Video Card Recomendation

[bmwgs]

Near as I can tell, your power supply would support 18Amps.

http://www.txcesssurplus.com/servlet/the-3495/Dell-Dimension-Precision-Power/Detail

Thats the one I have.

Fred

[PFactorDave]

Well, you should be ok to run an nVidea 9500GT without replacing your power supply.  I just saw the 9500GT at Best Buy this afternoon.  The 512mb model was $129, the 1gig model was $139.

However, I have no idea whatsoever if that would be better or worse then what you had, or what you are running at the moment.

I am pretty sure it's better then what I am running though, and I may buy one for myself.

[Skuzzy]

<snip>Input 100-120v-9A

Geez.  Either that is one very inefficient power supply or it is very underrated.  9A @ 120V = 1080W

[bmwgs]

Geez.  Either that is one very inefficient power supply or it is very underrated.  9A @ 120V = 1080W

Don't know but its whats on the label, just like the one PFactor posted the link to ???

Fred

[bmwgs]

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=48&page=3

EVGA GeForce 9500 GT 01G-P3-N959-TR Video Card - Retail
 GeForce 9500 GT
 1GB GDDR2
 PCI Express 2.0 x16

Newegg has this one for $69.00 with a $15.00 rebate.  Sounds to cheap to be a good card.  This is a DDR2 .  There are other brands of the 9500 GT that are a DDR3 for about the same price.  Is higher the DDR better or worse?  Should I stay away from certain brands?  Opinions?

Man I didn't know there were so many friggin cards out there.  I just want to buy a dog gone card that's better than what I got that will work with my current system.  I'm starting to get a headache and it only Friday.  

Fred

[Masherbrum]

http://www.txcesssurplus.com/servlet/the-3495/Dell-Dimension-Precision-Power/Detail

18A on the 12v rail.   More than likely, the card went due to being underpowered.   

[BaldEagl]

Any reason why you single out the 9500 GT 512?  I only ask because I was just in my local Best Buy about 30 minutes ago and they had both the 9500GT 512 and the 9500GT 1gig in stock.  The 1gig version was only $10 more.

Yes.  A 32 bit O/S will only see somewhere under 4Gb (3.25-3.75) of addressable memory.  This includes video memory.  The system also has to allocate memory to the motherboard and any peripherals installed.

Adding VRAM over 512 in a 32 bit system won't really add much if anything to video performance, which is more dependant on memory speed (bus and clock) than total memory, so all you're really doing is limiting the amount of regular memory available to the system.

BTW, you can get a 9500GT for well under $100 at newegg (closer to $70 IIRC).

[EDIT]  I should have added that as long as you're never going to put more RAM in your system than 2Gb then the 1Gb card won't hurt but then I went to EVGA's web site where I saw this:

GPU 9500 GT 9500 GT
GPU Speed 550Mhz 550Mhz
Pixel Pipelines 32 32
RAMDAC Speed 400 400
RAM 512 1024
RAM Type DDR2 DDR2
RAM Speed 1000Mhz (effective) 800Mhz (effective)
Memory Bandwidth 16.0 GB/s 12.8 GB/s
Max Refresh 240 240
Max Resolution Analog 2048x1536 2048x1536
Max Resolution Digital 2560x1600 2560x1600

Note that with the higher RAM speed/memory bandwidth the 512 card will outperform the 1Gb card.

[Fulmar]

http://www.txcesssurplus.com/servlet/the-3495/Dell-Dimension-Precision-Power/Detail

18A on the 12v rail.   More than likely, the card went due to being underpowered.   

Yup, I'm really surprised he didn't suffer from reboots during gaming.

[BaldEagl]

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=48&page=3

EVGA GeForce 9500 GT 01G-P3-N959-TR Video Card - Retail
 GeForce 9500 GT
 1GB GDDR2
 PCI Express 2.0 x16

Newegg has this one for $69.00 with a $15.00 rebate.  Sounds to cheap to be a good card.  This is a DDR2 .  There are other brands of the 9500 GT that are a DDR3 for about the same price.  Is higher the DDR better or worse?  Should I stay away from certain brands?  Opinions?

Man I didn't know there were so many friggin cards out there.  I just want to buy a dog gone card that's better than what I got that will work with my current system.  I'm starting to get a headache and it only Friday.  

Fred

Don't buy the 1Gb version.  See my post above.  Get the 512.  Yes, faster memory = more memory bandwidth = better.

