PCA Forums

So I got my hands on a Dell Inspiron 530. My old PC was a Vaio with P4 2.4 ghz, 768 MB RAM, and a Radeon X1600. The Dell has a dual core 2.2 ghz and 4 GB RAM so this is a huge leap for me. The only problem is that the video card in it is worse than my old X1600. I need recommendations on a good gaming video card for this particular PC. I would like something pretty affordable. Here's a full list of my rig's specs including the power supply info. http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/dell-i ... 53389.html

look on the side of the power supply and let us know the amp ratings for each rail...without knowing that, it's tough to recommend higher-end cards. my guess is it won't have enough juice to safely support some of the better cards, but a lower (but still nice card, like mine...a 4850) one will do the trick.

The stock PSU is only 18 amps on the 12 volt rail (the only rail that really matters nowadays). That's really not enough for any decent vid card. The PSU is not even dual rail.

The good news is that you can easily replace the stock PSU. Any standard PSU will fit. There's a thread here where a guy shows before and after shots after he installed an Antec 380W PSU and a Geforce 8800GT: http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=700167

Get yourself a dual 12volt rail PSU with a minimum of 17amps on each 12volt rail (total 34 amps). More would be better.

Just about any vid card will fit in there except the real long ones (like my rediculously long GTX 260).

Okie dokie, I'll do some searching on newegg and other places.

By the way, is the 8800GT the best video card I can get that will fit in my PC? Also, my onboard video card is apparently HD. Is the 8800GT an HD card?(sorry if I may sound naive)

8800GT is a bit dated now. I'm really not up on the latest cards, but assuming it's not one of the really long cards, anything should fit in there. All the Geforce GTX 200 series are probably too long.

A Radeon 4850 or 4870 should fit in there, and I think those are still decent "bang for the bucks" cards without breaking the bank.

IMO, the 8800 is plenty for pretty much everything. It will play all games, but some just won't be maxed out & it can be found for $60-70 used from all the people upgrading to the GTX series. Anyhow, IMO, the 4850/4870 are good bang for the buck upgrades.

I have an 8800 and it gets everything done fine. Rather than upgrade the power source, I just grabbed an old cheapo PS from the parts box and use that to run the vid card.

Hey guys, wouldn't this be a good video card that wouldn't require me to upgrade the power supply? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814162022

9500 is a lame card. It's only 128 bit - half the bandwidth of the Geforce 8800 and (logically enough) it gets half the performance of the Geforce 8800 which I would consider the minimum serious gaming card right now.

Seriously, you can't run any kind of decent video card on a PSU that has only 18 amps on the 12 volt rail. Nor do you have to spend much money on a PSU. An Antec Earthwatts 380 has two 12volt rails at 17amps each for $45: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

If you want to save a bit on the video card, this Radeon HD 3870 is a pretty good performer for $73 (blows that 9500 out of the water): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

Was getting ready to say something similar. You should be able to get a 3870 used super cheap now.

You probably could run a 3870 on the stock PSU but it would be VERY iffy. You might get occasional errors. You'd be pushing the PSU to it's limits and a PSU at it's limits becomes unstable.

You can check out the Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart from Tom's Hardware to compare various models performance:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/bes ... 404-7.html

You can look at Tom's Best Graphics Cards For The Money: September '09 article for their current recommendations:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/bes ... 2404.html#

The 2009 gaming chart lets you compare different cards in various game benchmarks:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gami ... ks,54.html

Radeon HD 4870 1GB seems like what I might go with. $145 ain't too much. Is the 1GB memory necessary or will there be no difference if I go with the 512MB version?

For high end gaming, yes the memory will make a difference. Modern games really do use all that memory for textures.

I ordered an xfx 1 gb 4870 from the egg. $144.99 shipped with a $20 mail in rebate, Seems pretty decent - hold me for a couple of years.....