Seeking graphics card advice for Dell 5150, 300w psu

[hydealexander]

Hi, I'm currently running the following setup and would like to know what is the best card "I can get away with."

Dell Dimension 5150
Pentium D 2.8
Windows 7 Home Premium
64-bit operating system
2 X 1GB PC2 4200 240 Pin DDR2 single-channel ram (I will be upgrading to 4 X 1GB soon, so consider that the spec)

CPU-Z tells me my MoBo-
Model is 0HJ054
Chipset is i945P/PL/G/GZ

Intergrated Graphics - Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME (Intel 82945G says the device manager)

PSU Model - N305P-03
305 watt
I'm not sure but I think it's 230 input and 12V, 18Amp output. Er, whatever this means.


Basically I'm looking for a card somewhere in the 512mb/1gb range that will fit a PCI Express x1 or x16 slot (Im not sure if the 5150 has 2.0 compatibility or not) and wont be anywhere near pushing the limit of the PSU. I know this is going to have people shaking their heads but I won't be upgrading the PSU. I'm simply wondering what's the best card I can get for the 300watt, possibly 18amp, 4GB ddr2 ram system that I have.

There's no specific games that I want it to run. It already runs the old games I have fine, I'd just like to put some graphics and ram into it to spruce it up a bit and see what it can do. Price isn't really an issue since it's more than likely going to be old cards I'm figuring.
Oh, and I don't want overclocking and won't be going past 1280X1024 resolution.

 

[hydealexander]

When you say bios update, do you mean download some drivers or an actual physical upgrade?

I'm guessing this bios update is what might get something like the gtx 750 to run on my machine.

Is there another part of the forum I should post on with this question? Perhaps even though it's a graphics card question, an 'upgrading old dell' thread might be a better idea?


I'd still like to pursue this question though and discuss graphics cards. The main thing is still low-wattage.

 

[hydealexander]

Anyone like to name some other cards? Or is the GTX 750 TI about the best in terms of low-wattage for that era of machine?

The non-TI version also seems like a good low-wattage idea.

 

[JUICEhunter]

750 or ti are your best options no doubt as they were the first Maxwell GPUs to launch and all other GPUs are using older tech.

Processor wise you'll be holding either GPU back a little but these GPUs will give you the best gaming performance on your system.

 

[hydealexander]

"Processor wise you'll be holding either GPU back a little"

Only a little eh? That sounds promising actually.

I know the gtx 750 isn't benchmark nowadays but considering my integrated intel graphics have let me play stuff like Fallout New Vegas without much hitch, I'm quite looking forward to how it holds up.