Novice Card upgrade HELP!!

[dragon18007]

Hi all

Hope you can help.

I know nothing about graphics cars and have had the ATI 9800xt which came with my computer a few years back so thought it was about time to upgrade.

The card which seems to be the best on this site is- HIS ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ICEQ3 Turbo 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (AGP) - Retail (H1950PRQT512DDA-R)

It would need to be the AGP as I dont have any PCI-E slots that I know of.

the computer I have is -
Dell Dimension 8300
P4 HT 3.20Ghz
2512Gb Ram

would this be a good card for my machine? I hear folk talk about it needing connected to the power supply but i wasnt sure if that was for the PCI-E or AGP card. if it does need connected to the power supply would my computer be able to handle it? and how does it get connected??


Sorry for all the questions. just dont want to waste money if its not gonna work.

Hope you can help.

JJ

 

[lay-z-boy]

First, welcome to the forums!

If you look at this link it uses a pci-e connector, you will need to get a dual molex to pci-e along with the card. Here

Should work fine with that machine!

 

[Claire Drew]

That would be a cracking card for your system.

What sort of things do you do with the system?

Gaming, Video etc.......

Is there any reason you are changing the existion one? Does it do what you want it to do or are you now starting to play games that are too demanding for the card?

I would take all the above into account as it could save you a lot of money in the long run.

If the graphics card is working fine and running all the games you play why change it? if its going faulty but was still playing all your games when working fine, you would be able to get a good upgrade for a lot less and it still be a more powerful card compaired to your current one.

Good upgrade for the 9800 is the 6600GT 256 AGP. Although a little old you would still see a masive jump in performance and can be had for less the £50 of MM section.


I would recomend though

HIS ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ICEQ3 Turbo 256MB on special this week @ (£135.11 inc vat at 17.5%)

 

[dragon18007]

Thanks all.

Claire - My 9800XT still runs fine (as far as I know) and I only really play City of Heroes at the moment on my computer(but I usually change back and forth with EQ2 and WOW now and again), but since ive been in the beta for Vanguard my computer had slowed down a lot, so I added more ram and brought it up to what it is the now but its still very choppy/slow so I though if I upgraded the card it might help it.
I was thinking about getting the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ICEQ3 Turbo 256MB as you suggested but for another £50 or so more I could get the better 512MB version and that would do me for the next few years until I buy a new PC.

OH I dont know ....im giving myself to monday to make my mind up before I order it or not lol.

I didnt know changing a card was so complicated (hooking up to power etc) I though you just stuck it in and that was it lol.

JJ

 

[dragon18007]

oops double post.