Need graphics card for Dimension T3400

bazpaul1

hey guys,

I bought this a few months ago and love it! For the price I got it at it's great - runs like a dream - Dell Dimension T3400

http://www.meetgadget.com/gadget/14529/Dell+Precision+T3400

There's currently a bog standard Nvidia quadro NVs290 and 2gb ram in it, and it plays Battlefield 2 decently on high video settings.

However

I want to upgrade - like most people i'd say i cant afford to spend a lot of a new graphics card. I would love to get a card that could handle Battlefield 3 and maybe call of duty 4.

I dont necessarily need the BF3 to run on max setting with amazing textures!! i can settle for medium/high settings to save on price.

Can anyone recommend a good card for my PC, i'm living in the UK at the moment and am thinking of buying from Overclockers

finally will I need to add a larger PSU?? more ram?

My budget - 125-150euro

Thanks - i look forward to your suggestions

:pac::pac::pac::pac::pac::pac::pac:

bazpaul1

Ok, i'm looking at this and it looks great

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-nVIDIA-GeForce-Graphics-Express/dp/B005G50ET6/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8&colid=2WHE2OZ33F94E&coliid=I26119KYU551SM

I believe the GTX 560 ti is fine for BF3 too!!

thoughts?

ED E

Regarding COD4, even an 8800GTX will play that, so you're safe there.

BF3 is a bit of a hog, and is quite CPU heavy, which CPU and how much ram have you got in your specific configuration?

DELL PSUs can be quite significantly underrated so you'll likely be fine as long as you dont push it too far. 550ti is a good budget card and I expect should do ok, but it wont "future proof" you much looking at the benches.

bazpaul1

hmmm i cant remember the CPU specs off hand, i think it's a;

Intel Core 2 Extreme (Dual-core) 2.8GHz

How does the processor affect gaming???

bazpaul1

on my little crappy Nividia Quadro NVS290 I can play BF2, what other games could this play??? Call of duty 2??

Torqay

bazpaul1 wrote: »

finally will I need to add a larger PSU??

It's a 525W PSU, so that's the least of your worries.

bazpaul1 wrote: »

more ram?

There's is probably ECC RAM in the machine, but it will take cheaper Non-ECC RAM, you just can't mix them. A DDR2 PC2-6400 4 GB kit (2x2 GB) costs less than 50 yoyos.

16 GB is the maximum possible amount (4x4 GB)

bazpaul1

What's this ECC Ram, i've never heard of that, i would just look for - DDR2 PC2-6400

when buying ram!

There's 2 x 1gb in there now - so when BF3 drops her fat arse on my machine i'll upgrade to (2 x 1gb)(2 x 2gb)

Will extra ram help a game?? I suppose it will!

thanks for the info - you've been the most informative person i dealt with today

ED E

bazpaul1 wrote: »

hmmm i cant remember the CPU specs off hand, i think it's a;

Intel Core 2 Extreme (Dual-core) 2.8GHz

How does the processor affect gaming???

Pretty much everything you do is run partially on the CPU, games cant just execute on the graphics card, it just does the rendering, all the maths of whats going to happen and when, where AI moves,reading keystrokes, talking to the server etc etc, thats all on the CPU. Most games the graphics card is the problem, but in some games the CPU can be limiting.

BF3 lets you away with a dual core, but a quad is recommended.

bazpaul1 wrote: »

What's this ECC Ram, i've never heard of that, i would just look for - DDR2 PC2-6400

when buying ram!

There's 2 x 1gb in there now - so when BF3 drops her fat arse on my machine i'll upgrade to (2 x 1gb)(2 x 2gb)

Will extra ram help a game?? I suppose it will!

thanks for the info - you've been the most informative person i dealt with today

ECC is self checking ram.

The highlighted bit, if you're intending to keep the 2x1 and use another 2x2 thats what Torqay suggested against. If you keep the old ram you have to buy ECC(if the original is in fact ECC) ram which in DDR2 is very expensive, so it'll be cheaper to buy 4/6GB or DDR2 straight. Also you're mobo may well only support 4GB.

Torqay

It's a Dell Precision workstation, they always ship with EEC RAM.

If you want to check, run SIW (use the nav pane at the left hand side, go to Hardware > Memory > Error Correction).

bazpaul1

This is a good price for a GTX 560 - the only thing is that it is not a popular brand, what are the implications of buying a ****ter brand?

overheating? can't overclock? noise?

bazpaul1

just ran CPU-Z to be find out about my ram and it says "Correction: ECC"

...so that's more expensive!!

Torqay

bazpaul1 wrote: »

just ran CPU-Z to be find out about my ram and it says "Correction: ECC"

...so that's more expensive!!

If you want to add to your existing RAM, yes. Probably cheaper to replace the lot with 4 or 8 GB Non-ECC. The memory benchmark difference between ECC and non-ECC is marginal (2% in favour of ECC).