New Graphics Card

Jgarza27

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Dec 6, 2012
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Hey, this is my first post on toms hardware but a friend told me this was the place to go for my questions. I am trying to upgrade my graphics card and I was curious which card you would use or which would be the best for my money and power etc. I am currently looking at the Radeon HD 7770 and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti. I will post everything I can about my computer and if there is anything else you need to know to help me let me know. I just want to know which of those cards would be better for games like total war, mechwarrior, etc. or even if there is a better one I don't even know about. I'm severely limited by my power but I've read on some forums that Dell underrates their power specs, and generally graphics cards over rate so maybe I could get away with a higher power one like around 400. Anyway I'll post what I know and the link to my specs on here. Any help is greatly appreciated. This is my first time doing this and I am super nervous about accidentally wrecking my machine.




ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/Common/inspiron-560_user%27s%20guide_en-us.pdf ---I have the Dell Inspiron 570MT




Window Version Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Processor
Manufacture AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 630 Processor @
Clock Speed 2.8GHz
L2 Cahce Size 2048
Memory
Available Memory 71.74%
Page File Size 8898.0MB
Available Page File 100.02%
Virtual Memory 14785.0MB
Available Virtual Memory 86.63%
Memory Slot1 [DIMM_A]
Memory Slot2 [DIMM_B]
Network Card
Adaptor Microsoft Teredo Tunneling Adapter
Storage
Drive Type Drive Size Total Available Space Used Space
C:NTFS916.82Gb550.46Gb366.37Gb
D:
E:
F:
G:
H:
I:
J:
Hardware
Type Description
DVD/CD-ROM Drives CD-ROM Drive
Disk Drives ST31000528AS ATA Device Canon iP6220DStorage USB Device Generic- Compact Flash USB Device Generic- MS/MS-Pro USB Device Generic- SD/MMC USB Device Generic- SM/xD Picture USB Device
Display Adapters ATI Radeon HD 4200 256MB
IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers ATA Channel 0 ATA Channel 1 ATA Channel 2 ATA Channel 3 Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller
Keyboards USB Input Device
Mice and Other Pointing Devices Microsoft USB IntelliMouse Optical
Monitors Generic PnP Monitor
Sound Devices Realtek High Definition Audio ATI High Definition Audio Device
USB Controllers Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
 

Dnx

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Nov 25, 2012
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from the hd 7770 and the 550ti, pick the hd.7770m according to that manual you linked, your pc has a 300w psu, so it would not support neither the 550ti or the 7770, so you may have to get something different.
 

Dnx

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Nov 25, 2012
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i heard this before, i just always try to get on the safe side, better say safe than sorry i belive, but thing is, i heard before that the 7750 -7770 can run on a 380w, but a 7770 on a stock dell 300w plus the use that the psu has, i wouldnt not risk that much. but like i said thats just my opinion.
 

Jgarza27

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Dec 6, 2012
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So should I go with the 7770? Or is there another one that's a bit better but still around the same power requirement? Thanks for all of the replies btw, making me feel much better about this.
 

Jgarza27

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Dec 6, 2012
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10,510
A sincere thank you for all of the replies and input. I am going to go with the Radeon 7770 and will repost once I have installed it and let everyone know how it goes. Thanks again!