Upgrading graphis card... need help!

Here is my system...

Dell Optiplex GX270
Intel pentium 4 2.80GHz
512 MB RAM
NVIDA GeForce 4 MX 440 with AGP 8X

I have a slight idea what that means with the ram and processor.

What I am wanting to do is upgrade to Windows Vista Ultimate Edition because its $20 from my school.

Any suggestions on a compatible card?

I play a few games but nothing major, mess around with vid and pic editing, and what not.

I am looking for a mid priced card... ie not $400

Thanks for your help!

Hi Prowland.

Judging by your spec you require an AGP card.

If you're not a gamer you won't need a top-end AGP card but I do recommend getting a mid to high-range one to ensure your pc can make good use of Vista's Aero feature. Based upon this I'd be looking at a 7800GS.

But try to purchase second-hand if you can as new AGP cards still command a premium due to the market for them being so small.

As an aside, please also consider at least doubling your ram to 1GB (2GB would be better) as Vista is more resource hungry than XP ever was. You'll struggle running it with only 512mb.

I have a very similar spec machine, same processor but a powerful graphics card.

I have 2GB of RAM as 1GB was unbearable.

Okay... gotta go a little slower for me

I looked up on Wiki what AGP was... got it!

Now as far as the 7800GS... im cluless. Can you suggest a card by name and possibly a good place to look for them?

Thanks for the help!

The 7800GS is a Nvidia card make.

The model number is a 7800GS and is important because some models are dire and some are good.

www.ebuyer.com sell them.

Thanks for the link but I think shipping to the states may cost more than the card!

try newegg.com that's where I get most of my parts
start here http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCateg...me=Video-Cards
narrow it down by what type of agp you want, search by lowest price or highest rating, and then compare the specs tab until you find what you want

or of course for a 2nd hand one try ebay

So somthing like this would be a good one?

BFG nVidia GeForce 7800GS OC 256MB DVI/TV-Out AGP Video Card

Specification
Mfr Part Number: BFGR78256GSOC
Chipset: GeForce 7800 GS
Engine Clock: 400 MHz (vs. 375MHz standard)
Video Memory: 256MB DDR3
Memory Clock: 1250 MHz (vs. 1200MHz standard)
Memory Interface: 256-bit
Bus: AGP 8x
RAMDAC: 400 MHz
Memory Bandwidth: 40GB/s
Max. Resolution: 2048x1536 @85Hz
Connectors: VGA, DVI-I, S-Video Out
Thermal: Fansink
A minimum 400W system power supply (with 12V current rating of 20A or more) required
Support Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0


What do you think? It is about $215.00 Is there a better one around this price range or is this a good deal?

I paid like 74 bucks for my pci-e card because I don't do anything that makes me need to pay more
I wouldn't say that's a "good deal" but I would say that's a good card

you need to make sure you have a psu that will support that card, as well as enough cooling

Whooops, sorry, didn't realise you are USA. ;)

BFG are good cards, normally factory overclocked so will be marginally faster than other brands.

If you are willing to spend that much I would suggest you get something like this on eBay, a far more powerful card than the one you listed and cheaper too

Another bloody mid-range card with bags of ram. An extra 256mb of ram that will never see use, simply there to be used as a selling point. Bigger isn't always better!

512mb of ram on a card is only useful for gaming at high resolutions, (1680x1050 or 1920x1200), something this card isn't capable of really, and you'll never use over 256mb of ram on a card gaming at mid-range resolutions (1280x1024) something this card can do quite well (game, AA, AF, detail dependent).

Dave: I feel an article on graphics cards coming on. Sick of people who aren't versed in hardware through no fault of their own being conned by manufacturers.

of the top of my head... are you sure that optiplex will take a full length or even a full height card? many of them had risers.... is it the seriously small case?

My point was that if he was going to spend such a large amount of cash on a crappy card then he could get a better card for his money, I paid far less than that for my 7900gt
I do understand what the RAM is for aswell:(
The x1950xt is probably the fastest AGP card available and the 1950pro doesn't bench too far behind it