I hav intel 915GAV orig Intel Boxed M/B

No Ext PCI x16 card

so naturally GMA900 is the Graphics Card

Painkiller says "ERR:Could not initialize DirectX 9 Renderer "

Why ?

Because it isn't DX9-compatible.

It doesn't have hardware support for DX9.

Though, I play PainKiller on my old GF4 4200 card and it doesn't complain...

That is strange...

is dx9.0c installed ?

if yes, try increasing vram...

Ya i hav XP MCE 05 with all updates

intel says it is DirectX 9c complaint

and DxDiag shows DDK version 9

i hav 1GB ram and 256 MB of it is shared for the graphics card

my frnd hav a Intel Extreme2 onboard Graphics --same err

another with nVdia GForce MX 400 --No err

so isn't about "onboard " graphics ?

well - possibly not ALL on-board graphic chipsets, but the "Intel Extreme 2" (and 3 too i guess) is notorious for not being able to play the vast majority of DX9 dependant games (and even older DX 8 compliant ones).

In short - unless the onboard graphics chipset is based on something like a nvidia or ati style, i.e. where that are specifically for games (nvidia MX 400 onboard - old one but show my point here) then they arent gonna be any good for any sort of standard gaming - unless you're playing real old games

Hope that makes sense.

Best bet if you dont have any/much money is to try and get a budget-style graphics card that is Directx 9 compliant

Regards & HTH,

Nath.

i hav a PCIe x16 slot in m/b

which will be thebest cost effective PCIe card to buy ==> to get max juice out of min $$

im not sure about the costs,

but the nvidia 6600gt is one of the best bang-for-the-buck cards right now...

i wouldve recommended a radeon 9600xt or a 9800pro, but they dont make em in pcie slots...

best bet would if youre an ati fan would be a x600...x300 is s***...

Innocent - take a look at this:

http://shop.ati.com/searchresults.asp?dept_id=39

RADEON® X800 PRO PCIE 256MB - REFURB with 3yr Warranty

That sounds really good to me lol

Cheers

N.