Dell 2350 and PCI Card

Hornd

Hi there,

I have an old Dell 2350, Pentium 4 2.5GHz, 512 RAM.

I want to upgrade the video card from the integrated one with it, just to play some counter strike source. It will only take a PCI graphics card and I'm just trying to figure out what card to buy.

Would something like this be over kill. Would 1G even work on my system?
http://cgi.ebay.ie/NVIDIA-GEFORCE-9500GT-1GB-PCI-EX-1024MB-GRAPHICS-CARD_W0QQitemZ330307028650QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Computer_Components_Graphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW?hash=item4ce7d546aa&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
Would I be better off with something like this be more appropriate.
http://cgi.ebay.ie/nVIDIA-GeForce-FX-5500-256-MB-PCI-3D-Video-Graphic-Card_W0QQitemZ120465174932QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Computer_Components_Graphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW?hash=item1c0c48b194&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
As long as the game runs nice and smooth I don't really care. I just want to make sure the card works with the PC!

Thank you for help!

Solitaire

Those Dell numpties ripped out the AGP slot?! :eek:

Sorry, but you're not going to be playing CSS very smoothly on that machine. P4 CPU and no graphics card worth mentioning. That FX5500 can just about push it along in low-quality DX8 mode but may get bottlenecked due to the PCI slot or even by the CPU. The other card you showed is a modern PCIe card and won't fit in your system.

Hornd

Those Dell numpties ripped out the AGP slot?!

I know. Killer!

It runs Half-Life 2 now even with the integrated graphics so I'm hopefull it might just get through.

Thanks for the point out it was PCIe. When I was searching through ebay I put in it had to be PCI in the search bar but it must of slipped through. I reckon I'll try something similar to the 5500, something with 256mb. If it doesn't work its not the end of the world.

Any recommendations for a card or best place to buy. Thanks for your input. I appreciate it!

Solitaire

Depends. On such an old card eGay is actually quite practical so long as you stick to reputable sellers and they don't charge the Earth for shipping. A good few sites still sell the PCI FX5500 but it may be a fair bit more expensive from them.

And sadly I doubt there are many more powerful cards out for PCI. The bandwidth limitation would be crippling That said the FX5500 was a mid-range part and given what use I got out of a 128MB FX5200 a few years back I'd say that for more modest gaming at lowish resolutions the FX5500 should do you proud. Just don't expect miracles... or even getting away with running many newer games without a lot of patching and .ini tweaking to remove Pixel Shader 3 dependencies...

I know there's a PCI HD2400Pro here but I'm not sure if it's any better than the FX5500. Still checking it out. May be worth it for the updated DX/SM/PS/HD acceleration etc...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC9EuvfOQ0Q

TerrorFirmer

PCI is a cripped bus for video cards, but they are available. The most current ones would be better then an old Fx5500, though still far from performance class...there's only so much you can squeeze out of the pci bus and the threshold was reached a long time ago. Komplett sell a HD2400 in PCI, should be fine for CSS. I know from the older X1300 PCI reviews, that it was roughly about 40% the speed of a standard PCI-E X1300...so realistically with the HD2400 you're probably talking the same speed with added functionality.

Going from what I've seen, I'd say for consistently smooth gameplay without spikes you'd be looking at 800x600 low settings....or medium/high if you can handle occasional performance drops, but most CSS players can't.

Solitaire

If you box clever CSS can actually run pretty fast on a PCI or decent onboard GPU - see the vid. Quite surprised at how insanely scalable Source is actually

HD2400Pro is definitely looking to be the winner this time around. Just be careful not to pay more than €40 for it - Komplett are selling them for ridiculous amounts of money :mad: Get it from Elara, as I can't see any on eGay and Dabs has had an aneurysm

cherryghost

EDIT: Feck sake. get the HD 2400 yep yep

http://www3.computeruniverse.net/products/e90258529/powercolor-radeon-hd2400pro-pci-retail.asp

Solitaire

cherryghost wrote:

http://cgi.ebay.ie/512MB-XFX-8400GS-...d=p3286.c0.m14

PCIe naming conventions strike again! :rolleyes:

I had to unsearch PCI-E, PCI-EX and PCI-Express terms before I could get any real sense out of eGay with "PCI graphics card"...

And the only place in Ireland that might have had the PCI version of the 8400GS has had an aneurysm :rolleyes:

Actually, they might have them in PC World... for €99, if memory serves me :P

cherryghost

fixed! :P i assume you're trying to look up dabs?! :P

Solitaire

Guess the webmaster went Team Drinky last weekend too!

Hornd

Yea just downloaded css and it doesnt appreciate the integrated graphics! I reckon ill get the hd2400 then from elara. Just hope it works alright when I get it. You guys reckon itll work anyway not at high settings but medium to low with a decent fr?

cherryghost

right click css on steam, and click properties, and then click launch properties

type '-dxlevel 80' without the '', and launch, see if you get any performance boost

jonny72

Hornd wrote: »

Yea just downloaded css and it doesnt appreciate the integrated graphics! I reckon ill get the hd2400 then from elara. Just hope it works alright when I get it. You guys reckon itll work anyway not at high settings but medium to low with a decent fr?

You can get a cs source playing machine for about 100 to 150 euros..

e.g. ebay dell with pci express graphics card

or a PC on adverts.ie