GeForce 2 MX 400 ran it on MAX, so your card will run Guild Wars fine.

itll look nice, but the framerate will be choppy. Im just saying from my own experience with the FX card.

GW + fx5500 on
High shaders
High shadows
4x AA
high textures
high terrain

= 10 or 11 fps... miserable!!!
but thats just me on agp4x

(at lowerst settings it goes 30fps)