Replacing an ancient ati x850 in an ancient machine

[icebox]

I have an old dell xps gen 4 (from 2005) that until today was running fine for the uses it gets. The video card in it, an at the time impressive ATI x850, died. I'm looking for something that will replace it and not be too expensive. My son does play some not state of the art games on it, so I don't want something so stripped down that it wont work well. The monitor attached is a 1900x1200 monitor that came with the system. I'd think that just about anything on the market day would outperform an 7 year old card, wouldn't it? I don't want to spend more than $100 on a card for this box if I don't have to as it's not worth it. I was looking at the ATI 5450 and Nvidia 440. The slot it's going into is from 2005, and obviously isn't x16 like these cards are. What performance loss from the card specs would i expect to see because of that? And is there some other sort of card I should consider?

Thanks

 

[rolli59]

GTS450 would work http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127606
HD5450 would not perform as well as the old card and the GT440 is usually overpriced

 

[fantastik250]

When you open your case, it should roughly look like this

And it's a silver color case, correct?

Your computer supports a PCI-E x16 slot from researching your computer.

There are a couple of cards that doesn't use power cords. In fact the PCI-E x16 slot will be enough to supply the power.

HIS 7750 1GB PCI-E 3.0 ($109.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161403

Zotac GT 440 2GB PCI-E 2.0 ($64.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500235

Don't worry about PCI-E 3.0, 2.0, or 1.0. All PCI-E slots are backwards compatible. Also you won't max out the bandwidth or have lower performance because these cards won't max it out anyways, neither do some of today's mid range cards.

Make sure you have a x16 slot (which you already do)

Overall, I'd suggest a 7750 since it has lower power consumption than the 6670. But if price is a concern then the GT 440 is a good value too.

 

[rolli59]

Except for the known no video issue in ver1.x slot with a ver2.1 card (pretty much any AMD/ATI after HD5xxx series) unless manufacturer of the motherboard came with a BIOS update.

 

[fantastik250]

+1^

I forgot to mention about 2.1 cards not working 1.0 slots issue.

 

[nforce4max]

If all else go for a cheap Radeon 4k series or a cheap Geforce 8800/9800gt as they are a sure thing to work with older boards while still being able to manage modern games on reduced settings. However they do run hot and draw plenty of power.

 

[icebox]

Best answer selected by icebox.

 

[icebox]

thanks for all the help guys. I'm going to get a 7750. not too powerful, but looks like it'll get the job done for the next couple of years until this box gets replaced.

 

[Pyree]

What is the CPU, the 7750 could be bottlenecked by the CPU.

 

[icebox]

It's a Pentium 4 3.2 ghz. This was one of the best at the time.

 

[Pyree]

You will have major bottleneck. Probably something like a 4670, 5570, 6570 PCIe 2.0 would be a better choice. e.g.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=365401&CatId=3669

 

[Pyree]

Yeah, the P4s are pretty much limited to around the performance of 3850 (see various discussion on AGP 3850 with P4 combination).

Hay, recon-uk, did you see recon-us?
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/44954-63-tomshardware

 

[icebox]

You will have major bottleneck. Probably something like a 4670, 5570, 6570 PCIe 2.0 would be a better choice.

When you say bottleneck do you mean loads of artifacts or the screen freezes, or just that its going to run slower than advertised?

 

[rolli59]

Slower than capable of since the CPU can not keep up with it.

 

[Pyree]

^+1

So you will be wasting money buying a gpu any faster than 3850/4670 level of performance e.g. 7750 is overkill.

 

[icebox]

Yeah I'm not planning on wasting money on a 7700 series card anymore. I'll probably grab a 5500 series card now. Learned my forum lesson about jumping on best answer too quickly. Live and learn. Thanks all.

 

[Pyree]

No problem. You are welcome.