Video Upgrade

[MBurke]

Hello.....after looking here for days my head is spinning trying to decide on a upgrade vid card for my used (new to me) Dell. Willing to spend up to $200.
Could I get some suggestions on what to start looking for ?
Specs:

Dell XPS 410 dual core 1.86
2 GB
2 - 250 gig hard drives
Stock Dell 350 watt power supply...soon to be replaced with a 500 w PC power & cooling psu
NVidia GeForce 7300 LE 512
in a stock Dell case
20" Acer monitor set on 1280 x 1024 but use 1024 x 768 some also


I have always been a Geforce user so I am kind of leaning that way unless something else is better right now. I don't do alot of heavy gaming. Race on line some with RFactor and NR2003
Thanks for any suggestions you send my way
Mike

 

[cusideabelincoln]

9800GT, GTS250, or GTX260. You might want to measure the inside of the case because the 250 and 260 are pretty long cards (up to 10.5").

 

[Bman123]

Might wanna think about a bottleneck here.You cpu speed is slo so if you go with a gtx 260 you may bottleneck the shit out of it at that res man.
I say get a 9800gt or gts 250

 

[Jacen]

If you don't do any heaving gaming then why not just go with a ATI 4850? Will keep you well within your budget, shouldn't bottleneck your cpu either. Just make sure it fits.

 

[MBurke]

Thanks for the help....I'll start looking.
I read good things about EVGA and XFX.....any pros/cons of either one of these ?
Thanks
Mike

I'm assuming the a pci 2 x16 card will work in a pci x16 motherboard ? Are they compatible ?

 

[nafhan]

At your monitor's resolution, you may want to check out a ATI 4670 or nVidia 9600GT as well. You could save a few bucks for a future upgrade

The pci express thing will not be an issue for you. With multiple graphics cards (SLI, etc) the extra bandwidth of pci express 2.0 can be helpful, but with a single card it will not usually make a difference.

 

[MBurke]

Thanks for the suggestions

 

[McRhea]

So... did the 9800 GT fit inside the Dell XPS 410 case? My co-worker isn't a big gamer, but the 256MB 7900 GS isn't cutting it for him anymore. He found this 9800 GT, and wants to know if it'll fit in the XPS 410 case... it should right?

I can't really think of any other cards to reccommend to him... a 4870 perhaps? Would that fit in the Dell case? He uses a 19" monitor, so max res would be 1280x1024. Maybe a 4770?

 

[cusideabelincoln]

I believe the 9800GT is only 9 (maybe 9.5) inches long. Just tell your co-worker to measure the length he has. The 7900GS is probably about 9" long.