Upgrading Graphic Card in Dell Dimension 8400

HD4670 good performance for the money and does not need a power plug.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

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I have a dell dimension 8400 here are the specs

OS : Windows 7

BIOS : Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A04

Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.0GHz

Memory: 4096MB RAM

Card name: Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM)


I want to upgrade my graphic card so I can play more recent games such as Call of Duty 4 (possibly Modern Warefare 2), Left 4 Dead, Team fortress 2 etc. I can now play them at lowest settings fine, but I want to have higher settings. What graphic card can you guys recommend me that wont overheat my system? I am hoping to purchase one during the upcoming black friday. Please respond ASAP as I am in need of a new graphic card.

I am looking for the price range from $0 - $150

Rolli has provided a good option.

I assume you still have only the original 350w PSU which limits your options.

Also note that Dell recommends installing a card with a cooling fan when adding a faster graphics card, althought I had a 6600 GT in mine for several years without one with no issues.

What do you guys think about the Nvidia 8800 GT, can I use this card without changing my PSU, fan etc? My computer has all the default specs except the ram, I upgraded it to 4GB.

If your psu has combined 24-26Amps on the +12volt rail I would say yes.

You have an AGP or PCI-E slot?

Your GPU will be bottlenecked.

I recommend an HD4650.

If his PSU is like mine, then he has 28a on 12v circuits. But I still would not recommend the 8800GT. My 6600GT was pushing it I think and the 8800GT can use over 30w more at full load. The problem is the CPU alone is using something like 60w.

That cpu will severely bottleneck anything stronger than a Radeon HD 4350.

It's time to break down and get a new computer.

That cpu will severely bottleneck anything stronger than a Radeon HD 4350.


It's time to break down and get a new computer.

This next topics has been merged by Mousemonkey

What's a good graphic card for Dell Dimension 8400

I don't think the 4670 graphics card will be bottlenecked that much by a Pentium 4 3Ghz processor since the card is doing most of the work in games and it is not that strong of a graphics card. What are you basing this on edea?

Further, even if the processor bottlenecks it a little, won't it still give much better game performance than a slower card? I beleive it will.

By the way, are you sure your hyperthreading is turned on? I only asked because I used my Dell 8400 for 4 years before learning that the hypethreading was turned off and most likely had been since I purchased the computer new. When I turned it on I had a noticeable pickup in speed.

The graphics card will be extremely starved for data because the cpu won't be able to keep up. And the 4670 is much stronger than some people give it credit for. He should try a 4350 or 4550 they will still be massive upgrades from the gpu he has now.

The best solution would be to save the money that would be spent on this for a new pc.