Upgrading from stock

M

maallenmi

New Member
Hi I'm upgrading my graphics card because I'm getting Empire total war for Christmas. This is my computer:

Dell Inspiron 518
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8GHz
4gb ram
Vista 64 bit premium
ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB

I am looking for a graphics card really to only run RTS's and video editing software (Premiere Elements). I play all my other games on my Xbox 360. I think that card will run Empire Total War, but I'm buying new anyway because I want to be able to run it well and not at the lowest settings possible. I want this card to last me a while (in terms of still being able to run newer games on decent settings) but I don't want to spend over $70.

Thanks for the help.
 
Ive decided to just upgrade the power supply on it, could someone reccomend to me a way to do that keeping in mind that I did not build this computer and dont really know what I'm doing. The budget for everything now I would say is about $120, unless you think that is too low I can just take some money out of my CD next month. Thanks
 
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=PC...5f93eb7124f22498f185ab7a4d84bd4cea9c9a16c86f7

ati 4850 for the card iv seen some good reviews it holds up against the gtx 280 quite well

http://www.pacificgeek.com/product.asp?c=216&s=1067&ID=45846&P=F

and for the power supply total $142.99 slightly over budget

another power supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...e-_-Power+Supplies-_-Dynapower+USA-_-17255040

total $124.99
again slightly over there are cheaper power supplys out there but these seem to have some good reviews
 
innercx said:
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=PC...5f93eb7124f22498f185ab7a4d84bd4cea9c9a16c86f7

ati 4850 for the card iv seen some good reviews it holds up against the gtx 280 quite well

http://www.pacificgeek.com/product.asp?c=216&s=1067&ID=45846&P=F

and for the power supply total $142.99 slightly over budget

another power supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...e-_-Power+Supplies-_-Dynapower+USA-_-17255040

total $124.99
again slightly over there are cheaper power supplys out there but these seem to have some good reviews
Click to expand...
Will those power supplies just hook straight up to the old cords or do I have to get some type of adapter?
 
innercx said:
[
ati 4850 for the card iv seen some good reviews it holds up against the gtx 280 quite well
Click to expand...

haha dude don't make me laugh too hard. I don't know what reviews you are looking at, but a gtx280 is easily half again stronger than a 4850 if not double the performance.



To the OP- This card I'm about to recommend you can keep your current power supply AND can play pretty much any game with a max resolution of 1280x1024-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127434&Tpk=msi 9600gt

It will play 95% of games at full 1080p as well. Really depends on what monitor you have. I know you said you don't play games, but gaming performance is kinda how I judge how good a card is.
This card does NOT require an external 6 pin power supply, and is almost with a 4830 in performance. It is better than a 4670 though, consumes less power, easier to install, and takes up less space.

Slightly above your budget, but it's the best you are going to do while retaining the rest of your setup.

Oh, before we go too much further, a 3450 can also come in AGP instead of PCI express X16. You should really make sure you have a PCIe x16 slot rather than AGP before you go buying a card. Although your setup has an E7400 which is fairly new, so I'm pretty sure you have a PCIe slot but you should make absolutely certain first.
 
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yeah dell changed they way there pcs were made to make it easier to upgrade the power supplies it will work as long as it is the standard atx format (which the ones i suggested are) you'll just need to switch them around and plug it in, no adapter needed
i also read that it is quite easy to change the power supply in this model

a full guide is avaiable here on how to change it in case you were wondering

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/362/1

it makes it look harder than it is, it is quite easy, dont forget to unplug it!! :)
 
innercx said:
i was looking at this review

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/powercolor_hd4850/

as you can see the fps in the bench marks is quite close in some and not so far behind ino others and 3d mark 06 score is that bad for a card the is half the price of a gtx 280

i mean the gtx does still win but not always by that much the hd 4850 is def better value for money
Click to expand...


