What video card should I buy for games?

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SPL Tech

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Apparently my integrated video card is not cutting it for games. So I need to know what entry level card will work for playing most modern day games? I do not need anything expensive, just something that will cut it. I think a card with 64 MB of virtually memory should cut it. Anyway I need a PCI type card. I have just a normal 19" monitor. I am not looking for extreme quality. I donÂ’t need lots of features. Just something that will allow me to play the game properly. ThatÂ’s it. If possible I would like to keep the card price under $60. I know thatÂ’s not going to get me much but if it will not allow me to get a card that will let me run games then I guess I have no choice but to get a more expensive one. I have a desktop.

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









Anyway apparently I have PCI type busses or whatever. So I guess I need that type of card from my understanding. Dell told me these were the only cards compatible with my system:

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

Is this true or BS? I only have a 250 watt power supply. I thought that might matter.

I have read the video card sticky. But obviously all those cards are not compatible with my computer so I needed a bit more specific help.
 
Ok I have another question. The guys at Dell tell me that my computer has a 250 watt PSU. Well they tell me that the computer consumes 250 watts and thus I have no head room with the PSU for additional components. Well I have a meter that plugs into the wall and can tell you how much electricity a specific 120V component is drawing. It says that my computer draws about 110 VA and 75 watts. As far as I know the meter is accurate. Does a draw of 110 VA sound typical for a entry level computer? That is just the tower and nothing else. If itÂ’s true then I have another 175 watts of head room with my PSU. How much power does an average card consume? I would think it would not be anywhere 175.
 
Unfortunately, you have been screwed by Dell and their "cheap" PCs.

Using PCI for graphics went out a long, long time ago. AGP took its place, and now AGP is dying away.

Dell left off the AGP slot on your motherboard to save a couple of bucks... and you pay the price now.

The Radeon 9250 and the Geforce FX5500 are the best you're gonna be able to get, as they were the top of the line, and the last GPUs made into PCI cards.

You're best bet would be to get one of these and try to make due until you can get a better system. And I mean a complete system, but not necessarily a top of the line one. You could make due with a AMD socket 939 CPU and mobo, graphics card, new case and PSU, and Windows. Everything else you could scavenge from your current system.

You don't have to buy everything at once, but if you bought the above you'd be set for a bit. Then you upgrade to better RAM (2 gigs). Maybe a better/faster/larger hard drive. A couple of case fans. Good speakers, possibly a sound card.
 
I have a 9250. Granted I am upgrading in the very near future, but currently I can run Counter Strike: Source and Battlefield 2 smoothly, providing the graphics are running quite low
 
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