Please Help: Graphics card, ( Video Card )

Hey guys, I have a dell dimension 4550, I know I could get a good AGP video card so I could run all my games, but I think I can only do 4X which is a pain when it comes to finding a good AGP card. Could you guys tell me if my computer could handle 8X?

A review I saw online with this model Dell came with a Geforce 4 Ti4200, and talked about using a Ti 4600 as an upgrade, so you should be fine with any good AGP card. The best AGP cards currently at Newegg appear to be the 3850's from ATI (though way overpriced). On the Nvidia side, the best AGP card they are carrying now looks like the 7600GS.

Please note, modern VGA cards often have higher power demands, so the purchase of a more powerful PSU must be taken into consideration, also.
I have no idea if Dell has used standard sized PSUs in this computer series, so this must be checked, too.

Michael

In general, most 8x capable cards will be backward compatible to 4x. It looks like 4x/8x - 1.5V/0.8V support is actually part of the AGP 3.0 specification.

And yes, watch the power, though my recollection is the 7600 is pretty light - according to one comment, only 4 watts more than a FX5500 (poor performance lightweight!).

Dell PSUs could be on the skimpy side

I still use AGP 7600GS in my system right now. It works very good for for what it is but remember it requires a power from your PS 5 volt connector beside the power from the AGP. So if you have alots of components inside your system make sure you PS is big enough to handle the power draw of the GPU when you play Graphics intense games. I say get a decent 500-600 watt PS. Mine is 600 watt.

What do you mean components? How do I know if I'm okay haha?

He means how many hard drives, optical drives, and add-in cards do you have in the system now? Every peripheral takes a bit of voltage to run, and the Dell power supplies are never overly large. Most of them from that era that I have seen use a 250w power supply.

Most of the AGP cards don't draw that much power, but if you have got this system decked out with extra drives, then you may push it over the edge on what the power supply can handle when you add a modern video card. The 3850 in particular may be pushing the edge for that type of psu.

You never mentioned your budget, and I mentioned the 3850 simply because it was the most advanced card I could find in AGP at Newegg. I don't see it as a good value. Too expensive for that type of card compared to the prices on pci-e cards.

I personally wouldn't invest a great deal of money on an agp card since it is a dying interface, and you won't be able to use it in the future on a new computer.

Here is a calculator to determine how big a psu you need. I wouldn't take its results as gospel, but it may give you a starting point. http://www.extreme.outervision.com/powercalc.jsp

I always take what those online calculators say and then I add 50 - 100 watts to it so you leave yourself a little
extra headroom for the next upgrade or if you decide you want to do a little overclocking in the future.

Your statements couldn't be more true...AGP was good when it was around but now PCI-E is the way to go now. Unless you want to spend around 170 US dollars for the 7600GS card, I got mine when they had it on sale at the defunct CompUsa for 150 US dollars. I still use it now until I do a complete redo and get PCI-E GPU and update my hardware. But you should check your budget if it more worth to go PCI-E GPU rather then stay AGP. But this choice is yours to make in the end we can only give you the options to look at. Yes I didn't finish all of what I mentioned on PS draw. But the more hardware or components you add into your computer the larger the PS you have to have to accomodate the load draw those components will need plus extra in reserve so you don't over work your PS leading to early PS failure. Since I don't know what extra you added to your system since you bought the Dell 4550 all I can say if you just add the AGP 7600GS you will need to make sure your PS connectors on the Dell has a spare 5 volt connector for the 7600GS otherwise it won't let your computer boot properly or not boot at all. Plus don't block the GPU cooler fan otherwise you be in for a early lifespan of the card ok.

I have had mixed results trying to run a AGP 8x/4x card in a 4x slot.
As stated above, the 7600GS is an outstanding card for its capability and low power draw and may work in this box.
Check the vendor's return policy before purchase.

Probably the best, true AGP 4x card was the card Kerry56 mentioned, Ti 4600. You would have to eBay that one.
DX8 card though. Not for current games.

