Upgrading graphics card.

glebe

Thinking of upgrading graphics card in pc.

Anyone any ideas what the best card I could get for the pc spec.

Dell 9150
2.8 gigahertz Pentium D
320GB Sata (2x 160GB) hard drive.
1gb of RAM

Current graphics card is Radeon X600 256mb Hypermemory.

Anyone any ideas or is it a waste of time and €€€€€.

DanGerMus

You need to know what kind of Graphics slot is available on the motherboard. PCI express or AGP. PCI express is the newer and the sky's the limit on those. AGP they are still making decent cards for this slot and you pay roughly equivelant prices for the spec say up to €250-300 for the best AGP cards. Anything up to €700 for PCI express. but €200-250 will buy you a very capable card. So you also need to set a budget. I'll check your PC's spec. Also i'm open to corrections on my quoted prices.

I'm pretty sure you have PCI express so you need to set a budget. ATI x1950 are best bang for buck cards and the pro versions go for 200-250. but dont get Sapphires pro version i've had a bad experience with mine as have many. other than that go for a Geforce 8800gts for 300 plus or go crazy and get a high en 8800gtx for 450 plus. the geforce have Direct x 10 compatability which the ATI cards do not have but it really wont make a difference to anyone for a year or so anyway.

TerrorFirmer

It's pci-e. You won't be able to put anything too powerful in there for 2 reasons:

1) Pentium D at that speed will hold back any high end card
2) Dell stock psu isn't rated that high so it wouldn't take anything overly high-end anyway.

Something like a 7600gt will work no problems and will be miles better then your x600 and can handle any current games easily. For anything better you'd need a new processor as well.

You have no need for a budget for anything over about 130-150...

DanGerMus

Yeah sorry i didn't mention cheaper range, losein the run of myself. I'd agree with havok. 8800 would be wasted. i only brought it up to let you know whats out there.

glebe

Cheers guys,

Thanks for the advice

MOH

Didn't want to start yet another thread:-
I've got a Dell Dimension 4700, 3GB RAM PC4200, still got the X300SE it came with.

Looking to upgrade the gfx card without spending too much, since I dunno if I'll get Crysis to run without a new machine. Something to get me through Stalker will do!

Is there any point going beyond a 7600GT / X1650XT? Or should I even go that far?
Am I likely to have any problems fitting one of these (I do have a PCI-e slot)
Any can anyone recommend between the million different variations on these cards?

Bit overwhelmed by the whole choice of gfx cards, so any help welcome.

Thanks.

TerrorFirmer

Looking to upgrade the gfx card without spending too much, since I dunno if I'll get Crysis to run without a new machine. Something to get me through Stalker will do!

Crysis will run if you get a new card but not very well. Stalker, on the other hand, is not hugely cpu intensive and with a good card it will shine on your current system.

Is there any point going beyond a 7600GT / X1650XT? Or should I even go that far?

Am I likely to have any problems fitting one of these (I do have a PCI-e slot)

Not really - your machine won't take anything better due to the limitations of the power supply. A 7600GT or X1650XT would be fine and there would be no problem fitting it either.

What's your budget? The above cards would offer you incomparable performance compared to the X300SE - perhaps as much as 300% for about 150 euro. But even in the 100 euro range, you can find many cards that won't break the bank and will hugely outperform the X300.

70-90 - 7300GT or X1600Pro
90-120 - 7600GS or X1650Pro
130-160 - 7600GT, X1650XT
180 - 7900GS (this might not work on your power supply)

Anything above these cards isn't liable to work either well, or at all. There are other cards available in these prices ranges but these are generally the best of them.

The second hand market is always a good place to go too Adverts.ie currently has an X800 for 70 euro - a good card that performs well at even newer games, and again, will trash the X300 completely.

MOH

Havok,

Thanks a million, that's exactly the kind of advice I was looking for.

Budget's not a huge issue - if it 's an extra 20 or 30 euro between 7600GS/GT or X1650Pro/XT, I'll probably go with the higher option. Just didn't want to waste money going higher tahn that if it was going to involve PSU or other changes.

What's the difference between the 7600GT and X1650XT/ Or is it just an ati/nvidia personal choice thing?

TerrorFirmer

The X1650XT is slightly better but also a bit more expensive. Although if you're aiming to squeeze the best out of your system, it's probably the best route to go, provided the price difference isn't more then about 30-ish euro. 7600GT is still a great buy especially if it can be gotten cheap.

http://www.techspot.com/review/31-radeon-x1650xt-vs-geforce-7600gt/

Q_Ball

sorry to highjack a thread, but i was looking at a geforce 7950gt or x1950xt. Its for my brothers birthday and he has the same pc as the OP. I'm not sure what the rating of the PSU is but what would be needed really to run a system with either of those cards? Cant find a power rating for either but would i be right guessing ~450W?

TerrorFirmer

I seriously doubt you would get either running reliably on a 9150 with stock psu. You would be wanting a fairly high quality 450w psu with about 30a on the 12v rail.

glebe

Just installed 7600GT on machine and it runs great.
Well worth the upgrade. Its running like a new pc.