Updating my video card

[Juanra]

I have a Dell Dimension 8300 with a 305W power supply with two 12V rails of 18A each. I'm looking for a card not above $200. Preferably Nvidia Geforce 7 series.

 

[pdyckman@comcas]

AGP or PCI-express? I did not look this up. The Nvidia based video processors in the 7000 series are excellent in some cases. I suggest looking them up @ Tiger Direct & New Egg and studying all the specs and making a decision on that.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

This will do perfectly.

 

[Juanra]

Two things I forgot to mention:
1) I'm AGP.
2) I need a VGA connector. I've tried using adapters with my DVI slot in my FX5700LE and nothing works.

I was thinking of the PNY 7600GS 512MB AGP because it does not exceed my power supply. It asks for a minimum of 300W.

But does the wattage matter? Because I have two 12V rails of 18A each. Power supply says 5V and 3.3V can't exceed 150W, 12V can't exceed 264W, and total continuous power can't exceed 305W. My bottleneck is the power supply, but an upgrade will be too expensive because of Dell's "propietaryness" in power supplies.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

The 7900GS will work fine with that PSU, no problem, since minimum requirements for it are 20A on the +12V rails, and your PSU provides 22A. Also, the one I've recommended is AGP and comes with a DVI-to-VGA cable as well.

 

[Juanra]

If wattage doesn't matter, why is it listed? And even if my monitor doesn't support DVI, will the cable work? Because my VGA cable with DVI adapter doesn't work on my DVI port. And the one you recommended comes with an adapter that is just like the one I have.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Wattage does matter, but fact is that graphics cards draw power from the +12V rail, so total wattage on the +12V rail is what matters most. This is in turn dictated by the total wattage supplied by the PSU. I think the cable should work but if it doesn't, you'd probably need to get one of these. They're very cheap and you'd probably even get them in a computer shop near your place. So check there first instead of ordering from Newegg. Good luck and let us know how it goes.