billythekid

Need some advice people.
I have a Dell PC, its about 18 months old.

Its got an NVidia card at the moment, a GS7600 I think.

I want to upgrade it as I play a couple of games that need a much better card.

Any advice?

I would spend say £200 ish?

Thanks!

billythekid

Thank you mr/mrs/miss mod...

staffs Mike

One thing to be careful of if sending that sort of money is the power concern.

Most if not all £100+ cards require an additional supply of power via cable from the PSU. If your dell doesn't come with one (I don't believe the 7600GS needed this power) then you will have to use "molex" or 4 pin adapters to PCIe power (assuming of course it is PCIe and not AGP)

If your dell PSU doesn't have enough molex adapters spare then it will be very hard to use expensive graphics cards.

Something like the Nvidia 8600GT would avoid these sort of issues. They are about £45 now and will provide a healthy gain in peformance especially if you are playing on a 17/19" montior.

If you can power a more expensive card though, either the 9800GTX+ or ATi HD4850 provide the best bangs for bucks and will play pretty much any modern game at 1920 x 1200 (24" screens and above)

If it is an AGP card then the best you can do is the ATi HD3850 AGP.

Semper

ATI = HD4870
NVidia = GTX260.

I went for the GTX260. Power hungry though, both.

billythekid

OK I will take the lid off the case tonight and have a look see...

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

8800gt for about 80 odd quid is a decent card

Leslie

They say that the ATI 4850 is very good value for the money and its capabilities.

Les

chrisUK300

iTrader: (10)

NVIDIA 8800 GTS 512mb IMO best bang for buck card out at the moment.

Asus Nvidia GeForce EN8800GTS-HTDP-512M 8800 GTS 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 - AWD-IT.CO.UK

Hard to beat at £122

There is the 4850 but Ive heard they run very hot. Not used one yet, but can recommend the GTS had one for 6 months was very very impressive

Daz34

What screen resolution do you intend playing at?

billythekid

Ok, so an update.

Took the lid off, and the GFX card is plugged into the MOBO (PCIE) and then there is also a second plug thats got black and white wires going to it. I can post a pic if you want but its got 3 black and 3 white. The plug is 6 pin and has P12 printed on the side of it.

I tried to trace this cable back and as far as I can tell it goes straight into the PSU. My PSU is rated at 375W.

The PC is a Dell Dimension 9200.

So, which card should I get...

Thanks!

billythekid

Screen res, good question, best put the PC back together and check what i am running at...!

billythekid

1280x1024x32

I think this is the max my current card supports?

staffs Mike

Your card will no doubt support 1920 x 1200 if it is DVI, it's the monitor which will be maxed out at 1280 x 1024 (17 or 19" I'm guessing).

Dells Power Supplies are actually very good so any card mentioned here should be comfortable on your system.

As you seem to have a 6pin adapter that means you can happily run HD4850 which is around £110. As someone pointed out though they do run very hot with ATi's own cooler on, 80 degree's just doing 2D work actually. That said they only climb 5 degree's when gaming as it's all down to poor fan control.

Anyway. Your current screen is not very demanding for games at all so I would get one of these bargains.

I can't give you a direct link to the offer price because scan doesn't work like that, but this card
Scan Computers UK: 512MB Palit/XVision 9600GT, PCI-E 2.0, Mem1800MHz, DDR3, GPU650MHz, 64 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/S-Video

can be found on this page
Scan Computers UK: Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online

For £62. Great card and a good price.

Or this on from ebuyer, also fantastic value for money
Force3D HD 3870 512MB DDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer

If none of these float your boat there is the new Nvidia 9800GT which is a very good card for around £80

Any of the more expensive cards will be wasted at your current resolution and you wouldn't notice the difference.

billythekid

Hm, TBH I think I have been had with my current dell.

I paid a lot of dosh for it, £600+ IIRC and tbh its a pile of junk.
It does most things fine, but the one thing I use it for (FSX) its crap at. 15FPS on low sliders.

I have half tempted to just buy a new PC as I have a feeling that my CPU might also be holding things back. Its a dual core 1.8ghz (oc'd to 2 gig) but FSX is a bitch (what I mainly use the PC for) and I think my best bet is going to be looking for a single core high spec machine that can take 2 gfx cards???

billythekid

Right then, so... I have found 2 512 8800 GTS's on ebay.

One is an overcloced BFG G92 and the other is just standard PNY.

Which is best, and will these run ok on my system?

Thanks!

Daz34

I would get an ATI 4850 instead.

I currently use a 512 8800GTS and although it is a cracking card the 4850 is generally faster & less power hungry.

nVidia does now have hardware PhysX support though so if you play suitably enabled games then this could make a difference. How well it would work with a single gfx card is questionable though.

I wouldn't be too bothered about which card to get out of those two.
BFG don't overclock their cards too far & the PNY card will almost certainly match it. You wouldn't see a difference at your screen resolution really anyway.

Dr.No

I'd go with a 4850 as well... cheap as chips and very capable (much more so than 8800GT/GTS)

The GTX280 will be marginally quicker, but not enough to justify the price...

The 4850 does run HOT though - like it idles at about 80C!

DN

billythekid

Ok then, I am going to give the ATI card a try. I will report back once its in and running. Thanks!

billythekid

ATI installed, fairly happy so far. FSX has seen a healthy jump in FPS (about 5 or 6 FPS) will be trying Rfactor later.

Must say I think my CPU might be the bottle neck now...

john_s

iTrader: (1)

What CPU is it?

Dr.No

I upgraded my machine from a 7900GS to an 8800GT, which was SIGNIFICANTLY faster - and the 4850 is a leap ahead of the 8800GT again...

So - with you moving from a 7600GS you should see some HUGE increases in fps in more demanding games. Try Crysis for example... it'll crawl and be unplayable on anything but pretty low settings on your 7600... but will fly on the 4850 at the highest!

Enjoy...

Daz34

FSX like most simulations is cpu bound so you will see little if no improvement in frame rate.

billythekid

Yes, FSX is only running at about 5fps faster now, however this has taken me from 15fps to 20fps, with a few more notches up on gfx level so fairly happy with that.

RFactor on the other hand is a LOT better. Much happier with that.

In terms of CPU, I dunno TBH. Its a dual core if that helps, intel, 1.8ghz.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

cpu bottleneck...

billythekid

Will my MOBO support a faster CPU?

I guess you need to know the specs now...?