[nzdragon]

I'm completely clueless when it comes to graphics cards and things, I've never actually looked at them before But I've given into the need, and I'm currently looking at a Radeon 9600Pro for my Dell Optiplex GX260... does anyone know if it's compatible? I'm not even quite sure if my computer allows additional graphics cards... I'm all new to this

Plz help...?

 

[emosun]

The optiplex gx260 is the most comon oem pc I've heard of here. It comes it three versions , a regular pc tower , a flat laying desktop , and a slimline case. Please post which case you have , and also your budget for the card. And the games you expect to play.

 

[nzdragon]

Sorry, I have the flat desktop model. My budget is roughly $100 (High hopes, huh XD), so I started looking for second-hand cards... which is how I found this Radeon one. By the sound of things, it's not in too bad a shape.

As for the games, I have a few here (Doom 3 and Lego Star Wars to name a few) that I've bought in the past that haven't worked because I lack a decent video card.

 

[emosun]

I should have posted this pic first

Which are you using. You should be able to play Doom 3 and Lego Star Wars with a gpu upgrade. Provided you have a decent amount of ram and a decent cpu.

 

[nzdragon]

I have the one that says standard desktop, the one in the middle.

I can't play either of those games atm because I need pixel shader or something. Doom 3 is the only game that "works", but only to a certain extent... It has a REALLY tough time trying to process everything, even on all the lowest settings, and it has a horrible habit of crashing the computer when things get too busy.

I don't know anything about gpu's (or even what it is... *hides*)... but what I'm really desperate to know whether or not my box can actually support new cards.

I currently have 512mb of ram and an Intel Pentium 4 1.80Ghz CPU

 

[emosun]

It can. It has an agp slot so you can use low profile agp cards. Are you currently using any card or just the on board video? If you don't know you can right click the desktop / properties / settings tab / advanced button / and adapter tab , and there it will say what graphics you are using under "adapter type".

 

[nzdragon]

I'm only using the onboard video card atm, it says "Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller".

 

[emosun]

In that case you could probably get an old geforce 6200. It should be enough to play those two specific games. And definitely better then the on board video.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4471400&CatId=2234
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2530001&CatId=1558

 

[nzdragon]

OK, thanks... would that be better than a radeon 9600 pro? If it's even a low profile card, that is

 

[emosun]

The ati 9600's nvidia equal would be an nvidia 6600. Although the 9600 did have a few low profile versions , it would be best to check and make sure it is low profile.

 

[nzdragon]

Bummer, the one I was after isn't low profile... But out of curiosity, what would be a better choice between ati and nvidia anyway? Or are they both pretty equal?

 

[nzdragon]

I read somewhere that agp cards deliver much more performance than pci cards, is this true? In which case, is a low-profile agp still better than pci? I'm... quite lost

 

[nzdragon]

Oh, and about that link to the GeForce 6200A video card... I noticed it says 8x, does that matter? Cause I thought I heard something about the optiplex gx260 only taking 4x or 4x/8x or something?

 

[emosun]

Seems the pc does only support 4x in which case you may want this version.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4116644&CatId=933

Yes agp card are faster then pci card typically. However there are only a few cards that exist that are both agp AND low profile.

 

[nzdragon]

Ok, so I'm now looking at pci cards, since low profile agp cards are getting VERY hard to find. (as they are >.<) I wont run into any issues trying to get a pci card for my pc, will I? Cause I keep finding pci and pci express, and im not quite sure which one my computer will support.

 

[emosun]

I would stick to the agp card posted. A pci card of equal power will cost more and may for whatever reason not be compatible with the machine.