Graphics card for XPS 400 with 375W Power supply?

[cusconillow]

Hello everyone! This is my first post on this forum. I recently salvaged an XPS 400 and started to upgrade it (somewhat) to replace my rather aging Compaq Presario. I do not know a ton about computer but the XPS 400 seemed newer and better than my presario and it was free so I thought it would be a good choice. Only problem is, after I got it up and running and Dragon Age: Origins installed, the game told me that it failed to find a compatible video card. So I opened up the Device Manager and discovered that I have a Radeon X300/X550/X1050. I know next to nothing about video cards yet I need a good one because I'd like to be able to make this a somewhat cheap and decent casual gaming computer. I know it has a 375W power supply and I am looking for the best graphics card that can use that amount of wattage and is still cheap. I do not plan on playing extremely high performing games but would like to be able to play Dragon Age, Oblivion, and Skyrim (When it comes out) at somewhat decent video settings. So what do you guys suggest? I really appreciate the help. And if you need more specs, ou can find the documentation here: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps400/sm/specs.htm

 

[4745454b]

That 375W PSU you have is a 30A 12V PSU. This means you can run most mainstream video cards. I suggest the 5770/6770. You could put a 6850 in there, but I'm not sure about your CPU. (and I'm to lazy to look it up...)

 

[cusconillow]

That 375W PSU you have is a 30A 12V PSU. This means you can run most mainstream video cards. I suggest the 5770/6770. You could put a 6850 in there, but I'm not sure about your CPU. (and I'm to lazy to look it up...)

The CPU is a Intel® Pentium® 4 Socket-T with Hyper-Threading or Dual-Core support with a 2MB Cache.

Is the 6850 cheap? And I'm guessing the 6850 is a Radeon?

 

[4745454b]

Yes its a radeon.

If you have a P4 I'd actually get the 5750/5770. 6850 way to much GPU for such a bad CPU.

 

[cusconillow]

Do you think I'd be able to get a decent CPU and GPU for a reasonable price that will be able to play the next wave of games that will be coming out soon? Such as Skyrim.

 

[4745454b]

The problem is your P4. To old and slow to handle current games. While some 945 chipsets can handle a C2D, I doubt Dell wrote a bios so that you could. (they'd rather sell you a new machine...) Probably best to put a 5750/5770 in there and call it a day.

 

[cusconillow]

Alright. Thanks man.