I was told I needed to upgrade my video card for gaming purposes. I have been researching the past few days, so many to choose from and I'm not sure which ones will work with my system.

Video card now:
NVIDIA GeForce MX 420
AGP 4X

Please help figure out what is capatible with my system. Any suggestion will help.

Thanks,
Frank

If you want us to give you a card compatible with your system you should post the specs of your system.

According to dell you have a "8x/4x/2x modes at 1.5 V" agp slot. So it supports agp 8x speed, but it doesn't support the 0.8v signal voltage most 8x cards use. That said, many of the agp 8x cards support both 0.8V and 1.5V, so most agp 8x cards should work fine.

For a value card this 7300gt should be a nice fit(it has a double keyed agp connector so it has a high likelyhood of working with your computer).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814145139
This card should also work(7600gs).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814122011

Thank You for your help!

You're welcome. I hope I picked the right price range for you. You can get cheaper or more expensive cards, but what I linked to are more of a "bang for the buck" type cards.

Perfect - I was in the max range of $150.0

Alright sounds good. If you need any help/advise on installing a card if/when you get one, be sure to post back!

need help on getting a new video card...i dont know much about computers but i know some...i have a dell dimension 8300 (old)... want a new video card for it but dont know with ones to get. which is the best for my system???

The 8300 has either a 250 or 305w psu. The 305 has 22amps. If you have the 305 this would be about the best: 7600GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150210
If you have the 250w the 7600GS or 7300GT would be next in-line.
FYI: You will need the connection from your psu to the card for any of these.

yea im not to good with computers. so what does 250 or 305w psu mean? and what does it mean when u say i need the connection from your psu to the card for any of these? thx

i have a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 graphics card. Is that a onboard video card? i want a decent card not to expensive though. Also wanted to know can i replace it by myself or do i need someone to do it?

Jaywill, 250w or 305w psu means that is how many watts your Power Supply Unit can output. Higher is better as it means you can power more devices or power devices that draw more power.

What Kpo6969 means by is that on higher end cards that draw more power they have additional power connection(s) on the card to supply the additional power as needed. For example the card that was linked to requires an additional 4 pin molex power connector to be connected to the card to supply power as shown in this picture.

The fx5200 is NOT and onboard video card, it is a discreet card (albeit a low end card). You should look to spend between $100 and $200USD on a card capable of running more modern games. You need an "agp 8x" card in a dell 8300 machine. Here's a list of cards at newegg that should work.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...lue=685%3A9618
As was mentioned already, you just have to look at the recommended power supply specs for the card to make sure it doesn't require more power supply than you have(wattage).

Video card replacement is not very hard and is something most people that are somewhat technically inclined can do without much issue. However if you don't feel comfortable doing it, you should have a local pc shop do it for you. I'd imagine such a service would cost you $30-40USD.

hello everyone, i got a 8300 with a 2.8ghz, 1gb ram, 250watt psu. if anyone needs any more info please ask. well basicly i kinda broke my 9800pro by accident i could just replace it, but i gather might aswell upgrade. expanding on the previous posts, i was wondering if this specific card Nvidia 256MB 7600GS AGP Graphics Card would be alright with my current psu, thanks any info would be greatly appreciated

more info on the card
bus type - agp
gpu clock 533mz
128bit
memory type ddr2
memory size 256 gddr2
memory clock 800mhz

The 7600GS will work fine.

also will i have to change any bios settings ?? or would i just have to re-format the entire system to compensate the new card ??? thanks again guys

You may need to disable the onboard card in the BIOS, if you're currently using it. If you're using an AGP card though, uninstall the drivers for it.

Other than that, you don't need to do anything, not even a clean install.

thanks friend you've really helped me out, if i have any more questions i'll be sure to post them here A++

thank you for all ur help, but i been on other forums and people are actually saying the 9800pro is a better card then the 7600 is this true, cause i was looking at the specs of each card the 9800 is a 256 bit card where as the 7600 is a 128bit ?? what is the best possible card without changing my psu any help will be greatly appreciated thanks

The 9800PRO is a better card, but is not produced anymore and is very difficult to find. It also runs hotter than the 7600GS and sucks more power. If you can find it on eBay, grab it, but otherwise, stick to the 7600GS.

What card you can get depends on your PSU. If you have a 250W one, then you cannot go beyond the 7600GS. If you have the 305W model, then you can go for any card upto an HD 3850.

I hope I'm posting this in the right place.

I have a Dell Dimension 8300.

Recently, my 128MB ATI RADEON 9800 PRO Graphics Card died.

In an effort to replace it, I purchased an ATI RADEON 7500 128MB AGP VIDEO GRAPHICS CARD.

I have upgraded my power supply to a 400W unit.

Whenever I try the new video card, it gives me a message like this: "Power safe mode. Press any key to continue." I'm not positive that is the exact message because it only stays on screen for like a millisecond.

My old card had direct power supply power and the new one doesn't.

I'm really stumped here.

Is it just not a compatable card?

Many thanks for any and all help provided.