Newbie ??'s on Video Card info/update

[Xtian]

Hey, all

Yes, I'm a newbie and probably am not worthy for my shaddow to be in the same county as you all, but I'm just trying to find out something regarding updating / replacing my video card.

I'm running a Dell Demension 8250 (rec'd as wedding gift from family in 2002), P4 2.80GHz, just updated the RDRAM (don't laugh) to 768Mhz total. The card I'm running in an NVidia GeForce4 MX 420 (again, quit laughing, please. I don't know much, but I know it's not that impressive). I do have a 17" LCD, though, so I'm not a COMPLETE loser (just an incomplete one).

I'm not into heavy gaming or video downloading, etc (still on 56k modem..Hey! You're still laughing!) But I'd like to know what a nice, simple upgrade would be and cost to allow me to do DirectX9, and such. To tell the truth, I'd like to play Civ IV, and have a demo disk from some 'puter mag I bought (there's the chuckling again). The tutorial seemed to work fine, 'til the first movie tried to play. Hung everything and had to force the 'puter off. I'm guessing it's the video card.

Anyway, long message for a quick question. Any thoughts (without snickers) would be greatfully received.

Thanks.

[Small_Fry]

Well, the demo disc's movie crashing might not completely by your video card's fault. Check for scratches and the sort, but if you're sure that it's the video card, you might want to consider an upgrade. First of all, as long as you have an AGP slot, your motherboard has very good video potential, though PCI does cost a lot more. You said you weren't into heavy gaming or video DLing, but it's always good to have a good, working video card around. Most cards come with DirectX9 and newer OpenGL, so probably $50 for a good AGP card with high video quality. Newegg.com has a good selection of video cards, you might want to start looking there.

[Xtian]

I believe I do have a PCI thing....my Device Manager general tab says the location is "PCI bus 1."

So, how expensive would this be to replace, how easy would it be to do it myself? Also, any recomendations?

[flanzig1]

PCI bus is different than PCI-Express which is replacing the AGP standard. You can get an ATI 9600XT for around $100 or a ATI 9550 for around $50 to $60.

[glc]

The ATI 9550 is the cheapest true DX9 card out there. The issue you have is the Dell power supply can't handle a much stronger card than that. Maybe something like a 9800SE would be a good choice.

[Xtian]

Thanks for the help everyone. Someone irl mentioned the power supply thing, I probably have 250 (how do I check? It doesn't say on the box when I open up the case). I probably would buy 350 or 400.


Now my question is, am I trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear? Spent $215ish on RDRAM upgrade, and now am thinking of upgrading the graphics card, which would necessitate buying a bigger power supply....and it's a 3-year old Dell, after all. I'd hate to junk it, since it's a P4 2.8Ghz, but....

Any thoughts?