Urgent Graphics Card Radeon 9250 Advice

[Mankk]

Ok i've bought the relativly old but reasonable graphics card, which will play sims 2. (If the card is compatible :S) I didn't really think at the time I needed to know much more than weather it was an AGP-PCI-PCI-E card. So I went ahead and bought and AGP card. I then found out that you needed to know if your slot was 4x or 8x, mine is 4x. The card specs say AGP 8x/4x which I guess means it will work on either. I then found out I needed to know if my power supply would be good enough it 250W so not high, but maybe as its an old card it would be ok? I then found out that I have 34bit AGP whatever that means :S, and the card said it was 64bit? Will that work? I have no idea thats why I signed up to these forums in search of help. I now know however that when buying hardware look up everything first :S. I have 510mb RAM and a 2.2ghz processor intel. I have a optiplex GX270 dell computer with an intel 82865G graphics card (onboard). I need to know if the radeon will work with my computer or not because of things like the power supply the bit and the 4x/8x thing. So I would really like advice please on wether this card will or will not work well on my computer. Thankyou sorry for being such a jerk!

Mankk

 

[Grafficks]

Everything should be okay except for the 250W PSU.

As you've determined, it's fine to have an AGP x4 slot because your video card can run at AGP x4/x8.

I'm pretty sure the part you read about the Radeon 9250 being "64-bit" is just the memory interface. The Radeon 9250 has 128MB of memory and a 64-bit memory interface. Those are just the specs of the card, and does not present a problem in terms of compatibility.

The Radeon 9250 states that it requires "250 Watt power supply or greater recommended".
It seems that your current unit is barely cutting it, and I would recommend you upgrade to a more modern PSU just to be safe.

 

[Mankk]

Ok thankyou so much!

Thankyou very much thats put me in a lighter frame of mind, boy am I gunna advertise this to anyone who needs help! Oh sorry to bother you again but just one more question, at this moment the graphics card arrives tommorow and uses DVI-I don't know what that is either, or wether my computer has it? Also I can't afford at this moment to buy a new PSU :S will it be ok without overclocking, and speed still good? Is the computer not going to get destroyed because I have a 250W PSU because untill at least a month I won't be able to get a new one and I deffinatly can't afford to fix my computer being 15 and without a job...So I would just like to make sure everything will be ok even with a 250W which just scrapes the specs I know. Also I know about omega drivers and will download those. Thankyou again.

Mankk

 

[Mankk]

Sorry for double post but I can't create another topic but I really do need help, will a Sapphire Radeon 9250 be ok with a 250W power supply (I.e not blow up or crash and be slower than my intel one) also does the fact that the card is DVI-I or something have any relevance to compatibility?

 

[Grafficks]

If I recall correctly, the Radeon 9250 has both a DVI port (white) and a VGA port (blue). DVI is digital and VGA is analog.

If you monitor uses a VGA plug, then just plug it into the VGA port. If it uses DVI, then just plug it into the DVI port. If your card happens to have two DVI ports, then it should also come with a DVI-to-VGA adapter, so you can plug your VGA monitor into the video card.

Most power supplies actually output a lower wattage than what they advertise, so it is always recommended to use a PSU that's higher than the video card's recommended wattage.
As long as you don't push it, then the computer should be okay in terms of stability. But if you start getting crashes, you know what the problem is.

 

[nickc]

get a 350 wat PSU of good quality that is the first thing to look for in any computer make sure it has enough power for the jobs it is going to be doing, if u are just going to surf the net this would be fine for now.

 

[Mankk]

ok thankyou.

So aslong as the card works with not many crashes, it should be ok but if it starts crashing I should beware yes? Well im only wanting to run the sims 2 with anti-ailising on good really nothing else matters but I heard that sims 2 doesn't demand much anyway, so this shouldn't be a problem? However please tell me if the sims 2 will run ok untill I can afford a new PSU.

Thankyou!

Mankk

 

[bazz2004]

I have a 1998 vintage computer now running a PIII 500 chip and I upgraded to a 9200SE graphics card. It's running fine with a 200W power supply so I would expect your 250W PSU to cope alright. See how it goes before shelling out on a new PSU.