Which Graphics card should i buy please?

andrewmoorcroft

Hiya
My son has a Dell Vostro 200 PC with a
Intel core 2 duo CPU 4500 @2.2GHz
3GB ram
Intel G33/G31 express chipset family.
I can see there is a spare PCI (light grey) & PCI-e slot (black with a tag) & a very short black slot

He says that the grapics card lets it down and it will not play some of the latest games.

What's the best graphics card that will work on this machine without going for the latest expensive one. I was sort of thinking of last years best card at a this years reduced price if you know what i mean.

Ive found a Novatec 9600GT for £67 but not sure if i can get better for the money, of just as good card but cheaper. How do i know if the card is compatable with the rest of the PC?

If you need to know more info on the spec of his pc, please tell me how i find the info out!

mdbarber

Doubt very much it has an agp slot this format pretty much died before the release of the c2d chip it's more likely to have pci-e slot but knowing dells best check, their website will tell you just enter the service tag off the sticker on the case.
the only info you will need is
a.will the card actually fit the case, best measure before you buy
b. will the power supply in the case be able to provide enough power and have the right connectors, opening the case you should have a sticker on the psu to state its power output ability.
but this all depends on the card you choose.
other than that try an established brand ie asus/gigabyte etc, these generally provide more info in the pack as to installation.

skint999

Have a look http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&id=vostrodt_200mt&l=en&s=bsd

see the review towards the bottom by user Severian on the Date: 29 August 2008 - who has 2 of these computers and upgraded graphics cards in both.

9800GT - http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+9+Series/nVidia+GeForce+9800GT+512MB+PCI-E+?productId=33061

SJames_3

With onboard graphics I think I'd be right in saying that you're using a Vostro 200 Slim, in which, you'll be looking for a low profile PCIE card. You can get a low profile 9600GT, not sure about the 9800GTs, but it'll probably be a little more expensive than a regular 9600GT.

Power consumption would be an issue, but Google for your model and see what kind of cards others have been able to install without problems.

andrewmoorcroft

Ok this is the spec when i put in the tag number. I dont think it's a slimline one.

1D0420121VOSTRO 200 : INTEL CORE 2 DUO E4500 (2.21RESOURCE DVD : VOSTRO 200 DIAGNOSTICS AN1SHIP ACCESSORY : ENGLISH DOCS WITH UK PO1MEMORY : 3072MB (2X1024 + 2X512) 667MHZ1FLOPPY DRIVE : NOT INCLUDED1HARD DRIVE : 500GB SERIAL ATA NON RAID (1OPTICAL DRIVE : ROXIO CREATOR / MY DVD 91OPTICAL DRIVE : 16X DVD+/-RW DRIVE1DISPLAY : 19IN E198WFP UK/IRISH BLACK WI1GRAPHICS : INTEGRATED INTEL GRAPHICS MED1AUDIO : INTEGRATED HDA 7.1 DOLBY DIGITAL1SPEAKERS : NOT INCLUDED1MODEM : NOT INCLUDED1MICE : DELL OPTICAL SCROLL USB (2 BUTTON1KEYBOARD : UK/IRISH (QWERTY) DELL ENTRY1OPERATING SYSTEM : ENGLISH WINDOWS VISTA1SOFTWARE : ENGLISH MICROSOFT WORKS 9.0 (1SOFTWARE : DELL SUPPORT CENTER 2.01SOFTWARE : ENGLISH ADOBE READER 8.1 WITH1ANTIVIRUS : ENGLISH MCAFEE 9.0 SECURITY1VOSTRO DESKTOP ORDER - UK1DELL INTERNET ORDER.1BASE WARRANTY11YR BASIC WARRANTY - NEXT BUSINESS DAY -1NO WARRANTY UPGRADE1DECLINED COMPLETECARE1ROAD FREIGHT CHARGE PER UNIT 1-10 UNIT.

Thanks for the replies so far. Are people saying that some lower spec graphics cards will power straight from the slot and some of the higher power consuming ones require an additional power supply / leads to power it and these leads may/may not be there and may/may not have the right connectors, and even if everything did fit then the main power supply may not cope with the drain from a big graphics card?

exup

if you are running a high end graphics card for gaming - then you will need a decent power supply - which notmally would mean taking out the standard one from the PC and installing something like a 500 or 600 W PSU.

the graphics card (gfx card) will plug straihgt into the PCI-E slot on the motherboard.

If you are looking through lists of gfx cards you may see AGP and PCI-E listed nexr to each other with different amounts of memory.

for example an AGP radeon X1650 with 512MB may be compared to a PCI-E radeon X1650 with 256 MB.. so some people think that the AGP would be better - but then forget that PCI-E (pci- express) is an improvement over AGP (which was an improvement over the standard PCI).

andrewmoorcroft

Ive checked my power supply and it's 300W max. How do i know what is left in reserve after powering the current standard set up?

SJames_3

You can't with software. You can roughly estimate by adding the max consumption of individual components, but that would only provide a very rough guide, or you could use a program like this to give you something a little more accurate. Also, no matter what a PSU states as a maximum output, that can vary vastly depending on the stability of each voltage rail (12v, 5v, etc.), the quality of the PSU and how many amps each rail is capable of outputting. The paid version of the PSU calculator may be handy there as it does take the voltage rails into account, although it's impossible how they will react when high power consumption is required. It may also be usful to know how many amps your 12v rail is capable of, it'd give you an idea of how many watts your PSU can output on that one rail, which which be the rail powering a graphics card, however, it'd still be required to operate HDDs, the motherboard. etc, but this value would give a more accurate idea than just your total watts.

One more thing to consider with Dell PCs, somebody may correct me here as I don't know whether Dell still do this, but since the late 90s Dell PCs have seen shipped with proprietary PSUs and motherboards, meaning that the wiring and pin configuration is different standard PSUs and motherboards. This means that upgrading a Dell PSU with anything that isn't Dell branded is likely to mean a fried motherboard.

If you do need to keep the same PSU, a compromise between power consumption and gaming performance would be needed. Some of the low power, low cost graphics cards around at the moment will give you an ok gaming experience, although you may not be able to run much at max settings, it'd still be a big upgrade over onboard graphics.