Please help with AGP 8x

[robertomad]

Hi,

I currently have a Dimension 8300 and never been upgraded since I bought it 5-6 years ago. I'm planning to buy a new core i7 rig and planning to give this old pc to a relative. But I was thinking of upgrading the video card before doing this. I currently have NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200. Can I please ask any suggestion? my Budget is not that much probably less than £100.

Thank you,

Roberto.

 

[pinaplex]

i believe, the ATi HD3850 AGP is the best AGP card you can get

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-HD3850-512MB-Graphics/dp/B00145CQUC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1239918066&sr=8-2

 

[RazberyBandit]

For less than half the price of a 3850 ($100 to $150), you could get a X1650Pro. For a little bit more, you can find a few 2600Pro's and 2600XT's that fall in the $60-$80 range. Performance on them at lower resolutions is still quite good even in some modern games.

I guess we're looking at about a 1.5:1 Dollar to Pound conversion, so if you feel like spending the whole lot, go for a 3850. I'm just saying you don't have to. There are some decent options available at a lower cost.

 

[robertomad]

For less than half the price of a 3850 ($100 to $150), you could get a X1650Pro. For a little bit more, you can find a few 2600Pro's and 2600XT's that fall in the $60-$80 range. Performance on them at lower resolutions is still quite good even in some modern games.

I guess we're looking at about a 1.5:1 Dollar to Pound conversion, so if you feel like spending the whole lot, go for a 3850. I'm just saying you don't have to. There are some decent options available at a lower cost.

Thank you RazberyBandit, that is what I was hoping to save money. As I have stated I'm planning to build my new rig. By the way, are these NVIDIA? Thanks Again.

 

[AKM880]

Theres a HIS Digital HD 3650 I bought still have to install but by the looks of it, its awesome lol. What CPU do you have in this computer? And these are ATi cards.

 

[RazberyBandit]

No, they're ATI. Unfortunately, nVIDIA gave up on AGP long before ATI did, so your only nVIDIA alternative to the 5200 is the 6200, and it's performance wouldn't come close to any of the ATI cards I mentioned.

Consult the chart on this page, http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-gtx,2270-6.html for GPU comparative levels. Just remember that not all of those are available in AGP anymore.

 

[geofelt]

Hi,

I currently have a Dimension 8300 and never been upgraded since I bought it 5-6 years ago. I'm planning to buy a new core i7 rig and planning to give this old pc to a relative. But I was thinking of upgrading the video card before doing this. I currently have NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200. Can I please ask any suggestion? my Budget is not that much probably less than £100.

Thank you,

Roberto.

You are wasting your money buying an AGP card. It cant be used on your new i7 system. No modern motherboard I know of comes with an AGP slot, certainly no X58 board.

If you want to please your relative, then some of the ati suggestions might be good.

 

[Xstang]

You are wasting your money buying an AGP card. It cant be used on your new i7 system. No modern motherboard I know of comes with an AGP slot, certainly no X58 board.

If you want to please your relative, then some of the ati suggestions might be good.

Read the post first before getting in your expert chair!!!!!!! LOL

 

[geofelt]

Read the post first before getting in your expert chair!!!!!!! LOL

I reread the post, and it is not clear to me if the OP expected to use the upgraded vga card on his new pc, or if he just wanted to be nice to a relative.

 

[Xstang]

Well, anyways, one thing you should pay careful attention to is your Dells power supply. In a lot of the OEM pcs, the power supply is usually only "good enough" - 250-350 watts max.

Make sure to find a video card that doesn't need a cable hooked up directly from the power supply - one that only needs to draw power from the AGP slot itself.

The 3850, while a great video card for the money, besides needing a a connection from the power supply, would overstress it to the point of failure.

Another nice way to upgrade your PC before you give it to a relative would be to upgrade the ram. Looking at the spec sheet dell has on their website, it would need either DDR 333 or DDR 400 ram,with a maximum of 1gb per slot. Your pc has 4 slots, btw. If nothing else, it would be less hassle than upgrading your video card. Worse, you might want to keep it after finding it runs so much better!

Here's a link to some ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000147%20105233070&Description=ddr%20400&name=2GB%20-%204GB

Here's a link to your Dells specs:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8300/sm/specs.htm

Good luck!