Okay could you help me out? I got 2 hard drives both 40GB, Dual Layer DVD burner, 512 MB Ram, that's about all the stuff that's plugged inside.

To use the calculator you need to know all the specifics of your system. The exact cpu model, the number of ddr ram sticks, the speed of the hard drives, number of cooling fans, etc.

Just guessing, and realize this is ONLY a guess, I plugged in the following stats: Single Socket, Desktop, Pentium 4 Socket 478 Northwood 2.4ghz cpu, two sticks of DDR ram (each with 256), 2 hard drives at 5400 rpm, one dvd drive and one 80mm exhaust fan.
To that I added the 7600 GS video card. Total usage was 180w.

If you add in a little (20%) capacitor aging, it jumps to 217w, but I'm not convinced this is at all accurate---seems overrated.

A 250w Dell psu should handle this new card, if you get the 7600 GS. An ATI 3850 pushes it to 260w even without taking into account capacitor aging. If you absolutely need the best agp card available, it means replacing the power supply as well I would think.

Older Dells used proprietary power supplies. Dells with P3 cpus required special psu's else you fried the motherboard. As far as I am aware, Dell went to standard power supplies when they started making computers with the Socket 478 P4 cpus....but if you replace the power supply MAKE CERTAIN that your machine can take a standard psu. If nothing else, call Dell and flat out ask their support people about it.

Okay well I'm not looking for the best graphic card, I'm not looking to play crysis, but I want to be able to play a lot of games even if its at low settings, so I'll look at the 7600 because you said it should work?

This is the one I was looking at: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814133176

You'll notice in the pictures that it takes a regular molex connector from the power supply. There is an adapter included as well if whatever free molex connector you have isn't quite long enough to reach.

Now, as for it working...I'm sorta shooting in the dark here. You should open up the case and look on the side of the power supply and see what the actual rating is on that power supply!

Plug in your card, pick your game/bechmark
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/g...Score,538.html
Synthetic, but should help to recognize a card's capability.

Newer stuff here:
http://www.guru3d.com/category/vga_c...rk_vantage_06/

Okay, I'll open my computer up right now and check, I'll tell you what I see. Thanks for all the help btw.

Okay on the power box, I saw one W. It said 170 W

Looking at the spec sheet at Dell it says you have a 250w power supply. http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...cs.htm#1101572

The pin out on the spec sheet at Dell shows this as a regular ATX power supply, so you can replace it with a standard ATX psu that has the same outside measurements. http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...ov.htm#1101836


The 7600 GS card at Newegg says you need a 300w psu, but they always overstate what is needed just to cover their butts.

So now it is up to you. You can replace the power supply with one that has greater power output or try it with just the card alone first. If you get a new psu, don't skimp. Get a good name brand like Seasonic, Antec, Fortron Source or Corsair.

I might just get the 6200 graphics card, cause I don't need an amazing card, that card should be good right? Also can you check my other thread that's in this forum for graphics card?

You won't be doing much (any) gaming with 6200.
It is still around because it is one of the least expensive cards that will run Vista with full aero.

I don't know what level of gaming you expect, so hard for me to judge what you will think about the 6200. I used a 6600GT for a very long time as my gaming card, and found it inadequate for modern games for the last year or so. And it would blow the doors in on a 6200.
I replaced my 6600GT with a 4850...but I have pci-e.

I looked at your other thread. You are SOL on improving the video in that machine. Without either an agp slot or pci-e 16x slot, you are pretty much dead in the water.

Provided you have enough juice in your PSU as already stated, and yes if you can't get 8x it will down convert, the last known AGP cards released were the ATI X850 and the GF 7800 series so if you can somehow get your hands on one of these it would be the last AGP upgrade you can do. if a game you have requires more power then you are out of luck.

I won't be playing Crysys, just FTP games, WoW etc... I watched some videos on the 6200 0C 256MB card and it was playing Crysis at like 20 FPS, but I don't want to play crysis so if It can play the behemoth at 20 FPS it can do my gaming needs.