In order these are the three fastest 9500's on newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121267  $69

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125260  $60

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150332  $74

Personally I'd skip the ASUS and the Gigabyte and go with the XFX just because they have been building Nvidia cards for a long time where the other two are relative newcomers to the video card world but that's up to you.

[bmwgs]

Don't buy the 1Gb version.  See my post above.  Get the 512.  Yes, faster memory = more memory bandwidth = better.

Getting ready to order it.  A couple of last questions.  I do have 4g of ram in the computer.  I understand XP only shows like 3 or something.  Does that make a difference?

Now for the final question.  I was thinking about a sound card.  I think I saw where a sound card will help in running the game.  Now I am hard of hearing and can not really hear stero, so when I talk about sound cards, I don't need or could use a high end card that has surround sound and such.  I was just looking to take some load off the system.  Any last suggestion concerning should I invest in a sound card?

Thanks to all for the help so far.

Fred

[BaldEagl]

I just edited my last post.  Look above for card recommendations.

Yes, since you have 4Gb of RAM you'de lose 512 more mb using the 1 Gb card vs the 512.

As to sound cards if you go too cheap it won't really help.  If you can afford it get a Creative X-Fi.  If not then get a Creative Audigy but the X-Fi will take a bigger load off the CPU as it has its own RAM and processor.

[bmwgs]

I just edited my last post.  Look above for card recommendations.

Yes, since you have 4Gb of RAM you'de lose 512 more mb using the 1 Gb card vs the 512.

As to sound cards if you go too cheap it won't really help.  If you can afford it get a Creative X-Fi.  If not then get a Creative Audigy but the X-Fi will take a bigger load off the CPU as it has its own RAM and processor.

Just ordered the card.  I went with the first one on the list, since you suggest it may be the better one.

Thanks,

Fred

[Boozeman]

ATI: HD4850 - 450Watt minimum w/ a 6-pin PCI-e
NV: 9800GTX - 450Watt minimum

These two cards using his current PSU will be destroyed by being underpowered. 

Depends very much on the rest of the system. If you have  a ridiculously overclocked I7 CPU, multiple harddrives, a hungry mainboard etc. then maybe 450W is needed to feed the videocard. An E6600 at stock clock has TDP of 65 W, the 4850 110W. Thats 50% of the PSUs rated for the 2 most demanding components. The remaining 50% will cover the rest with ease.

For reference, I have a similar system with a E6700, 2 GB ram, 1 HD and a 350W PSU. I am running a overclocked HD3870 and the manufacturer also recommends a 450 W PSU for the video card. But guess what, my PSU does not even sweat. I can run all kind of stress tests and benchmarks all day long and the system is rock stable.
 

[Masherbrum]

Depends very much on the rest of the system. If you have  a ridiculously overclocked I7 CPU, multiple harddrives, a hungry mainboard etc. then maybe 450W is needed to feed the videocard. An E6600 at stock clock has TDP of 65 W, the 4850 110W. Thats 50% of the PSUs rated for the 2 most demanding components. The remaining 50% will cover the rest with ease.

For reference, I have a similar system with a E6700, 2 GB ram, 1 HD and a 350W PSU. I am running a overclocked HD3870 and the manufacturer also recommends a 450 W PSU for the video card. But guess what, my PSU does not even sweat. I can run all kind of stress tests and benchmarks all day long and the system is rock stable.
 

Again, one of the cards required a 6 pin PCI-e connector.   If said PSU doesn't have one, the point is moot.  I'd rather have too much power, than "not enough/barely enough" and risk a failure due to that.   Also, you do not get to use 100% of the PSU.   

[Fulmar]

Depends very much on the rest of the system. If you have  a ridiculously overclocked I7 CPU, multiple harddrives, a hungry mainboard etc. then maybe 450W is needed to feed the videocard. An E6600 at stock clock has TDP of 65 W, the 4850 110W. Thats 50% of the PSUs rated for the 2 most demanding components. The remaining 50% will cover the rest with ease.

For reference, I have a similar system with a E6700, 2 GB ram, 1 HD and a 350W PSU. I am running a overclocked HD3870 and the manufacturer also recommends a 450 W PSU for the video card. But guess what, my PSU does not even sweat. I can run all kind of stress tests and benchmarks all day long and the system is rock stable.

Unless you're running a Seasonic or something of the like with lots of amps on the 12V and a very high efficiency rating, why would you want to even go against the manufacturers recommendations?  Just because you're not experience problems now does not mean you're not shorting the life span of your system, setting yourself up for an imminent failure.

Why run 87 octane in your Audi A8?