Graphics Card Upgrade

john2303

I am due to receive a new Dell Inspiron 530 tomorrow and I wish I had upgraded the graphics card. Now its too late and was hoping someone could suggest what card to get. I dont want to spend too much and would want to use it for Doom 3 & Farcry.

Any ideas?

Thanks

fox2319

Need to check the type of slot in there but assuming it's got a spare PCI-E then I'd recommend an ATI 1950 Pro. Got one in my Dell Dimension 5150 (which I think is the pre-decessor to yours) with 1.5GB RAM and a Dual 2.8GHz P4 and have been playing Bioshock at 1280x1024 with all the settings apparently on high (except for DX10 effects as I'm on XP)

If you like Farcry you'll probably want to have capacity for Crysis when it comes out in a month or two. But definitely get Bioshock to test out your system, Much better than Doom 3 and far nicer looking than Farcry.

Jeff

BillScarab

Second that recommendation. If you look at the reviews on the web it's regarded as being the best performing DX9 card for a reasonable price. If you're going to be using Vista and want a DX10 card most reviewers seem to be recommending the 8800GTS 320MB but they are £200 (twice the price of a X1950 Pro)

john2303

where would i get one of these and how much would they be?

thanks in advance

boyse7en

try Savastore.com or Overclockers.com for good prices. Should be around £100

thecornflake

When I looked at a PC for a mate of mine they were charging £50 for a 512mb USB stick - about £5 anywhere else at the time!

I'd recommend that card as well. Try ebuyer as they tend to be a bit cheaper than Overclockers, although I'd recommend both as having good service and fast delivery.


Dell probably would have charged you over the odds for the upgrade, unless there was a specific offer on it.

BillScarab

Try all of these, ebuyer, novatech, scan and komplett

They're all pretty good

Toxteth_OGrady

£65 here

:cool:

TOG

PistonBroke_2

I think you'd be better off with this one on overclockers as it's 512mb of memory and only £15 dearer

oh and as a p's it's overclockers.co.uk & not .com unless your in U.S

fox2319

BillScarab wrote: »

Second that recommendation. If you look at the reviews on the web it's regarded as being the best performing DX9 card for a reasonable price. If you're going to be using Vista and want a DX10 card most reviewers seem to be recommending the 8800GTS 320MB but they are £200 (twice the price of a X1950 Pro)

The only thing I'd caution with regard to the 8800 (a stonkingly good card btw) is that the Dell's are sometimes a little bit tight for the double height cards such as the majority of 8800s.

IMHO the ATI offers the best bang per buck but if you were tempted to splurge on a 8800 then wait till the PC arrives and you'll have a better idea on if it'll fit.

conspirator

Might want to boost your RAM also if it comes with the standard 512mb,

Just a heads up.