Need help chooseing a video card for games.

A

audiobahn1000

Member
Apparently my integrated video card will not work for games. So I need a new one. I was wondering what is a good entry level card that will be compatible with modern games. I have a PCI adapter. Dell told me these are the only cards compatible with my computer:

http://support.dell.com/support/sys....aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~cat=8&~subcat=58

So what’s a good entry level choice that will be compatible with as many of the modern games as possible?

Honestly the ones on that list look like crap. They look like they are worse then the one I have right now. So are they truly the ones compatible or what? I just need something basic. Like something with 64 MB of memory should do me. How can I tell if a video card is compatible with my computer? There was some talk about me possibly blowing my power supply being that its only a 250 watt one, if I add the wrong card. Do video cards truly draw that much power?
 
Last edited:
Here are my system specifications:

Processor type
Intel® Pentium® 4 with HT Technology and Intel Celeron®

NOTE: Not all Pentium 4 processors support Hyper-Threading technology.

Level 1 (L1) cache
8 KB

Level 2 (L2) cache
128-KB or 512-KB (depending on your computer configuration) pipelined-burst, eight-way set associative, write-back SRAM



Memory

Type
333- and 400-MHz DDR SDRAM

NOTE: DDR333 and DDR400 memory runs at 266MHz when configured with Celeron 400MHz FSB processors

NOTE: DDR333 memory runs at 320MHz when configured with Pentium 4 800MHz FSB processors

Memory connectors
two

Memory capacities
128-, 256-, 512-, or 1-GB non-ECC

Minimum memory
128 MB

NOTE: Between 1 and 64 MB of system memory may be allocated to support graphics, depending on system memory size and other factors.

Maximum memory
2 GB

BIOS address
F0000h



Computer Information

Chip set
Intel 865 GV

DMA channels
Seven

Interrupt levels
24

BIOS chip (NVRAM)
4 Mb

NIC
integrated network interface capable of 10/100 communication.

System Clock
Intel Pentium 4: 800 MHz

Intel Celeron: 533 MHz



Video

Type
Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2



Audio

Type
AC97, Sound Blaster Emulation, ADI 1980 audio controller with 2.1 implementation



Expansion Bus

Bus type
PCI

Bus speed
33 MHz




PCI


connectors
three

connector size
120 pins

connector data width (maximum)
32 bits



Drives

Externally accessible:


One bay for a floppy drive, and two bays for CD/DVD drives

Available devices
Floppy drive, USB memory devices, CD drive,
CD-RW drive, DVD drive, DVD-RW drive, and DVD and CD-RW combo drive

Internally accessible:


One bay for 1-inch-high IDE hard drives



Connectors

External connectors:

Serial
9-pin connector; 16550C-compatible

Parallel
25-hole connector (bidirectional)

Video
15-hole connector

Network adapter
RJ45 connector

PS/2 (keyboard and mouse)
6-pin mini-DIN

USB
two front-panel and four back-panel USB 2.0–compliant connectors

Audio
Three connectors for line-in, line-out, and microphone; one front-panel connector for headphones

System board connectors:

Primary IDE drive
40-pin connector on PCI local bus

Secondary IDE drive
40-pin connector on PCI local bus


Power

DC power supply:


Wattage
250 W

Heat dissipation
853 BTU/hr (fully loaded computer without monitor)

Voltage (see the safety instructions located in the Product Information Guide for important voltage setting information)
Fixed-voltage power supply — 100 to 120 V at 60 Hz; 200 to 240 V at 50 Hz





I have a 250 watt power supply.
 
There won't be many video cards that are worth a flip that are PCI. I suggest a computer upgrade if you want to play some modern games.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top