Author Topic: Upgrade (Read 404 times)

uberhun · « **on:** November 06, 2007, 09:13:08 AM »

Skuzzy,
I intend to upgrade Ram to 2 megs and I am installing a new Graphics card in a dell 4600 pentium 4 cpu. What Graphics card would you recommend, and should I upgrade the sound card too? My current card is a nividia 5600. It just can't keep up with the game anymore.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #1 on:** November 06, 2007, 01:40:43 PM »

I canot make any recommendations. Generally speaking, if you spend around $150 U.S. for a video card, you will get a pretty decent video card.

It is also easy to have too much video card. As the game is a flight simulator it does depend quite a bit on the CPU. Typically, the best bang comes from a faster CPU, depending on what video card you have now.

dhaus · « **Reply #2 on:** November 08, 2007, 06:41:30 PM »

Before you upgrade the video card, check your power supply. Dell's power supplies are notoriously weak. They claim their rating is somewhat undervalued compared to others, because others are rated at peak output, whereas dell rates theirs at its normal output. I'm not sure I would rely on that. I just purchased a dell which should have come with at least a 450W power supply. It is rated at 300. I knew that going in and don't need to upgrade my video card immediately, but when I do, I will have to upgrade the power supply as well. Oh, and Dell's power supplies used to be proprietary, they may still be. You will have to check on that.

0thehero · « **Reply #3 on:** November 12, 2007, 12:31:59 PM »

Quote

Dell's power supplies are notoriously weak.

They're also notoriously proprietary--they're 20-pin PSUs aren't the same as the rest of the world, but you can get converters online that will allow standard ATX 2.2 PSUs to connect to Dell motherboards.

Moreover, your choices are probably somewhat limited to lower-end cards, because I'm pretty sure the 4600 is an AGP-based graphics system. Any of the older Nvidia 7000 series cards would be a good choice, if you can still find them.

Good luck.

rod367th · « **Reply #4 on:** November 16, 2007, 12:54:47 PM »

i might have a agp 7300gt used if that helps.........

outbreak · « **Reply #5 on:** November 17, 2007, 03:12:51 PM »

using a Nvidia 6600GT 128mb GDDR3, Runs ah around 60 frames, drops to about 50 when the furballs get hairy!, but other than that this card has done me good, you can even SLI them (join 2 together), its a good card at a reliable price, and im running that on a 400watt ps, which i bought for $20 on tiger direct.

OOZ662 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 17, 2007, 04:43:11 PM »

The standard nVidia 6800 card can be unlocked to run at the speeds of the 6800GT. They're cheaper and exactly the same card.

Unlocked XFX 6800
3.06GHz Pentium 4 Northwood (Stock clocking)
2GB PC3200 (I think) Corsair ValueRAM
Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS
200GB SATA 7200RPM drive

Runs pegged at the monitor refresh until a MASSIVE furball, then around 50FPS. Full sliders and preloaded everything.