New Card

P

Pocket

Geek Trainee
Hi. I've been looking around lately for a new graphics card, and all I've found is a bunch of stuff I just don't understand. so I thought I'd try talking to someone that may know a thing or two about computers. I'm on a very stock Dell desktop (like in the comercials), and all I'm wanting to do is play some half descent pc games. I'm not talking Half-life 2 or anything, but more like Homeworld 2 or some good rts's or rpg's. The only problem I've had with some games is that the system just can't handle some of the more complex scenery and texturing. So I need something relatively cheep (under 100 bucks), and just good enough to handle some basic games. Any suggestions would be very helpful. Thanks.
 
We need to know a bit about your system architecture to be able to recommend a video card for you. Namely, whether or not your system has AGP or if you'll be stuck with PCI.
 
Anti-Trend said:
We need to know a bit about your system architecture to be able to recommend a video card for you. Namely, whether or not your system has AGP or if you'll be stuck with PCI.
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And which country the 100 bucks will be spent would also be helpful!
 
Pocket said:
I'm on a very stock Dell desktop
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What exatly is the name of the dell desktop there should be the name of it somwere on the tower, what i mean by the name is eg (emachines 150dvd).
 
Ok. I'm in the US, the computers name I think is a Dimension 2400, and I'll be stuck using PCI. Anything els?
 
Pocket said:
Ok. I'm in the US, the computers name I think is a Dimension 2400, and I'll be stuck using PCI. Anything els?
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Unfortunately, a PCI card will not perform nearly as well as an AGP card, and is more expensive than an equivilent AGP or PCIE video card. No matter how good your PCI video card is, it's going to choke on polygon and pixel-shader intensive games. HL2 is just such a game.

If it was me in your shoes, I would honestly not bother spending money to upgrade that system. Instead, I would consider it a non-gaming machine and turn my attentions towards building a new system with gaming in mind sometime in the future. Someone on these forums will likely give you contradictory advice, but I stick by my guns. PCI bandwidth is abysmal, and modern video cards need a lot of bandwidth. In addition, Dell PCs are notoriously proprietarty. This makes upgrading the whole system to accomodate a better card troublesome -- you'll have completely rebuilt the PC by the time it'll be suitable for gaming, which is a waste of time & resources.

All the best,
-AT
 
yup, have to agree with AT there, the fact that its only PCI is enough to make most people cringe but its a dell as well and i dont think you've got a decent chance of upgrading that system without a lot of hassle...build a new one!
 
In that case, I'll do just that, and put the cash I was saving toward a new system. Thanks for the advice! :D
 
well thats what we're here for, if you need help deciding on the new system you know where to come...
 
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