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need help upgrading graphics card

B

Brucee

Gawd
Joined
Oct 31, 2004
Messages
532
I have a dell 4550 pc with a mx 420 64 mb currenty in it I want to upgrade the graphics card. What kind of graphics card for 90-140 bucks. what should I get? that works well in this kind of computer? I want to use it for gaming. Can the dell 4550 model support pci express?
 
anyone?

would a XFX Geforce 6800 128MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card work?
 
It's got PCI & AGP only, not PCIe.

If you look around a bit, you can find Geforce a 6600GT (best) or a Radeon 9800Pro (almost as good - just make sure you get the full 256-bit memory instead of the crippled version with the 128-bit memory - this is the memory bus, not the ammount of memory. I'm not talking about 128/256MB versions) in that price range. If you can't find them, then you can drop down to a plain Geforce 6600 or a Radeon 9600/Pro/XT.

As with most cards - make sure you're getting what you think you're buying. There's a lot of companies selling cards with narrower memory busses and/or slighly lower clock speeds than standard.
 
Brucee said:
anyone?

would a XFX Geforce 6800 128MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card work?
Click to expand...

Yes but there's no way in hell you're getting that for $140.
 
ameoba said:
Yes but there's no way in hell you're getting that for $140.
Click to expand...

i know I can get it for 199 at newegg. If this card works well ...well little more $$ wont hurt

so will it work?.

it has

Memory Size 128MB
Memory Interface 256-bit
 
99% of the time, a larger frame buffer on you video card doesn't improve performance. That vanilla 6600 is probably about 1/2 has fast as the 6800nu that you were looking at.

BTW, what kind of specs does you Dell have? If it's old, than it may not be worth your time to upgrade you vid card.
 
GVX said:
99% of the time, a larger frame buffer on you video card doesn't improve performance. That vanilla 6600 is probably about 1/2 has fast as the 6800nu that you were looking at.

BTW, what kind of specs does you Dell have? If it's old, than it may not be worth your time to upgrade you vid card.
Click to expand...


Dell dimension 4550 -2.0 ghz pentium 4
256 ram
mx 420 64 Mb video card
60 gig hard drive.

is it worth it you think? im also thing of upgrading memory.

So what card from newegg is my best bet here?

I want to play hL2 ,D3, farcry with it.
 
O lord, is it a 2.0ghz PENTIUM 4? it better not be a celeron.....yikes..I suggest putting your money somewhere else......

9800pro @ newegg 130, and a gig of pc 3200 ram, 80 bucks........

but if ya can afford, get the 6600gt instead....
 
aZn_plyR said:
O lord, is it a 2.0ghz PENTIUM 4? it better not be a celeron.....yikes..I suggest putting your money somewhere else......

9800pro @ newegg 130, and a gig of pc 3200 ram, 80 bucks........

but if ya can afford, get the 6600gt instead....
Click to expand...

yes pentium 4 lol. can anyone provide me a link to newegg with which card. they have to many models! i looked for like 3 hours lol....so is upgrading this system my best bet or buying a new one?
 
My suggestion would be to get a 6600GT and some more memory. You should have at least 512 although you can get a gig for $80.
 
NO!! the 9800pro with 256mb ram is useless..teh extra ram is no good!!! the card itself is not fast enough to use teh extra ram...the 6800NU is alot faster/better....and cheaper...

but why go all out on the videocard when you only have 256mb of ram??? :confused:

like I said man....get these..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146299 1gb mushkin 512x2 pack (1gb total) and..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102362 9800pro 128mb ram/256bit memory interface....

you will have ALOT better gaming experience than just tossing in a 6800NU for 200 bucks and only 256mb ram....512 isnt enough for today's games....and 256mb is just enough for the operating system...

so the 9800pro is 126+81 bucks for the ram...this is just a tiny bit more than on 6800nu....and you will enjoy the memory+video power instead of videopower which is SEVERELY bottlenecked by the lack of memory..

but if you have enough money, get the 6600gt....159+the gig of ram...
 
PRIME1 said:
My suggestion would be to get a 6600GT and some more memory. You should have at least 512 although you can get a gig for $80.
Click to expand...


are you sure my computer can support a 6800 gt? yea im am buying a gig of ram.
 
He said 6600GT not 6800GT, there is about a 50% performance and price difference between the two.
 
OOOOO so you dont count the gig of ram with the videocard..ok ok...so I am guesing ur getting a gig of ram+the 6800nu/6600gt right? ok good..thats a good choice..
 
yes video card and 1 gig of ram! not together I can spend 200 on the card and the next 80 on ram.

6600 Gt performs better then 9800 pro by how much?


6800 Nu and 6600 Gt. Huge performace difference? because it's about 45 in price dif only.
 
I seriously doubt if the PSU in that dell is going to handle a 6600gt & a gig of ram... trust me, I have a 2yr old dell 4550. PSU is a 250w pos! Yea dell says it'll go around 350 or so, yea right. Dell = crap for upgrading.
 
yea mine is about 2 year. So im might not handle it? huh...


I was thinking of putting a 6800 nu and yea the gig of ram in the 4550...? should I scale down my options?

is the Power supply really that weak to handle it? I mean what do the 8400 have as a powerssupply?the 8400 dimensions handle the x800xt. and this is a 4550 ? so it should not?
 
Brucee said:
6600 Gt performs better then 9800 pro by how much?
Click to expand...

