Upgrade or new

[wissotalake]

Hello,
My wife has a Dell XPS 435T/9000. It has an I7920, 2.67Ghz with 8Gb memory, seagate 750G hard drive and a Radeon HD5450. I am trying to improve her gaming performance, specifically world of warcraft. I think a new video card is need because there is some lag when the video settings are high. Would you agree or is there something else I should try to upgrade? What video card would be a good choice, looking to stay under $200.

 

[megamanx00]

Radeon 6870 is the way to go.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161396

A new video card will go a long way with that machine. A 5450 is as low end as you can get so a 6870 will be a huge improvement. That machine was designed with a Radeon 4870 or GTX 260 in mind so a 6870 should be fine as long as your PSU is at least 500W. Also check to see if it has two PCI-E connectors. If you want something that will work with one PCI-E power connector then get a 6850 instead which is still a big improvement

 

[xtremegamer2da-max]

i second the motion

 

[wissotalake]

Radeon 6870 is the way to go.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161396

A new video card will go a long way with that machine. A 5450 is as low end as you can get so a 6870 will be a huge improvement. That machine was designed with a Radeon 4870 or GTX 260 in mind so a 6870 should be fine as long as your PSU is at least 500W. Also check to see if it has two PCI-E connectors. If you want something that will work with one PCI-E power connector then get a 6850 instead which is still a big improvement

Power supply says 475W max. Will that be good enough?

 

[megamanx00]

It should be. After all nothing is overclocked and the only thing odd about your system is the 8GB (X58 boards are best with triple channel not dual channel memory, but the difference is small). With a 6870 your system shouldn't need more than 400W, and will probably pull around 420 from the wall in the worst case. That PSU probably only has one PCI-E power cable though, so if you don't want to deal with the adapters you could get the less power hungry 6850.

SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908

Dell uses rather decent PSUs with their XPS lines so you shouldn't have to worry about it even if you go with the 6870

 

[wissotalake]

Thanks everyone for the posts. I have purchased my new video card and can't wait to get it installed.