Hey everyone, I'm new to this board and would really appreciate some help. I've got an old Dell 8250 that was given to me and I really want to make it run the best it possibly can. I can afford adding on a few things, and I've already made some of the purchases.

It has a 2.5ghz Pentium 4 and uses the old RDRAM, so I added a gig to top it off at the 1.5gb pc1066 RDRAM. It's blazing fast now and I want to upgrade the video card but am having some conflicts.

I have one AGP slot available, and I'm pretty sure it is 4x. I don't have any other slots open, so whatever video card I get needs to be a single slot solution. But please, if I had another slot open to be used for a two level video card, which would i get then also? (I might decide to remove my firewire pci card which fills the slot beneath my video card)

I've come across a lot of possibilities, and I was hoping you all could set me straight. Just so you know, I'll be adding a 410watt (450 peak) power supply to replace the 250watt that came with it.

I want the best I can get considering my limitations. Factoring in my ram, processor, and psu, and the fact I have an AGP 4x slot, what is the very best I can get?

Here is what I have narrowed down to, but please, if these are just wrong for me please let me know, and if you have other suggestions, please list them. I need help!!!

This is the power supply I am getting:
http://www.pcpower.com/power-suppl [...] ell-2.html

These are the video cards I am considering:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Show [...] Video+Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161071

http://www.amazon.com/XFX-GeForce- [...] B000P7NDN4

http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/pro [...] =175&grp=2

Am I on the right track or have I gone too far? Some of these say they are 8x or 4x or 2x AGP, so it should work with my slot, right? (or do all 8x work in 4x?) I know I may have some "bottlenecking" going on, but please feel free to school me on what I need to know given my situation of what I have.

Thanks a lot everyone!!!

By the way, right now all I have is an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro (or maybe it's a 9700???)

this will tell you your card http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
GPU-Z Video card GPU Information Utility
what is your OS If you have win 98 you may have driver issues with some newer agp cards
I have yet to see a 8x agp card that won't work on a 4x agp buss
yes you can get some more life out of your dell by upgrading your gpu, but your cpu is going to be a bad bottleneck
Get the 7600 or the 1950pro.
the 7950 is overkill for your cpu

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102718

Thanks for all the input. Is there any reason I should go for a card with one DVI and one VGA instead of the dual DVI?

By the way, I'm using a sweet and perfect, XP Pro.

Don't buy a dell inthe first place - they work OK as long as u don't want to upgrade with most available options!

I guess I'll put mine in the trash then.

there was a point when dell was using proprietary plug setup for their rigs and id didnt know that when i was trying to upgrade one and lost the mobo. so be careful when upgrading your PSU because if your mobo is one of those shoddy dell proprietary ones you may lose it and if that happens you are going to be building a completely new rig.

That was some years ago.
Most now take a standard ATX psu. I use a PC Power and Cooling myself.
The only thing "shoddy" about the mobos is that the bios is locked. Alot are made for Dell by Foxconn.
As long as your careful about what you get there are upgrade options.

The PSU I ordered is said to fit the 8250 model by Dell in all ways, so I'm not concerned with that. I'm really focused on getting the very best card for what I am capable of running. I would like to have the dual DVI, but one of the cards recommended to me has one VGA and one DVI...is losing the other DVI no big deal if the car makes up for it in overall power? I don't understand why one of the cards recommended to me has dual DVI, and the other one doesn't.

Please explain.

For example: The Sapphire 2600 has one DVI and one VGA, but the XFX GeForce 7600GT has dual DVI. If the Sapphire 2600 is a better card, why only one DVI? Also, the person who suggested that the XFX GeForce 7950GT was too much for my computer (bottleneck issues), why would someone else suggest the Sapphire 2600 anyways? Won't that kind of have the same issues?

Still confused on which I should get...

It would be nice to have the dual DVI...I plan on running one into my lcd computer monitor and one into my plasma tv. I'm willing to sacrifice one of the DVI outs if it is worth having the better graphical power (if having the VGA instead of second DVI gives me more)

Dont the 7950's burn up in a month?

