Hey guys, this seems kind of repetitive, but there are like 500 different suggestions. I am trying to buy a graphics card for my fiancee's computer for his birthday, which is a Dell Dimension 3000. I have a hot rod computer (home made) that I recently upgraded with an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and it works wonderfully, but my computer is WAY different than his. I need some suggestions for PCI slot, 256 MB, and something that will work well in his Dell for his World of Warcraft game that he is obsessed with! Can anyone help? I know the good graphics cards, but I am not sure which ones work for the Dell Dim. 3000!!! If you have any suggestions, please email me at [COLOR=Blue]Sixfeetunder622@yahoo.com [/COLOR] Thanks!!!!!!

If you have money to burn...and "need" 256MB
http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...006&tabtype=rv
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1130987962366

Or if you want basically the same thing with 128MB, but for much less money...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143058

Definitely get the 6200 128mb. It's probably the best card for pci. It actually outperforms my brother's nvidia agp fx5500
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143058

It's not the exactly the best gaming card but it'll play most newer games with acceptable frames per second(30+) but with low settings. Considering that you have pci, you shouldn't really expect high settings in the first place.

In Counter Strike: Source, I was getting around 35 fps with medium settings and a 800x600 resolution. In F.E.A.R., I was getting 62 fps with the low setting (not minimum setting). As for benchmarks, I scored 1941 using 3dmark03.

Also, I managed to overclock the memory frequeny to 518(400 stock). The core frequency would not overclock at all. After I did that, the 3dmark03 score increased to 2339. Fear went up to to 70 fps and Counter Strike: Souce went up to 41.

World of Warcraft isn't suppose to be a graphics heavy game so the 6200 should work great.

Ok, I have another stupid question...I'm looking at the Radeon X Series (specifically the x1300) and now another question has come up about DDR versus DDR2, and DDR3...how do I know which one I can use in the Dell 3000? or can all of them be used and the DDR 3 is better???? Help!! P.S. Thanks for your responses!

The type of memory the card uses isn't important. Any type of graphics memory is ok to use in any computer as long as the computer has a slot for the card. Generally ddr2 is faster than ddr and ddr3 is faster than ddr2 though.

Just to let you know, a x1300 won't work in his dell 3000, a dell 3000 only has pci slots, and the x1300 is likely a pci-express (pci-e) card, which is not compatible with pci.

Wow, I'm glad you told me that. I thought PCI and PCI Express were the same thing basically!!! As for the DDR stuff, I can get any of those and they will be compatible with the Dell? Thanks again for your help!

Only one will be compatible with your Dell. Download and run the free CPU-Z program to find out what kind of RAM you have. Click here to find it.

It is a stand alone program that doesn't need to be installed. Just double click the exe file.

Malipup...he was talking about Video card memory being DDR, DDR2, or GDDR3. Vnf4Ultra was correct, all video card memory is compatible with your computer; however, GDDR3 > DDR2 > DDR

Oops. Can't read.

Well as i stated earlier from my first post, I too have a successful mobo upgrade to add AGP slot. Took me about 1 hour to install it and install the gpu i had. if you have the money do a Mobo swap. The Asus P4P800 VM is the perfect fit for dimension 3000. its only for 3000 not dimension 2400 nor 3200.

Hi,

I just switched my on-board for an nVidia GeForce FX5500 and (thanks to the messages on this board) it installed perfectly.

It all runs great and Windows looks fine but... when I run Uru (you know, the Ubisoft game) it appears to think I'm running two monitors! I only see the left half of the screen on my monitor and the other half seems to be projected onto a second (non-existant) monitor.

I presume I've got a setting aqry somewhere but can't think where. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

LJ.

Tis now fixed - turned out to be a driver incompatibility. Best to use one of the slightly older ones in this circumstance.

I have a Dell Dimension 3000 also. Well it the firehouses but id like to play Call of Duty 2 on it. Would a ATI Radeon 9200 support it playing multiplayer?

