Need Video Card Recommendation for Dimension 9100

The 6800 and x850 are old cards and not manufactured anymore which is why you cannot find them.  What is the reason for your upgrade?  You would actually have a lot of choices depending on what the purpose is for your new video card.  You have a 375 watt power supply so that is good for a decent card.  You want to get a PCI express x16 interface type card like you have now.  Here are some examples:

The best PCIe card for around $60 - $70 would be the ATI HD 4670

The best PCIe card for around $80 - $110 would be the ATI HD 4830

You can go up or down from these but it is hard to give suggestions without knowing the purpose and what you want to spend.  With current Nvidia cards today in order of performance, you would have the 9400GT, 9500GT, 9600GT and 9800GT and up from there.  Again, you have quite a few choices that are much better than your X300.  Your computer will take a full size card so avoid the ones that are low-profile.  You can go as cheap as this HD 3450 if you want to as a more current card and better than what you have without spending too much. 

If you play any 3D games at all, I would look at the HD 4670 as your minimum pick and it only uses around 70 watts while gaming.  However, you have lived with an X300 for quite some time so I'm not sure that is the case.  If not, just get a 3450.

Newegg.com would be one of the best places to shop for video cards.

Thanks so much for your reply! 

The reason I want to upgrade is that I've been using Roxio Media Creator to create a video/photo slide show.   I also often have PhotoShop Elements open.  The PC has been really sluggish and sometimes locks up.  My system only had two 512mg memory modules (1 gb) so I just ordered two 1gb modules from Newegg.com which I installed the other evening.  My 9100 now is showing all 3gb of memory but I'm not seeing a tremendous difference in working with Roxio....some difference, but not what I expected.

A recommendation from a co-worker was that the problem might be my old video/graphics card and that I should upgrade that as well as the memory. 

Hope that better explains the reason for the upgrade.  Would you agree that I should upgrade?  If so, what card would you recommend? 

Thanks again,

Dave

I don't think the video card requirement is that great for the software, but it always helps to have a better one.   I know someone that does a lot of video editing and he has the same X300.  I use Roxio Media Creator myself. 

Any of the cards mentioned will do so it just depends on what you want to spend.  If you can afford the HD 4670, then get that one.  If not, get the HD 4650 or HD 3650 or even the HD 3450.  All will be better than the X300.  On the Nvidia side, I would say get the 9400 GT or the better 9500 GT.   Actually, all these cards are pretty close in price anyway except for the HD 3450.  That being the case, I would just get the best one unless you really want to save a few dollars.

From lowest to highest performance with the cards mentioned:  HD 3450, 9400GT, HD 3650, 9500GT, HD 4650, HD 4670.

I like the Radeon HD 4670  4670PE31GDT

And since you already have a radeon updating drivers will probably not cause problems.

http://www.diamondmm.com/4670PE31GDT.php

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4348739

Hi, Sorry for the delay in answering.  Appears like you and "SpeedStep" have pretty much the same suggestion HD 4670.  There doesn't appear to be a big difference in cost on these and $70 isn't beyond my budget to upgrade the machine. 

So I shouldn't have any problem with any of these boards with current power supply in the 9100?

Thanks so much for the suggestions!

Dave

Sounds like this one is the recommended one between yours and JMichael's suggestions.  I have to take a look at the current board in my 9100...this card looks bulky...do you think there will be any problems with it fitting in without hitting one of the other boards?

I'm really hoping between the additional two gig of memory and new board that this computer can keep me going for a while.  It's pretty old, but just don't have the money for a new system right now.  The Kingston memory I just bought from Newegg.com seems like a bargain.... Two 1 gb boards for about $26.00 ($11.50 each plus shipping). 

Thanks again for the suggestions.

Dave

You get what you pay for.

A $26 gpu will likely be turbo trash or Hyper Junk and therefore SLOW.

The Diamond Radeon HD4670 works fine in my Inspiron 530 with no upgrade required for the power supply.

This one is a bit less but you arent going to get what you want for the $26

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0298847

OK, now I guess I'm a bit confused, and excuse my ignorance here. 

I was thinking the Radeon HD4670 was a brand and model, but I see the recommendations are for different HD 4670 cards and when I go to newegg.com, or tigerdirect.com, there's a slew of different HD 4670's by different companies. So, SpeedStep's recommendation is for the Diamond and yours is for ASUS and there's a huge difference in price.  ~$59.00 on ASUS compared to ~$115.00 for the Diamond.  I won't be using doing any gaming on the machine but will be doing some video streaming (watching older TV episodes, like "24" ) which I've missed.  Not sure if that matters.  And I'm hearing from an earlier post of yours that the new card may not help with my Roxio software either?  There's a fair amount of video which I've transferred from old camcorder tapes.

Man, I work for a technology company...you'd think I'd be a little better versed!  :emotion-10:  Between kids and work, I don't have a lot of time to keep current (I'm surprised I'm actually not still using DOS!!)

Dave

I did find a 512 meg version

MSI (Micro Star International Computer) Radeon HD 4670 Graphics Card R46702D512
Graphics Card - ATi Radeon HD 4670 750MHz -
512MB GDDR3 SDRAM 128bit

UPC Code: 816909049091
Estimated Retail Price: 99.99
Manufacturer Warranty: 3 YEARS
Past Exch-Call MSI 626-581-3001 x160

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001FWQE70/ref=asc_df_B001FWQE70777676?smid=A2YLYLTN75J8LR

http://www.acsparts.com/R46702D512-Standard.html

http://www.buy.com/prod/msi-radeon-4670-512mb-gddr3-2000mhz-pci-e-2-0-directx-10-1-video-card/q/loc/101/209253740.html?dcaid=17988

 The $26 is for memory not a GPU.  Nevertheless, $119 is too much to spend for an HD 4670.  Don't spend the extra money on a 1GB card if you have no use for it.  The 512MB's are a much better deal.   All the HD 4670's  have GDDR3 memory and are 128-bit.

The HD 4670 is the chip made by ATI.  They are several board manufacturers to choose from such as Diamond, HIS, Asus, Sapphire, etc and they all are designed a bit different. 

Your best deals are these 3:  Sapphire, Asus, HIS.  Some people just have brand loyalty, but it really does not matter.  They are all HD 4670's chips and will basically have the same performance.  Reading the reviews helps with things like does the card run hot, is the fan loud or quiet, etc., to make a decision, but sometimes you have to take them "with a grain of salt".   Again, there is no reason to spend over $70 for an HD 4670.

I have 9800 gt OC and works great, and yes it would work on it. Dell PSU are overhead type PSU so they have something like 440 watt PSU.

hello everyone i also have a 9100 and want to turn it into a decent gaming computer i was wondering should i run a hd4670  or a hd4550 also should it be 512 or 1g....i want to be able to run portal 2 or starcraft 2 on the computer :emotion-2: oh and should i upgrade the ram?

edit: is it even possible to turn it into a decent gaming computer or am i better off spending around $500 on a barebone kit from tigerdirect?

I would give a new video card a try first and see if it meets your needs.  You can always put it into another system down the road if you want.  Don't bother with the HD 4550.  Even the HD 4670 is old now, but certainly much better than the HD 4550. Most video cards today have 1GB of memory so the difference between 512mb and the latter are not much anymore.  I would look at the HD 5670 HERE as it will play the games without a problem.  See video HERE.  Your only problem is that you're stuck with an old Pentium 4.  I don't know how much system ram you have.  If you are running XP, then 2 GB should be plenty.