8600gtsGUY

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Hi guys
I currently have a 8600GTS nvidea card in my Dell Dimention 9200,my question is what would be the best card i could put in the system for multiplayer gaming online,the system has a 375watt power supply,vista business installed on system with 3gb ram,Q6600 Quadcore
many thanks too anybody that can help :)
if you need more info let me know
thanks again
 
Dell PSUs are high quality and rated oddly. Those cards should be fine.
On issue is if you have a "slim" version of the computer. In that case you will need a low profile card which will greatly limit your options.
 

8600gtsGUY

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i have the silver box in the link http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?os=WLH&catid=-1&dateid=-1&impid=-1&osl=EN&typeid=-1&formatid=-1&servicetag=&SystemID=DIM_PNT_9200_XPS_410&hidos=WW1&hidlang=en&TabIndex=&scanSupported=True&scanConsent=False


i have also noticed that my monitor dosnt show up in devices section of vista,could their be any reason for that?......i mean its obviously working as i am viewing on that monitor...but it just dosnt look like its installed in devices.
display adaptor shows up though
 

paperfox

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A more advanced way to look at your PSU load is to look at how many Amps are on the 12 Volt rails of the PSU rather than the number of Watts. As jyjjy says Dell rates them weird saying that their PSUs are 350Ws but the 12V amps are 38A. (which is good for that wattage, apparently)

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=894933
This post is almost exactly the same as your situation.

PCIE 2.0 is backwards compatible with 1.0 just you are halfing the bandwith assuming both are at x16. This wont affect you with the cards you are looking to buy.
 
Yes. Dell PSU's don't have an over abundance of total wattage, but they drive high amp ratings on the 12 volt rails, THAT is what is most important when considering a mid to high end graphic card. For all practical purpose's, and the element they are designed to work, Dell PSU's are very good PSU's. Your PSU will power most upper mid range GPU's. I would probably go with a 5750, which is a huge step up from what you have. All PCIe cards are backwards compatible, all the way back to PCIe 1.0. No worries there.

The manufactures "suggest" a PSU with much more total wattage, because they have to cover their bases and take into account there are many PSU's sold which do not have strong amp ratings. By the time you get into the 450-500 watt range, even the cheap no name PSU's are usually pushing enough amps to run most any card. (I am not in anyway suggesting to anyone to buy one of them though)
There are PSU's out there that rate 450 watts total power, but may only drive 20amps on the 12 volt rails. When you get into the finer specs of the card, it will give an amp rating as well to go along with that PSU rating. That is the real number you are looking for. So when you are looking at a PSU, you have to do your homework to figure out if it really does fit your needs. The units you see recommended regularly in the forums here will drive enough amps on the 12 volt rails to power any GPU you want to plug in.
Dell isn't going to tell you anything, but what you do want to confirm if you call them is the amps your particular PSU has available on the 12 volt rails, then confirm this is enough for the GPU you select. This is what is important, forget about the total overall wattage.