Seeking New Graphics Card - Need Assistance

[The Smoker]

Hello everyone, newbie techie here.

I'm looking to upgrade my graphics card (hopefully without upgrading the PSU), but I'm not quite sure what I need to look out for to make sure my purchase is compatible with my computer.

My Specs:
-Intel Pentium 4 Processor (1794 MHz)
-Motherboard Manufactured by Dell, Model:07W080
-1024 MB Ram
-And I -believe- my PSU is 250 watt.

I'm looking to spend around 50$, but I could go up to 75$.

If you have any other upgrade recommendations, particularly in reference to the motherboard or PSU, they are most welcome.

Thanks for helping a noob!

 

[Stick'o ram]

I'm having trouble looking up specs on your motherboard, one site says one thing, one says another. Download PC Wizard 2008 and post back information in your motherboard tab.

Good Luck

 

[The Smoker]

The only other info on the motherboard that I'm getting from PCWiz, aside from what I've already posted, is:

BIOS: Mitac International
Chipset: Intel i845GL
BUS's: LPC, PCI, AGP(X4), USB, SMBus/i2c Bus

 

[Stick'o ram]

Its going to be hard finding a good graphics card that will work with your powersupply, but it won't matter to much because you only have AGP 4x anyways.

This one might work but you will want somebody elses suggestion on whether or not you can power it, it says 250 watt min. but you have a p4

Geforce

Radeon

however if I could I would go for the geforce, or try to get a better psu

 

[link590o]

well, there's good news and bad.

the good news is, i was in a similar situation with my dell. i have probably the same 250watt psu, and a similar motherboard setup. i instead have regular PCI slots. despite these limitations, i threw in almost the exact same video card as the radeon stick suggested. i have the 128mb version however.

the good news is, since i was able to upgrade without changing my psu, that likely means you won't have to upgrade your psu either.

the bad news is the radeon 9250 is a terrible card in my experience. i'm attempting to play call of duty 2 on my system using that video card. on average, my frame rates never exceed 30. they might spike occasionally, but that's only because i go into an area with bland textures that don't require a lot of power to render.

that being said, you can feasibly upgrade. but you aren't getting very much in terms of a performance increase by using a card like that one.

but given you current set up, budget, and power supply limitations, i would say, go for the radeon.

if you read some of the bad reviews given to the geforce, it will tell you that it is not suited for direct x9. only direct x8.

my radeon 9250 128mb works with dx9. not very well, but average. at least it works. so i would try for the radeon. that card has twice the memory mine has. and you also have twice the RAM that i do. so at least your system will deliver usable performance.

 

[nickc]

the 5500 is a better card than the 9250. but u're psu is small for any video card. u should find a good brand at least 350wat.