Trying to replace a graphics card on an older Dell Mobo

[Squelch]

Okay, I'm pretty much a noob with this stuff, and am learning slowly and getting into building my own computers. That known, I have a couple of questions.

My father is slightly into gaming and has a 3+ year old Dell Dimension 3000 desktop. He recently bought CoD 4 but his graphics card will not run it. It's an older Radeon 256MB card that came stock with his computer. He went to Best Buy to get a new card, and the employee helping him told him that the Motherboard on factory ordered Dell's is unique and if a new card needed to be ordered, it had to be ordered through Dell. I have never heard of anything like this, and thought that all PCI cards were universal, therefore any GC should fit. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[dirtmountain]

Is it a PCI card ? a PCI-E card or a PCI-E x 16 card ? Some Dells came with integrated graphics and no AGP or PCI-E x 16 socket. See if you can look up the motherboard with the model number and check to see what it supports, or post it here. PCI and PCI-E cards are not good gaming cards, but they are sold at Newegg.

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

or just post a picture of the motherboard...

 

[rgsaunders]

If you post the service ticket number then we can determine exactly what the machine is including all factory installed parts

The other option is to post the exact model number/part no, but that does not provide as much info as the service ticket number, normally a white label with black lettering, found on the back of the machine

 

[f1nal_0men]

Most likely it will be PCI only, if thats the case, not really anything powerful enough to run CoD4 with a PCI Graphics.

 

[carver_g]

the employee helping him told him that the Motherboard on factory ordered Dell's is unique and if a new card needed to be ordered, it had to be ordered through Dell.

Yeah, that's a load of you-know-what.

However, the options are not good. That computer has PCI slots only, so even with the best PCI video card available, it won't be running CoD4.

Time for a major upgrade.