Inspiron 530 and GeForce 8500 GT 512MB

Don't bother with that card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

This card will cost you a little more, but will perform a lot better than the 8500 gt. If you are wanting to game, this would be much better. It should run on your stock PSU as it does not require an external power connector. The 8500 gt should work as well, but for the money, no contest, grab the ATI 4670.

I had a 8500GT, it sucked bad. Try a ati 4670. Very good card and low power.

To give you an idea of the performance difference, the 4670 performs nearly as well as an nvidia 9600gt. So you would get at least 3-4 times the performance of the 8500gt I would guess.

True, don't get that 8500GT, its more of a movie watching and entertainment cards.

Thanks,
The 4670 is PCI Express 2.0 x16, but I believe my Inspiron 530 just has a PCI Express x16 which I assume means it can't take 2.0 x16
Is that true?

-Nathan

No, PCI-e 16x is backwards compatible because not as many motherboards have PCI-e 16x 2.0 as much as PCI-e 1.0

Thanks Axeon,

So is it worth spending extra on a 2.0 card when I have a 1.0?

its worth it because the 4670 will outperform the 8500GT in every way on a 1.0 or 2.0 slot

Thanks everyone for the advice.

I bought an Asus HD 4670 from http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=AS-4670_51 for $62 including a rebate, cashback and shipping.

Can't wait to test it out!

I bought an Inspiron 530 recently. I ordered with an integrated Intel GMA 3100. When I called Dell tech support and asked about a 512 MB card, I was told that I may have to upgrade the power supply. He suggested me to buy Nvidia 7200 GS, but I wanted a better performing card. I prefer Nvidia cards because of better Linux support.

Can sungkum or somebody suggest to me better performing cards(with out upgrading the power supply)? Thank you.

Please post another thread, a 4670 would be the highest upgrade without changing out the PSU. It doesn't use any PCIe power connectors.