The 2600 is probably the best if you dont mind ati

Are you going to be running dual (two) monitors with DVI outputs?
The card I linked can run 2 DVI monitors with the supplied adapter.
The card has 1 DVI output and 1 VGA output that can be used with a DVI monitor with the adapter.
That's the difference.
Do you even have 2 monitors or are planning to in the future?

I have one monitor with DVI, and I'll be getting a new plasma TV with DVI in here soon, and I want to use my comp as my media center to watch all my stuff (I have 1.5TB of audio and video). That's the reason I want the second DVI.

As for the card with the one DVI and one VGA...I don't understand how it makes sense that the VGA can be turned into DVI using an adapter. I thought you could only do that in reverse (from DVI to VGA)

If it's for videos, etc. you should pick up one of these:

http://gayannrx86.blogspot.com/200 [...] -3850.html

Even lower wattage and heat - HDMI, and HDCP, dual, dual link DVI. ATI AGP HD 3850

Wow, very cool. Okay, so I guess you all have really narrowed things down for me and focused my vision...but I'm still unsure of which to get out of all the recommendations posted here. Each post has been educational, but each raises new questions.

As for the most recent response, yes, the card is going to be used for video, but man it sure would be great for it to kick decent ass in the gaming area as well. I would have thought the best card for me would just be the best card for me in both areas anyways...

What do you think everyone? Please go over everything you've seen posted here and give me your thoughts on why THE card I should get is THE card I should get. Overall quality, usage for video and gaming, decent/easy/understandable interface for switching my outputs, and taking up a single slot in my AGP 4x based machine. (if I should get a card that takes up another slot for usage of a fan, tell me why)

Kinda sounds like I'm asking the original question again but I'm not. Now that you all have put in your opinions, reread what each other said one more time and give me some kind of unified consensus on which one is THE one for me. I mean, man you guys must really know your stuff...but you are all recommending different cards!!!

I was almost set on a different one but then this most recent post was put up...man this is frustrating!

Thanks again everyone. (and by the way, this is a gift for my wife...she's an avid gamer, and she has no idea I'm doing all this to the computer. She's going to FREAK)

On the AGP model, additional power is required via the 8-pin PCI-Express connector fitted, which can be provided from a standard power supply with an adapter cable (supplied).

Okay everyone, I have to start this thread again and see what you all think.

Now that the Sapphire HD 3850 has finally been put on the Sapphire website and is available for sale, I was able to look at the specs of it and I'm a little concerned.

The last word on this forum was for me to get this card, but the requirements seem to add up against me in regards to the power supply.

I purchased a
http://www.pcpower.com/power-suppl [...] ell-2.html

This is the highest-powered PSU that is made specifically for my motherboard. It seems to fall a little bit short of the power requirements of the GPU. According to Sapphire:

System Requirement:
* AGP based PC is required with one 4X/8X AGP slot available on the motherboard.
* 1GB or greater system memory for better performance.
* 450Watt or greater power supply with 30Amps on 12 volt with 2x4 power connector recommanded.

I have 1.5gb of pc1066 RDRAM in my P4, 2.5ghz machine.
My power supply is now a 410Watt power supply (with a 450Watt peak), and only has 23Amps on the +12V rail.

-Will I still be able to use this card despite being a little underpowered from my PSU?

-How much will this lack of power from the PSU really affect the performance of the card or my machine overall?

-Am I understanding the power info wrong for my power supply?

-Is there a more powerful power supply made for my Dell 8250 motherboard?

Please advise further. Thanks again everyone.

the sapphire hd 3850 would be the best pick, 4x agp, also 256bit. dont worry about that bottleneck, unless they come out with bottleneck detecting software, then bottlenecking is just a speculation.
your running some fast rdram w/this your card will preform faster than some ddr and ddr2. check here to see if how much power u will need...
www.extreme.outervision.com