PCI graphics card advice

talla

A friend of mine bought a dell 2450 about a month ago and he was looking to get a new graphics card. problem is the 2450 has no AGP slot. Has anyone any advice on what pci graphics card he could get? The only one i've found that may be able to just run any new games might be the Radeon 9200 series here on komplett. Has anyone got any other sites?? Which PCI graphics card would be the best option to try and salvage something out a bad situation?? Will any of them support directx9?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

tman

the best you can get at the moment is a vanilla radeon 9200 (stay away from the se's)
tbh, your mate is proper ****ed if he wants to play the latest games.

the pci graphics card market barely seems to move. this time a year ago, i had to buy one. at the time, the raddy 9000 was the best available option

talla

Cheers Tman, know a link of any online retailer that sells this vanilla radeon??

I think I might suggest to him getting a new case and motherboard and salvaging the rest of the components from the PC (cant see him being too impressed with that after only one month) due to dell not using standard cases/motherboards and power supplies. Does anyone know if there will be any issues using the CPU on another motherboard?

Cheers
Talla

RicardoSmith

Basically hes bought the wrong PC. Either Dell gave him the wrong information or he just the cheapest one he could find. The 2450 are Office PC not intended for gaming. If used for that they are fine machine at a nice price.

The 9200 (based on a 8500 I think) is the best he can get. Not sure how this compares with a Fx5200, but I'd reckon the 9200 is faster. Below are links to the Radeon VE which is based on a older 7500 card. The 9200 will be better but it will struggle with newer titles.

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDE4
http://www.explosivelabs.com/reviews/aiwve/
http://www.gamepyre.com/reviewsd.html?aid=67&p=1

But if he wants to play games he needs a different PC. Unless he wants to rebuild his PC into another case. Thats something I'd suggest someone who didn't know thery needed an AGP card/slot shouldn't do.

Can he not get back on to Dell and argue they sold him the worng PC? He might get a refund, and be able to change it for a better model with an AGP slot and card. a 9800pro is only €100 as an option.

tman

this is the one i'd go for anyway...

its not really worth splashing out the extra on the 256mb powercolor one

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by tman
this is the one i'd go for anyway...

its not really worth splashing out the extra on the 256mb powercolor one

Yeah he right you know.

Heres a review that confirms it the 9200 is better than the 9200se and the fx5200.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/radeon/sapphire-4.html?11970

talla

Cheers lads.

Töpher

Just looking at that, (I'm stuck with an old Dell with no AGP, no cash to buld new machine, yet!), would that offer significant performance increase over a GeForce Mx440, I can pull about 60fps in CS1.6, would I be able to up that to something like 80 or so with the 9200?

RicardoSmith

Heres another thread on it

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17199662

and another review article.
http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=445&pid=1590

Though this one doesn't have the 9200 only the 9200se which is slower. So not that.

60fps in CS1.6, or 80fps - would you notice the difference?

RicardoSmith

Incidentally those 2450 seem a decent deal once you are not doing much gaming on them.

Töpher

Its 60 fps max, usually about 40, 7fps once theres a smoke grenade anywhere on the screen! Now that is noticable! hehe!

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Einstürzende
Its 60 fps max, usually about 40, 7fps once theres a smoke grenade anywhere on the screen! Now that is noticable! hehe!

I see now. Well the 9100 looks like its the one to go for.

Töpher

Could be worth more than a new monitor, I think I will look into that now. Thanking ya.