A lot. It's really the best card in it's price range. I have seen them for around $150.
 
noo!!! lol..it is slower than the 6600gt and up......
for what you are spending..a 6600gt or 6800nu for 200 bucks is the best in the range..or 9800pro for 129....
 
aZn_plyR said:
noo!!! lol..it is slower than the 6600gt and up......
for what you are spending..a 6600gt or 6800nu for 200 bucks is the best in the range..or 9800pro for 129....
Click to expand...

how come the slot part of my old card looks different then the new ones?

my old current mx 420:

1986.jpg


new card:

1999.jpg
 
will the 6600 Gt or the 6800 Nu fit in the dell slot?

+ will the current dell powersupply have all the plugs in's I need for this card?
 
@Brucee
You got a problem here, the difference in the slots on the cards is:
Your old card with two nicks in the slot is AGP 4x
The new card with one nick in the slot is AGP 8x

You can not fit an AGP 8x in an AGP 4x slot.
 
@Brucee
The best card you will be able to fit is a Radeon 9800pro with AGP 4x
Next step is to change the whole motherboard.
 
rickyman said:
should i upgrade to geforce or not ?

i have ati 9800 pro/xt.
Click to expand...

If your motherboard can handle AGP 8x every GeForce from 6600GT and higher would get you better performance.
 
I'm thinking that a 6800 is starting to be overkill for this rig. We're talking a 533MHz bus P4 with single-channel memory - not exactly the speediest chip in the world. The 9800Pro/6600GT is probably about where the sweetspot on this thing is. Going any higher it's going to start being time to think about upgrading the whole damned thing.
 
Wolfkin said:
@Brucee

Next step is to change the whole motherboard.
Click to expand...

why do I have to change motherboard? it wont work with current dell board?



Wolfkin said:
@Brucee
You got a problem here, the difference in the slots on the cards is:
Your old card with two nicks in the slot is AGP 4x
The new card with one nick in the slot is AGP 8x

You can not fit an AGP 8x in an AGP 4x slot.
Click to expand...


you mean this is the Only card that can fit?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102362
 
ameoba said:
I'm thinking that a 6800 is starting to be overkill for this rig. We're talking a 533MHz bus P4 with single-channel memory - not exactly the speediest chip in the world. The 9800Pro/6600GT is probably about where the sweetspot on this thing is. Going any higher it's going to start being time to think about upgrading the whole damned thing.
Click to expand...

yea im starting to think so
 
Wolfkin said:
@Brucee
You got a problem here, the difference in the slots on the cards is:
Your old card with two nicks in the slot is AGP 4x
The new card with one nick in the slot is AGP 8x

You can not fit an AGP 8x in an AGP 4x slot.
Click to expand...

please correct me if I am wrong, but are you on CRACK? haha j/k :p

anyways...I can throw my old tnt2 agp 2x? into my 6800 ultra system and it will work fine...??? any agp8x will support 4x...just like my 6800ultra which I am running on 4x...ofcourse it will work in his system. so brucee...just get any agp8x card and it will work just fine...ofcourse it will be running in agp 4x mode..but there really is not any gain going down to 4x.....
 
this is a dell system with the dell board are you positive about the 6600gt?
 
I was 100 percent sure, but now I am not...brb,, I am gonna google it...
 
ahhh!!! he's right, It won't work..that is the old agp 4x card, with the old agp4x slot..not an agp8x card that can run in agp4x mode :( I went to newegg..and they had diff. sections..one with agp4x/8x with the new slot..and one with the old agp2x/4x with the older slot.....but can someone confirm if the newer cards will work in the older agp2x/4x slot..it looks like it might..
 
@Brucee

From what I can find out about your system, your motherboard have a 2x/4x AGP slot wich means that the fastest speed you will get is AGP 4x.
The newer cards (GeForce 6*** series) have AGP 8x and use a little different slot.

You can normaly use an AGP 8x card in an AGP 4x slot but you might get a little slower speed.

The easiest way for you to find out if you can fit an AGP 8x card in your system is to take a look at the AGP slot on your motherboard.
If it looks like the one in the image below, you can fit an AGP 8x card.

Just remember, we are dealing with Dell here and they write their own BIOS and even if you can fit the card in, there's no guarantee that it will work even if it should.

agp_slot.jpg
 
Wolfkin said:
@Brucee

From what I can find out about your system, your motherboard have a 2x/4x AGP slot wich means that the fastest speed you will get is AGP 4x.
The newer cards (GeForce 6*** series) have AGP 8x and use a little different slot.

You can normaly use an AGP 8x card in an AGP 4x slot but you might get a little slower speed.

The easiest way for you to find out if you can fit an AGP 8x card in your system is to take a look at the AGP slot on your motherboard.
If it looks like the one in the image below, you can fit an AGP 8x card.

Just remember, we are dealing with Dell here and they write their own BIOS and even if you can fit the card in, there's no guarantee that it will work even if it should.
Click to expand...


here is the pic of the slot. It is the green one.

2000.jpg


anyway im sure that this card would work? correct me if im wrong:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102290
 
Yes, your AGP slot can fit an AGP 8x card and the card you linked to will be very good.

I don't think there's any need for you to get a faster card than that as your CPU probably will limit it's performance.

The Radeon 9800pro card is still very good and you will see a great boost of power compared to your old card. :)
 
Wolfkin said:
Yes, your AGP slot can fit an AGP 8x card and the card you linked to will be very good.

I don't think there's any need for you to get a faster card than that as your CPU probably will limit it's performance.

The Radeon 9800pro card is still very good and you will see a great boost of power compared to your old card. :)
Click to expand...

ok but the 256 version of it, you think it might be better for me then the 128 version? it's only a 60 bucks difference between the 9800pro 256 and pro 128
 
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