Replacing an ancient ati x850 in an ancient machine
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Graphics Cards
- Dell Studio Xps
- ATI
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Graphics
- Product
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
icebox
June 9, 2012 11:04:35 PM
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?
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More about : replacing ancient ati x850 ancient machine
GTS450 would work http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
HD5450 would not perform as well as the old card and the GT440 is usually overpriced
HD5450 would not perform as well as the old card and the GT440 is usually overpriced
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Best solution
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=N82E168...
Zotac GT 440 2GB PCI-E 2.0 ($64.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
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.

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=N82E168...
Zotac GT 440 2GB PCI-E 2.0 ($64.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
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.
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icebox
June 10, 2012 4:53:05 AM
icebox
June 10, 2012 4:54:19 AM
icebox
June 10, 2012 7:33:46 AM
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/ite...
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/ite...
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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
Hay, recon-uk, did you see recon-us?
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/44954-63-tomshardware
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icebox
June 10, 2012 2:55:13 PM
icebox
June 11, 2012 3:15:43 AM
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