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  #1  
Old April 4th, 2006, 01:05 AM
intothevoidx80 intothevoidx80 is offline
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video cards

I need to upgrade the video card on my computer to play guild wars. The requirements are a geforce 4 or greater or a radeon 8500 or greater. I'm not sure whether I need an AGP or PCI card for my dell dimension 4600. So my question is how do I find out what type of card I need and what card would be best ( price wise and quality) for my computer?



thanks
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  #2  
Old April 4th, 2006, 01:23 AM
ixmike88 ixmike88 is offline
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Probably find out your current video card, then google it, you could probably check if it's AGP or PCI, sorry I can't be of more help.

You can go to www.newegg.com or www.pricewatch.com to compare prices.
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  #3  
Old April 4th, 2006, 01:28 AM
intothevoidx80 intothevoidx80 is offline
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Yea I googled the name of my current card ( intel extreme graphics 2 ) and couldn't find anywhere that sold it or said whether it was PCI or AGP. I dunno maybe I wasn't looking hard enough. Also how do I know what power supply I will need...?

Last edited by intothevoidx80; April 4th, 2006 at 02:07 AM.
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  #4  
Old April 4th, 2006, 02:18 AM
photolady photolady is offline
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According to Dell your computer has a AGP slot. An 8x, so you could get an AGP video card. And your power supply is only 250W so you'd have to upgrade that too. Normally, most any power supply will work in a Dell case. Antec are the best, but there is also Enermax, Enlight, Sparkle, ect. Check those at www.newegg.com.

The link shows what's in your Dell 4600.

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...cs.htm#1084976

Last edited by photolady; April 4th, 2006 at 02:21 AM.
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  #5  
Old April 4th, 2006, 02:38 AM
intothevoidx80 intothevoidx80 is offline
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Ok cool, but do I have to get a new power source or are there existing video cards with the requirements that I need that can run on 250 watts? Hmm I found this card which Meets the requirement of radeon 8500+ but I don't know what the power supply is? http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...Tab=0&NoMapp=0

Last edited by intothevoidx80; April 4th, 2006 at 02:43 AM.
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  #6  
Old April 4th, 2006, 03:51 AM
photolady photolady is offline
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If you are wanting to play newer games, you're going to have to get something in a better card. Those minimum requirements are just that, minimum. You'll find out that the card you thought would work isn't the right one for those games. Use them as a guide line only but upgrade to something better and faster. And minimum requirements usually mean you won't get the desired effects on those games.

Remember the old saying "you get what you pay for", well, that holds true for video cards as well.
And newegg is the best place to buy hardware for your computer. They don't argue if you need to return something, unlike tigerdirect. I don't ttust tiger direct. The link below shows better cards than that radeon. That 9250 is a low end video card, very low end.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ice=&maxPrice=

As for your power supply, that is so low I'm surprised you haven't had problems with it before now.
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  #7  
Old April 4th, 2006, 03:58 AM
intothevoidx80 intothevoidx80 is offline
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What problems does a low power supply cause?
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  #8  
Old April 4th, 2006, 04:03 AM
photolady photolady is offline
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Most times, it doesn't have enough power to run your components. And if it blows out, it can take out most of the hardware in your computer.

Go to the link below and put your system in the tester. It will tell you if you have enough power to run that new card.

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp
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  #9  
Old April 4th, 2006, 04:13 AM
intothevoidx80 intothevoidx80 is offline
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I'm not sure what to put for RAM on that documentation it says

Architecture


Dual Channel DDR SDRAM

Memory connectors


four

Memory capacities


128-, 256-, 512-MB or 1-GB

Minimum memory


128 MB DDR SDRAM

Maximum memory


4 GB

Memory type


PC2700 (333-MHz) or PC3200 (400-MHz) DDR SDRAM (non-EC
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  #10  
Old April 4th, 2006, 04:33 AM
photolady photolady is offline
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Right click on "My Computer" then select Properties in the list. It's the last entry in the contextual menu. The first tab "General" will tell you how much ram/memory is in your computer.

And if that says more than 512 you may need to use this program to tell if you have more than 1 stick of ddr.

http://www.cybertechhelp.com/downloa...t-home-edition

Download it, install it, open it, and click on the plus sign beside Motherboard, then click on the entry that says memory.

Last edited by photolady; April 4th, 2006 at 04:37 AM.
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  #11  
Old April 4th, 2006, 08:54 PM
intothevoidx80 intothevoidx80 is offline
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According to the first link you sent me I am at 235 watts with a geforce 6800 video card. Is that pushing it?
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  #12  
Old April 4th, 2006, 09:33 PM
photolady photolady is offline
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yes, that's pushing it. At least a 400w is what you'll need. You counted everything in your computer, drives, memory, vid card, extra fans, etc? Did you also, put percentages in for surge compensation and capacitor aging? Because that raises the amount of psu you'll need. I did this on your computer parts and got a output of you needing 343W psu.

Last edited by photolady; April 4th, 2006 at 09:41 PM.
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  #13  
Old April 4th, 2006, 09:48 PM
life2atreus life2atreus is offline
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i would say so... you are 103 watts over and with computer start up and not to mention capacitor degrading, you just need a better power supply.. newegg has them cheap in the 400watt range
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  #14  
Old April 4th, 2006, 10:43 PM
intothevoidx80 intothevoidx80 is offline
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Ok so what to choose? I see some for around 40$ but I am assuming they are junk? Also the link you sent me was for PCI cards and you said my computer was AGP....?

Last edited by intothevoidx80; April 4th, 2006 at 10:45 PM.
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  #15  
Old April 4th, 2006, 11:20 PM
photolady photolady is offline
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Sorry about the post on PCI-E cards. See this one below. It's priced right with a $10 rebate. Same card I have too.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130278

And power supply is something you should not be cheap on. And Antec are the best. Don't go cheapy, no $30 power supply is going to work, it's cheaply made, thus not outputting the power you need for years. Some even can go out and take your other computer parts with it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817103935
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