Upgrading my Dell 4600 video card

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someone153

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I want to upgrade my Dell 4600 video card. Im going to buy a ATI Radeon 9600 Pro. I have a GeForce 5400 right now. I just want to know if it will work with my computer. Heres some specs:

Pentum 4 2.6 GHz
1 CD/DVD drive
1 Floppy drive
1.256 GB Ram
1 External HD
200 GB space (40 internal, 160 external)

Thanks for your help
 
as long a you have an AGP slot to put it in then it should work just fine.
 
America's Army will run great on a 9600-series card.

Battlefield2 and COD2... these games really should have an 8-pipeline card or higher as with the 9600, you'll still need to reduce some game settings to get decent performance.

If you play BF2 and COD2 much, I'd suggest saving up a bit more for a 6600GT, X800GT minimum (both 8-pipeline cards). If budget is really tight, a 9800 series or X700 would also be a better choice.
 
CoD 2 And battlefield 2 work properally with 256mb of ram, ive tried, it was so bad i didnt even want to play, i suggest you get atlest another stick of 256mb of ram and a 9800pro, whitch will make for a semi good gamming pc
 
My budget is about $150 so Im going to buy a ATI Radeon X700 Pro 256 MB AGP for $155. Im wondering if the will be compatible with my Dell. Also if my AGP slot is taken is it my old video card?
 
dont get the x700 pro get the 9800pro with ram, if you do not have atlest 512 ram BF2 and cod 2 will lag so much, the agp slot will look like a brown or grey slot
 
Video ram or normal ram? The card has 256mb of ram and I have 1+ gb of ram. Also the 9800 has 128 mb ram but the X700 has 256 mb ram so I dont know what is better.
 
THe X700 Pro and 9800 Pro are both 8-pipeline cards. The main difference is the 9800 Pro has a 256-bit memory bus (beware of JetWay "9800Pro" cards- these are actually 9800SE's which are 128-bit!), and the X700 Pro has a 128-bit memory bus... so the 9800 Pro would has a bit more fillrate/bandwidth. So of the two, if you can find a 9800 Pro, it would be a better buy. Either way, both the X700 Pro and 9800 Pro will be *substantially* better than the 9600 series... so it's a question of budget.

Here's a good 9800 Pro for $127
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102477

Both cards will work in an AGP 4x or 8x slot, which your 4600 is. You'll have to remove your 4600 to install the new videocard in the same slot.

1.2gb of memory will be good for Battlefield2. Videocard can have 128mb or 256mb of vram.. it wont matter in this range of videocards as you wont have enough horsepower to muster Antialiasing in this game on an 8-pipeline card unless you really reduce resolution. On an X800 or 6800 (16-pipe cards!).. sure, 256mb would be good as these can handle 2x/4x AA at higher resolutions where the vram would be tight.
 
My last two questions:

1. Ive heard that on the 9800 the fan dies, is this true?

2. Is there a 256 mb version of the 9800.
 
someone153 said:
My last two questions:

1. Ive heard that on the 9800 the fan dies, is this true?

2. Is there a 256 mb version of the 9800.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102477
about the fan many reviws say it does infact die


but as a better more expensive option
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130263
there is a cheeper version of the card with only 128mb of vram and is made by msi, whitch IMO isnt a great card maker
or if you like ati this is a good card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102619
 
I really like the eVGA 256-P2-N384 Geforce 6800 256MB 256-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card. It looks awesome so thats what im going to get. Thanks guys!
 
someone153 said:
I really like the eVGA 256-P2-N384 Geforce 6800 256MB 256-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card. It looks awesome so thats what im going to get. Thanks guys!

didn't you need an AGP card not PCI-E?
 
New psu unnecessary

I have a dell pc with a 350 watt power supply and i find it copes with any graphics card if you aren't using a 2nd hard drive or anything else power consuming. For any of the cards you are considering I would say your 300watt dell psu will be ample!

ps i would STRONGLY recommend an x800gto. I'm not too sure about the prices of agp versions of this card but it is a really good performer!
 
wow hold up now.

Do you have a PCI slot or AGP slot

Also Pci and PCI EXPRRESS are 2 totally different things

whitch slot do you infact have
 
Ok....well Im on vacation right now so I dont know which one I have.

Also does anyone know if an ati radeon X700 AGP work with Battlefield 2?
 
yea.. but it wont be the greatest performance. if u want atleast decent performance.. try moving up to the X800 series or the 6800GS +
 
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