Need advice on video card for PCI-E bus

Three bits of advice:

Make sure your system really does have a PCI-E x 16 slot (different from x8, 4, and 1 slots).

Make sure your power supply is strong enough to handle the card you get -- the 8800 is a real power hog, as well as...

Make sure you have room in your case for the card, since the 8800 is also a huge space hog -- depending on the motherboard arrangement you may have to plug your HD into a different slot (my 8800 hangs over half my SATA ports, and naturally my HD used to be plugged into one of the ones its using!). If its going to end up hanging over your memory stick slots, that's a huge issue -- and I know there are some cases where they had to mod their slots because the little "tag" (switch, whatever its called) thing at the end (that locks the card in place) was what was in the way.

I am quite sure that it is a PCI-E x 16.

As for power, does a standard US wall outlet put out enough power to run the 8800?

I would have to look to see if there is space, but thanks for the tip.

He ment the power supply (PSU) inside your computer. You should see 400W or something in it's labels.

EDIT: Also, there are power supply calculators that you can google to see if it's enough.

oh. Thanks.

My suggestion is the ATi 4850, hands down the best price/performance you're going to find.
It requires a 450watt power supply with a 6 pin PCI-E connector.


FYI: PCI-E 2.0 cards are backwards compatible with PCI-E 1.0 slots.

Ack, I needed to be more clear indeed!

The internal PSU -- Power Supply Unit -- needs to be pretty powerful to handle modern high-end video cards. Warning! Its not raw wattage that matters on the power supply, but rather how its distributed. You need sufficient amperage on the 12 volt "rail" to run a video card -- having lots of watts is no good if most of them are in the 5 volt range instead of the 12 volt range.

Doublt Warning: Do not, repeat, do not attempt to run a computer without a decent power supply. This can cause instability, destroy your computer hardware, or even burn down your house! If your power supply can not provide sufficient power to your rig, it can cause system instability and even damage components. If your power supply isn't a good unit -- and good units tend to be expensive! -- it could just burn out, or it could start a nasty fire. If you replace your power supply, start with quality -- to quote another, "once you have quality, watts are cheap!" So if you see a 30$ 1000 watt "deal"... steer clear, unless its from a good name (and even then I'd probably steer clear of that good of a deal).

I've had this computer for over a year, so my guess is that I got a reasonable power supply. How do I check, though, the exact specs of my power supply? do I need to go and physically see the part, or can I find the information somewhere on my computer, like in Device Manager or something?

it turns out that new models like the NVidia 260 and 280 cards do physically work with a PCI-E bus, but there is no support and they didn't try and write code for PCI-E compatability, just PCI-E 2

I could try it, yes, but it is (moderately) expensive and has a high risk of failing, so why take the risk?

Nononono...

400 watts for an 8800 is a death wish. You'll be skating on ridiculously thin ice plugging it in, much less turning it on. I'd recommend something over 530 watts to preserve the integrity of other components.

If you're going to get the 4850s, you may as well wait a little while and get the even better 4870s.

But if you have the cash, go ahead. Just be warned, if you see a 8800GTS 320 or 640, avoid them at all costs. They're based on an older, slower, core.

8800 GTS 640

While this may look cool and has had a recent price drop, avoid it at all costs.

MSI 8800GTS 512

I'd definitely recommend this, even though it doesn't look as cool or the cooling isn't as efficient, it still runs cooler by itself and pushes a lot more graphics power.

Remember, you have to keep all your parts on the relatively same level. If one component isn't as efficient/powerful as another, you're wasting a lot of time. Even if you have a mid-to-high end quad core processor and 4GB of RAM, but a really bad, I don't know, Radeon 9200SE (which could run Sins, but I haven't have time to check), the RAM and CPU will be waiting 50% of the time for the graphics card to redraw the screen to continue. This goes the same the other way, too. The most common bottlenecks are RAM and graphics card. CPU, not so much.

Rafi, if you are not sure about replacing the power supply, you could take your computer in to a computer store (ex. Future shop) and they can install the new power supply for you.

I bought a Nvidia 8600 card about 6 months ago for my computer and it needed a new power supply to run it. My computer is fairly old (purchased in 2006) and I bought the card and power supply at Future shop and had them install the power supply for me. It didn't cost much to have them install it.

The card itself is easy to install and you would be able to handle that with no problems, but the power supply needs to be connected correctly to every piece of hardware and the motherboard. So, if you don't know much about building a computer, I would suggest taking it in.

Go for the 8800GTS 512mb (rev92) , if you can afford it.

If not , then go for the 9600GT

Don't know about PCI-E 1.0 most cards these days are PCI-E 2.0
I've just built a computer, and I have 3 best graphic solutions for you:

MSI NX8800GT OC with the custom heatsink = Cheap, Quiet, Cool, but a little slow. $175
9800 GTX at stock speeds = Quiet, Cool, but Huge and requires two 6 pin PCI-E power plugs directly from powersupply. (At least 500watt with 80% efficiency).

