cheddar bob

Following on from a previous thread i'm thinking of upgrading my graphics card.

I have a Dell Dimension 4550, P4 2.66, Intel 845PE, 512MB RAM, 120GB, GeForce4 MX 420, 17inch Flatscreen

AGP spec: (don't know how much of this is relevant)
Video controller - AGP 4X
Bus speed - AGP: 66 MHz
one AGP connector (172 pins)
connector data width (maximum) 32 bits
AGP bus protocols 4x/2x modes at 1.5 V

I'm not looking for anything amazing as my computer is nearly two years old but I've seen a ATi Radeon 9800PRO 128MB here http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=63700 which seems a reasonable price.

Will I be able to run this card fine on my computer? Or will I need to upgrade other things? How complicated is it to fit/install? (I've only ever fitted a CD-R drive on my old system so this is a bit more technical)

Thanks In Advance

Scooby7

Hi it is good to upgrade to a AGP graphics card the problem with your system is really the card you where looking at on ebuyer has really been designed to work in a 8X AGP slot so by fitting it on your motherboard it will in theory only be able to work at half is speed.

As for fitting its a peice of cake to fit one of these cards just pushes in with a little clip on the back dependent on motherboard and one screw to hold it in place.

all depends what you need to card for IE. playing games or just slightly better graphics??

JayPSC

You won't notice much difference (if any) between 4x/8x anyway. £140 is a decent price, still one of the best cards you can get for <£250

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

Correct - there is no detectable diff between AGP x4 and x8. And the card is a good one. But one slight thing: in theory you could change from nVidia gfx to ATI without problems, but it isn't always that simple. If you aren't certain of your ability to change over, you might want to think about something like a GForce FX5900. Performance is very slightly less, but you can just swap it in and the same drivers will work. Just a thought. But the 9800 is the better card.


M

JayPSC

Yup, swapping to the 9800 will definitely require a reinstall of windows.

BlkKnight

Dunno if it is required, but it it certainly recommended.

Nvidia (and ATI) are known to break a machine if the other type of card is installed. Is is intentional? I don't know.

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

Changing from nVidia to ATI is usually easier than vice versa. That said, as an experiment I swapped ATI to nVidia on a dual-boot Suse9.0/Windows2k machine without doing ANY preparation (like deleting old drivers) and both OSes worked fine. The converse swap on the XP box was even simpler.

The process will probably be painless, but you should be aware that it can go pear-shaped.


M

cheddar bob

Cheers for the advice,

It's mainly for gaming, there's nothing much really wrong with what I have, can play most recent games with low settings on 1028 x 768. Only the odd game like Thief3/Deus Ex aren't compatible at all. Would still be nice to upgrade though, that ATi 9800PRO seems to be a good price, a Nvidia GeForce FX 5900XT is £20 more expensive @ £156 but how would that compare? Might be worth sticking to Nvidia if changing to ATi means more hassle & might cause some problems?

really wanted to stick to my budget of £120 but when I seen the 9800PRO for £136 was willing to strech that bit extra

As long as I'll notice an improvement upgrading only the graphics card

cheddar bob

After a quick google search found this answer (on some forum) to someone asking the most painless & troublefree way to change from nVidia to ATi:

Does this sound right?

I don't fancy spending an extra £20 to stay with nVidia for a GeForce FX 5900XT when a ATi Radeon 9800PRO 128MB is probably the better card. Should following the above quote make changing painless or shall I just get the nVidia to play it safe?

Cheers.

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

Go with the 9800 and the advice.


M

cheddar bob

Thanks Meridian.

Looks like until I find a cheap PSU to upgrade that is compatible with my Dell Dimension 4550 tower I will have to wait (only found 1 so far @ $149.00 ). Stock power supply is 250Watt (345Watt peak) which will not be enough for the 9800Pro

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

Serves you right for buying a Dull.....

As for whether the current supply will work - try it before buying, you might be surprised. But if it fails to POST (remember the aux power connector on the card: it won't work without it) or keeps rebooting, then get the new PSU. And a new case. And a new motherboard....

M