Looking for new Graphics Card for Inspiron 530

[chiguy]

Hello everyone, I'm looking to purchase a new graphics card for a 5 year old Dell Inspiron 530. Here are some specs I've gathered, hopefully it will help figuring out what I can use. My kids and I play games on the PC, a lot of Minecraft and various other games. Looking for something that will help improve low FPS issues. Let me know if you need any other info that could help narrow down the selection. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Dell Inspiron 530
Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 2
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E7400 @ 2.80 GHz
Memory: 8GB
System Type: 64 bit Operating System
Graphics card : Intel G33/G31 Express Chipset Family - total: 286MB Memory
500w power supply

 

[hang-the-9]

Anything will help you improve gaming on that system over the onboard video. Due to the CPU, I'd say the Radeon 7770 would match the system well, anything over that would be held back by the CPU. Even a lower end card like the 6570 will be a huge improvement for the system if you were looking for something under $70.

 

[chiguy]

would a cheap graphics card like this work or would it not be worth it?

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Express-Graphics-01G-P3-1302-LR/dp/B0049MPQA4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1386863808&sr=1-1&keywords=evga+01G-P3-1302-LR

 

[hang-the-9]

would a cheap graphics card like this work or would it not be worth it?

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Express-Graphics-01G-P3-1302-LR/dp/B0049MPQA4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1386863808&sr=1-1&keywords=evga+01G-P3-1302-LR

It will be faster but it's not worth it for that speed at all. For games, nothing short of the 6570 is really worth getting. The 8400GS is ranked 579 on the video card charts at PasMark, the 6570 is 221. Cards that can actually play games at any sort of decent quality and resolution are in the 250 rank. Anything else is hugely compromised for either old games or very low quality settings. That CPU will run games pretty well, getting a slow video card is a waste. The 8400GS will be faster than the on board video, but it's like buying a kid one single gummy bear instead of a bag when he asks for a candy. Sure it's technically a candy, but will anyone be happy with it?

 

[chiguy]

Ok, good to know! So will any of these cards be something I'm looking to get?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600144218&IsNodeId=1&name=Radeon%20HD%206570&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=6150412&SID=1xta35uxezlvr

I'm assuming they would all work with my computer and where I should start looking. Any suggestions from the list?

 

[hang-the-9]

Ok, good to know! So will any of these cards be something I'm looking to get?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600144218&IsNodeId=1&name=Radeon%20HD%206570&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=6150412&SID=1xta35uxezlvr

I'm assuming they would all work with my computer and where I should start looking. Any suggestions from the list?

Yes, all will work, and assuming you have a tower system, this will do well http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161422

 

[chiguy]

I have the larger Inspiron tower, not the slim version.