Hello and welcome to Techspot!
I guess you only have PCI slots on your machine. If so, the card on THIS THREAD is better than a 9200.

to upgrade my dell 2400 from sh*t to acceptable i did the following

i got the full 1gb of sdram
(i recomend getting the corsair modules recomended for the dell 2400)

i have tried several graphics cards...

ati 9250 256mb pci = 99$... it was themost expensive but it had the worst performance

bfg fx5500 oc 256mb pci = this was themost reliable card for me and it only cost 54$ from tigerdirect.. great card...

3dfuzion geforce 6200 126mb pci = this card outperformed all of the other cards in gaming by a longshot... but due to poor drivers the card cannot play videos... any videos... great card if u only game... it will freze when you try to watch a video but what can u expect from a card that only cost !!24$!! from newegg

i still have my celeron processor buti plan to upgrade to a 3.2 ghz pentium 4
(it took me along time to find out wht type of procceser socket the mobo had... so for you guys it was a socket 478)

im going to also upgrade my psu (power supply) i cant remeber the manufacturer but this company provides psu upgrades for dell desktops
250w to 400w

i also ditched my integrated sound for and xfi xtreme music sound card

bfg also has a 256mb 6200 pci overclocked but it is expensive and very hard to find...

i hope this helps

I had the same problem as you did. Do not use the drivers that came with the cd. They're outdated and suck. The new 91.x drivers don't work either for some reason. Just download any 81.x or 84.x drivers. Those work fine with video.

ya i just figured that out yesterday and it performs great thanks for the help

do you have any info on the bfg 6200 256 mb oc?

http://www.bfgtech.com/6200_256_PCI.html

It's overclocked, but only 10mhz on the memory, 410MHz instead of 400MHz.
It also has 256mb of memory, but I doubt it would affect performance much, except in games that actually can use 256mb, like cod2, doom3, on really high settings, but then again, who would use high settings with a pci 6200? In my opionion, the 256mb wouldn't amount to much on a card of this class.

If you want to buy one, here's where you can get it.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1130987962366

I'm new here.

I got a Dell Dim 3000

Windows XP Home Ed.
Pentium 4
3 ghz
256mb of RAM
Radeon 9250 256mb pci


Radeon X1300 is not just only for pci-express
Visiontek has made one for pci users just this month.:bounce:

see for yourself
http://www.visiontek.com/press/09-01-06.html

VisionTek, a “Premium Retail Partner” of ATI for North America, has created a new standard of excellence and value for retail consumers. “Everyone in PC industry has been saying the standard PCI upgrade for graphics cards was dead for the last few years.” Remarked Jeff Hoeft, Sr. director of product development for VisionTek. “In fact, what we have experienced is growing demand for PCI graphics upgrades, because the PCI card works in all PCs…Past, Present and Future.”

im guessing this videocard is the best up to date for pci users.

even DELL is selling this
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...9&sku=A0683254

here is the cheapest
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merch...gory_Code=NA_4

I dont have it yet...cause i dont have the money right now.

I just bought Company Of Heroes but i couldnt play it because i needed at least 512mb RAM.. not enough physical memory.

as for the radeon 9250
i got these games to play
Call of Duty 2 (youll have to wait while to load each level, lag isnt that bad and even the graphics on the game wasnt that bad.)
Half life 2
Star Wars Empire at War
Age of Empires 3

well back to RAM.. can anyone help me with that?

are these ok?
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/374...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

i would love to upgrade this piece not to just 512 but to 1gb.

now i gotta save up $200 ill be patient on that =)

well if anyone has the videocard... tell us some word on that please =)

Thanks

Wow...that is a pretty nice PCI card. The only thing that sucks is that it only has 4 pixel pipelines, so PCI cards are still overpriced considering performance.

I have that X1300PCI, it is a good performer compared to my 5500FX, and it has HDR, VIVO, and all the eye candy, SM 3.0.