Upgrading Dell 4700

[ravage9218]

I want to upgrade my Dell Dimension 4700 without getting a new power supply. I saw an awsome deal at tiger direct for an xfx 8600 gt xxx for $90. I have windows vista 2gb of Ram and an intel pentium 4 3.2 GHz processor. I want to be able to run Crysis at least on medium settings at 1024 x 736 or whateve that res. is. Is this video card the best one I can get without upgrading the power supply?

 

[emp]

HD 2600XT would be the best you can get without upgrading PSU, but I honestly don't think that card is up to the job.

 

[mactronix]

The main thing is what power the power supply is putting out on the 12volt rail. This info is on a sticker on the side of the supply itself or might be in your manual if you have it.
Any card that does not have an additional power supply cable will be fine but after that you need to know if the PSU has the extra power needed to run the card.
You need to know the Amps or if its listed in watts divide the Watts by 12 as its a 12volt rail and that will give you the Amps.

 

[scorch]

I am currently running similar specs to the OP and I am running 800X600 with everything set to medium except water which is on high. Crysis runs fine except when the mountain "quakes" then I get freezes and pauses. My current 3d mark o6 score with the video card over clocked is 3056 (free download version). If I upgraded to an 8000 series video card or what ever the ATI equivilent is there would probally not be a big peformance increase is. Just be sure to check minimum power requirements on the video card and check the sticker on the powersupply to see what you have as mentioned above

 

[kpo6969]

The main thing is what power the power supply is putting out on the 12volt rail. This info is on a sticker on the side of the supply itself or might be in your manual if you have it.
Any card that does not have an additional power supply cable will be fine but after that you need to know if the PSU has the extra power needed to run the card.
You need to know the Amps or if its listed in watts divide the Watts by 12 as its a 12volt rail and that will give you the Amps.

22amps
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff305/kpo6969/0d5032-2.jpg

 

[Guest]

I got my self a Dell 4700 also.
I didn't need to change the power supply and I upgraded my Video Card to a Gigabyte 8400GS. Even better thing was that I found it for only $50 and it has 512MB and Radiator instead of FAN!

Sorry but that was a 1 time special offer for 2 days. I got it like 2 weeks ago.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

That Tiger direct deal isn't all that great.

1. The 8600 isn't a very good GPU. (It's only marginally better than a 7600, and outperformed by the usually cheaper 7800, 7950, etc)
2. For $90, you can easily get a much much better 8800GT/9800GT or a 4830.


@habbloblob - A 8400GS is a "video accelerator" card that is really really poor for gaming. I got a used 7600GT off of ebay for $10 + $10 S&H, to install into my old Dell, and it outperforms the 8400.