graphics card upgrade?

Question

i have a dell dimension 3100 desktop can i install a new graphics card any advice as to which one ? can you make your answers idiotproof please ! ?

Answer 1

you can upgrade with a new graphics card steve but its gonna have to be a pci interface card

this limits your options,however there are a few good cards avalible including one which has pixel and shader model 3.0

the PNY GeForce 6200 256MB PCI DVI TVO (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4CQQ&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11137,41600000,353180000)is a excellent pci based card.with pixel and shader model 3.0,and core clock of 300mhz and memory clock of 550mhz,these are excellent speeds for a pci-bus interface card

you wont get lightning speeds from this card,but you will get frame rates around 40 to 50 f.p.s(frames per second),which is good

this card is normally cooled by a heatsink so make sure you have adequate cooling in your case

another good card is the NVIDIA GeForce FX5200 256MB (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=45BW&CategorySelectedId=11137&NavigationKey=11137,41600000,375830000),this has pixel and shader model 2.0 and is vista ready,its core and memory speeds are 250/333mhz respectively and has 256mb of video memory

this is a good all round card,especially good for direct x 8.1 games such as "castle wolfenstein" and "hitman",and also "max payne"

you can also run "doom3" and "qauke4" with this card,however your processor speed will also be a factor when trying some games

other cards include the Sapphire Technology Radeon 9250 128MB(http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=3M6K&CategorySelectedId=11137&NavigationKey=11137,41600000,43280000&InMerch=1)and the Sapphire Technology Radeon 7000 64MB (http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=2MPZ&CategorySelectedId=11137&NavigationKey=11137,41600000,43280000&InMerch=1),both these cards are inexpensive ,but their overall graphics performance is average,but if your only playing old 3d games and the odd online game these cards are just the ticket

also you may want to take a look at the matrox selection of pci cards such as the Matrox Millenium G450(http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=3JT6&CategorySelectedId=11137&NavigationKey=11137,41600000,43970000&InMerch=1)and the Matrox Millennium G550 (http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=3VSD&CategorySelectedId=11137&NavigationKey=11137,41600000,43970000&InMerch=1),these cards are not gaming cards but more c.a.d(computer aided design),and the later card is a low profile model,which basically means it will fit in cases were space is a issue

these cards may seem a bit expensive but if design and c.a.d is you thing ,these are good solutions for your p.c

finally steve,just for a laugh,why not splash out a £1000 on a Matrox Parhelia HR256 256MB(http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=3Y6Y&CategorySelectedId=11137&NavigationKey=11137,41600000,43970000),this is a top of the range design card(in pci-bus interface) and is excellent at producing crystal clear visuals,and these are actually used in hospitals in c.a.t scan machines to produce 3d x-rays of the brain,so you know these have to be good

personally steve,i would go for the geforce 6200,a good card and probally the best all round pci-card you can buy

any probs mate let me know

good luck steve!

Answer 2

yes, it is easy to upgrade your computer...



[Idiot-Proof] There are 2 Main Companys who do graphics cards, ATI and Nvidia.. Most people Say Nvidia are better and have A Wider, More Clearer Range....



A Moderate Ranged Card For You Would Be a;

'Nvidia Geforce 7600GT' (About £60-£80)



Geforce is a Selection Of Models, and These Sections are In Versions, IE: Nvidia Geforce 7500... So this is a 7-Series Geforce Graphics Card, and the '500' Card. There are new ones about called Nvidia Geforce 8series, but these are towards £400, so its not pratical for you, im guessing. ^.^



The Geforce Range Are The Best Known, but there are others which are not as good...

Finally, at the end of the Model There are things like 'GT or GS' this is mainly the Quality, But there is not much Differnce...



You May See things like XFX, ASUS or MSI at the start of the named Nvidia card. Dont worry, this is just the make of a company which assembles the Graphics card, Because Nvidia Sell Their 'Chips' To Other companys.



So, hope this helps and good luck.

PS: You can always go and ask the shop assistant for a graphics card that will suit your PC, but all you need to know is the name of your Motherboard or If it is AGP or PCI-E. (these are the type of connections for your Graphics card...

Answer 3

So far, there's only Jon M that's given a sensible response. You are tied to a PCI graphics card, which are becoming rather difficult to locate nowadays. (PCI is NOT the same as PCI-e, by the way.)



Another suggestion was to also increase the amount of RAM that you have. This will, undoubtedly, speed your system up.



A few graphics cards that would be suitable for your motherboard are: GeForce FX 5600, GeForce FX 5500, GeForce FX 5700LE. Don't forget, if you do decide to go along this route, that you must state it's for a PCI slot, and not PCI-e. You may, however, be a little disappointed with these cards as they're nowhere near as fast as AGP or PCI-e ones.

Answer 4

Whoa boy! seek some proper help from a freelance computer shop (NOT PCWorld, Dixons etc).



You need to know about many compatibility issues - graphics interface (AGP, PCI-Express etc), memory compatibility, motherboard compatibility.



It might help to know what graphics card you have already. I believe the onboard graphics are part of the motherboard. You will have to disable this before installing another graphics card, and that sounds like it's beyond you.



If you aren't going to upgrade the rest of the computer then I would suggest an ATi Radeon 9200 or NVidia Geforce FX5200 128MB graphics card - anything more will be wasting your money as the Dell motherboard, 512MB memory and 3.0GHz chip will bottleneck anything more powerful and you won't get the performance.

Answer 5

Sorry dude, you do not have an AGP or PCI-E card so if you want a graphics upgrade yo will ned to go for a PCI graphics card. As these are 2 generations old you will have trouble finding them (probably ebay etc) and you wont get brilliant speed even then. If you need good graphics you will have to upgrade the whole computer

Answer 6

i might bypass with the Radeon HD 4650 1GB I appropriate to below it would help an starting to be previous AGP equipment nonetheless play some not so contemporary video games. the cardboard i'm linking you to expenses seventy 4$ USD, and it incredibly is a fantastic purchase extra fee-effective than paying for a sparkling motherboard, cpu, ram and video card. while you're actually not on the slicing fringe of gaming taking part in the main up-tp-date video games this card will serve you nicely. the guy pointing out AGP is the worst is relatively incredibly incorrect. extensive-unfold PCI has a optimum documents throughput of 132 MB/s that's an excellent purchase slower than AGP 8X's 2,one hundred MB/s. PCI-E 16X has a max of 4000 MB/s (8000 MB/s going the two instructions). AGP isn't a foul slot it incredibly is starting to be previous yet once you do not prefer to finished out replace the whole laptop an AGP card remains an excellent determination. wish I helped you some. Ryan

Answer 7

You can pick up an Nvidia 6200 128 Mb pci from pcworld.. will give you some performance boost over what you currently have.

Answer 8

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Answer 9

Contact Dell and ask them they will know better than most. On line or by phone. good luck.

Answer 10

a best graphich card ever in the world is nvadia's graphich card.

please insert it into your computer and get a great performance of your pc. and if are purchasing graphic for playing game then also purchas a 1GM RAM for your pc.