This is similar performance to what my findings were-

http://www.techspot.com/review/109-geforce-gtx-260-280-versus-radeon-4850-4870/page3.html


I've had crossfired 4870 1gb's, and a single gtx260, thats right just a 260, and it's almost the same performance. The 4870's edged it out slightly, but not much.
A 4850 is no where near the performance of a gtx280.
My EVGA gts250 512mb had similar performance of a single 4870 1gb. The gts250 would actually bench higher, but real world playing the 4870 edged it out slightly. Testings done at 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200, and full 1920x1080p.

I have not tested any 5000 series ATI, but when it comes to real performance, Nvidia has the goods.
 
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87dtna said:
haha dude don't make me laugh too hard. I don't know what reviews you are looking at, but a gtx280 is easily half again stronger than a 4850 if not double the performance.



To the OP- This card I'm about to recommend you can keep your current power supply AND can play pretty much any game with a max resolution of 1280x1024-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127434&Tpk=msi 9600gt

It will play 95% of games at full 1080p as well. Really depends on what monitor you have. I know you said you don't play games, but gaming performance is kinda how I judge how good a card is.
This card does NOT require an external 6 pin power supply, and is almost with a 4830 in performance. It is better than a 4670 though, consumes less power, easier to install, and takes up less space.

Slightly above your budget, but it's the best you are going to do while retaining the rest of your setup.

Oh, before we go too much further, a 3450 can also come in AGP instead of PCI express X16. You should really make sure you have a PCIe x16 slot rather than AGP before you go buying a card. Although your setup has an E7400 which is fairly new, so I'm pretty sure you have a PCIe slot but you should make absolutely certain first.
Click to expand...

Yea it has PCIe, are you absolutley sure that card will work fine with a 300 watt power supply, it's a big investment and I really don't want to fry anything.
 
maallenmi said:
Yea it has PCIe, are you absolutley sure that card will work fine with a 300 watt power supply, it's a big investment and I really don't want to fry anything.
Click to expand...

I had that exact card, and used it in an AMD dual core rig with a 300w power supply that is so cheap it came with a $40 case I bought. The PSU only has a single 12 amp 12v rail, and it's the lightest PSU i've ever handled. Powered the rig just fine, never blew out I played call of duty world at war on it for hours.
 
Just a tip; do not buy cheap power supplies that is the absolute last part that you should even think about saving money on, they power your whole system so if something happens to it, all of your other parts can go.
 
Respital said:
Just a tip; do not buy cheap power supplies that is the absolute last part that you should even think about saving money on, they power your whole system so if something happens to it, all of your other parts can go.
Click to expand...

Yup, had a PSU take out a motherboard on me once.
 
87dtna said:
I had that exact card, and used it in an AMD dual core rig with a 300w power supply that is so cheap it came with a $40 case I bought. The PSU only has a single 12 amp 12v rail, and it's the lightest PSU i've ever handled. Powered the rig just fine, never blew out I played call of duty world at war on it for hours.
Click to expand...

ALright I think I'm gonna go with that card unless someone convinces me otherwise, thanks for the help man.
 
87dtna said:
This is similar performance to what my findings were-

http://www.techspot.com/review/109-geforce-gtx-260-280-versus-radeon-4850-4870/page3.html


I've had crossfired 4870 1gb's, and a single gtx260, thats right just a 260, and it's almost the same performance. The 4870's edged it out slightly, but not much.
A 4850 is no where near the performance of a gtx280.
My EVGA gts250 512mb had similar performance of a single 4870 1gb. The gts250 would actually bench higher, but real world playing the 4870 edged it out slightly. Testings done at 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200, and full 1920x1080p.

I have not tested any 5000 series ATI, but when it comes to real performance, Nvidia has the goods.
Click to expand...

yeah looks like your right but that review i had seemed to peg it a bit closer to the gtx 280 only thing i can think of is that this particular card is powercoler card and maybe they have tweaked it slightly i mean in that review its scores are not so bad even tho the 280 still wins
but your review shows the same frame rates for the 4850 but the gtx stomps aways ftw with much higher frame rates than in the review i had.
it would help if i could benchmark myself instead of relying on other peoples reviews i still have a x800 pro on agp with no money to upgrade :)
 
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