I went for a really big psu
I have a GTX8800 and 5 disks in here, with a quad core.
I also fitted one of those zalmans that shows power consumption.
What does the PC sit at? 230w.

To be fair, I havent checked it when running a game.

Don't know about PCI-E 1.0 most cards these days are PCI-E 2.0
I've just built a computer, and I have 4 best graphic solutions for you:
All three requires a powersupply with at least 500watt. Perhaps 450-480watt if it is high quality power supply for the 8800gt.

MSI NX8800GT OC with the custom heatsink (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127329)
Pros: Cheap ($175 USD), Quiet, Cool,
Cons: The slowest out of four cards.

9800 GTX at stock speeds
Pros: Quiet, Cool, Fast! ($200)
Cons: Huge and requires two 6 pin PCI-E power plugs directly from powersupply. (At least 500watt with 80% efficiency).

ATI just came out with two new graphic cards. The HD 4850 completes with 9800GTX, while the HD 4870 beats the 9800GTX and completes with Nvidia 260's.

HD 4850
Pros: Fast! ($200)
Cons: Heat!!! Until there are custom heat sinks, or if you are using a water-cooled solution.

HD 4870
Pros: Huge, Fastest!!!
Cons: Heat!! Expensive ($300) Until there are custom heat sinks, or if you are using a water-cooled solution.


I wanted to get the HD 4850, but with the standard heat sinks, it runs too hot and I don't like to have noisy fans running at high speeds in my case. So I ended up with 9800GTX.

I know. That is the current problem. I have a nice computer, but the best video card that dell offered us was the Geforce 7300 LE. And this was back in '07, not even '06 when it came out and was labeled as not-for-gaming

[quote]I've had this computer for over a year, so my guess is that I got a reasonable power supply.[quote]

Yeah, but if you upgrade your video card, you may just up the power needs.



You'd either need to check with the manufacturer, or open up your case and look -- there should be a sticker listing the information on its side.

I have 2x8800M 512 MB GTX in SLI--the best mobile GPU on the market--and I can run any game with no framerate dropping below 40 on maxed-out settings. Since you have a Dell, I'd recommend ordering your new parts from them. You can get a pretty good deal, they're fully backed with a warranty, and, if you consult with a specialist who has detailed information on your system configuration, compatibility is guaranteed.

thanks BHunterSEAL

No problem. Another idea: since you've got an XPS, you probably have more than one graphics card slot--you may want to look into SLI technology. That's a pretty cost-effective way of increasing your graphics performance. I can help out with that because I set up SLI on my XPS laptop. You should check and see whether your current card is SLI-compatible--if it is, you could probably save money by ordering a duplicate card and connecting them through an SLI bridge. You could increase performance in this way by upwards of 85%.

But yeah, for a Dell owner, your best option would be to talk to someone over there about how best to upgrade your system. In my experience (this is my third Dell PC and the fifth that I've worked on in my house, not counting at work) Dell will be very helpful if you let them know you want to order a new part from them, and go out of their way to make sure it works.

I was looking through the Dell.com video card list (many not made by Dell), and eventually found this card:
http://www.diamondmm.com/3870PE31G.php
it looks very nice, is built for PCI-E, and is compatible with vista, among a number of other things.

Does anyone have a pro/con comparison?

Well, compatible for Vista is not a worry with modern video cards -- if its not compatible for Vista, its not high-end enough to be worth paying money for unless you really, really need desktop graphics. Anyway, I'd look at something a little higher end than that, unless its a budget issue.

Duddde... I mean, if you really want an ATI, go for it, but I've always been partial to NVIDIAs. It's a lot easier to work with their forceware. Obviously, a lot depends on your specific model, but from personal experience, I've seen a 64MB NVIDIA FX 5200 give a 256MB ATI x600 a run for its money in terms of framerate and performance.

is NVidia more compatible with Dell (specifically the XPS 410) than ATI is?

Nvidia FX 5200 and Ati x600 are some time behind..

At the moment, best performance for the buck is definively the ati 4850, which sells around 200€ in germany. one year ago, i got me a new computer with intel core2duo and 8800 gts 640. it's still doing fine in high res up to 1650x1050 dx10 and everything on high, but if my gfx should somehow break now, i'd get an ati 4850.. performance is really nice for that price!

Maybe you should hit a hardware-website of your choice, read some articles about the 4850 from ati and the 8800gt 9600gt and so on. these should keep u going in resolutions up to 1280x800 (the ati up to 1600) with a low price.

There is no "compatibility" problem with video cards, there is no video card "specifically made" for Dells.

Video cards are video cards.

If you have $50 to spend, get the 8600GT/8600GTS.
If you have $130 to spend, get the 9600GT.
If you have $150 to spend, get the 8800GT.
If you have $200 to spend, get the 4850.

That's all it really comes down to. And get a new PSU too.