[Jayster]

I've been looking for the perfect graphics card that'd fit my computer. I have a Dell Dimension C3521, and it's slim. I'm looking for a good low profile video card. I've been looking at the GeForce 8400GS Graphics Card and I decided to come here and ask the professionals for their personal opinion about the card. I just want something that could handle Call of Duty 4, and Crysis. I'm also looking for something $100.00USD or less, I can't afford anything more. Feel free to post your opinions, or recommendations.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1186007074939

Thanks in advance.

Warm Regards,
Jayster

[Carbon]

It will not handle Call of Duty 4 or Crysis. It will have a tough time handling Quake 3. Don't bother if you only have $100.

[link590o]

it might handle call of duty 4. i've heard of cards like the 7600 handling call of duty. that one isn't the issue. crysis is. no card short of the 8800 series or the ati 3850/3870 will be able to play crysis with decent detail and good framerates. carbon has already told you the obvious. you won't get anything good for 100 bucks. but at least i'll give you an idea for what you'd need to look at in order to play those games.

perhaps you might be better off buying a new case so you won't have to bother with low profile cards in the first place. dell cases have tended to be ill-designed. not enough airflow. if i were you, i'd invest in a decent case with good cooling that will hold all your parts, and save up for the 8800 or 3850/3870. get ready to spend a good 300-400 dollars bud.

sorry for the bad news. but that's the reality if you want to play games like crysis. and IMO, crysis is not worth the money. people have called it the 500 dollar game. because you'd have to spend like...60-70 bucks for the game itself, and then another 400 to buy a new graphics chip that could play it. and the actual gameplay/plot isn't all that spectacular. it's another veritable piece of ***** that EA games has put out. focused way too much on the eye candy and didn't develop it enough for me to want to play it.

of course, if you like it anyway, i won't stop you from getting it. but my advice is don't waste your time with it.

[Jayster]

Well it'd be nice if someone could post some sort of recommendation for another card, it needs to be low profile, though. And one-hundred dollars and down, I have nothing more and I need this card ASAP.

[Jayster]

Oh, and another problem is that I have a 22'' 1600x1200, I need something that'll run smooth on games.

I've also looked at the GeForce 8400GS Graphics Card reviews and found this:

"I picked up this card to use in one of my backup computers, and boy was I surprised at the performance increase. I'm usually weary about smaller cards like these, because they usually have never given me the performance gain that the larger cards have. But I was wrong. It can run Half life 2 with everything on max, and the frames per second never die down during busy or intense battles (usually stays above 50 fps). Quake 4/Doom 3 can run on Ultra high pretty good, about the same as Half life 2. The installation of the card was a snap and it worked right off the bat. Stays below 45 C during gaming, and remains under 40 C while not gaming, so no worries about it overheating. I was quite impressed at how much kick this thing has. While there are other cards in the Geforce 8 series that could out perform this one, this is more of a budget card for someone looking for great graphics and high frames per second, but not willing to empty their wallet for it."

What I'm going to do is buy the card, and return it if I don't like it.

[Jayster]

Also, would it run well on most Steam games?

[Carbon]

No, your card will not run CoD4 on low at 1600x1200 by any stretch of the imagination. The reviewers were likely running it on all low settings at 1024x768 or lower res.

Source games, perhaps around 15-30fps because of the resolution.

[Jayster]

Originally Posted by Carbon No, your card will not run CoD4 on low at 1600x1200 by any stretch of the imagination. The reviewers were likely running it on all low settings at 1024x768 or lower res. Source games, perhaps around 15-30fps because of the resolution.

Do you know any better PCI-E low-profile cards?

That'd be very helpful.

[Carbon]

What exactly do you mean by low-profile? Single-slot? The 8800GT is pretty slim, single-slot, and I think it's shorter than the other 8800s.

[Jayster]

Originally Posted by Carbon What exactly do you mean by low-profile? Single-slot? The 8800GT is pretty slim, single-slot, and I think it's shorter than the other 8800s.

Low profile is half-height, my case is slimmer unlike most computers, it's a Dell Dimension C521, run a search up on it if you'd like.

[Carbon]

X1650 Pro is the most powerful thing you're gonna be able to get in that size. Beats the 8400GS by quite a bit.

[Jayster]

Originally Posted by Carbon X1650 Pro is the most powerful thing you're gonna be able to get in that size. Beats the 8400GS by quite a bit.

But it isn't low-profile, is it? I've searched around for it and it wasn't low profile.

Could provide a picture, or an eBay auction with a good description about the item?

[Jayster]

I've also found this, I thought this'll be a big improvement to what I have now. I have a 125mb ATI at the moment, and it works fine on all Steam games with everything on high, for example, Day of Defeat:Source, Half Life 2, Counter Strike: Source, etc.

GeForce 8400GS Graphics Card:

Microsoft DirectX 10 Shader Model 4.0 support ensures compatibility and performance for all Microsoft DirectX 10 applications, including gaming titles using Shader Model 4.0; also supports and optimizes Microsoft OpenGL 2.0 applications

[Carbon]

You won't be able to run DX10 on a 8400 anyway so that's a non-issue.

The X1650 Pro is natively full-size but it comes with a bracket for low-profile.

[Jayster]

Okay, well I bought the 8400GS card, I'll test it out in a few minutes.