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New Graphics card on XPS 420
I was wondering what graphics card I could put in my new xps 420?I would like to replace a little later down the road.I have the 375pwr supply and a q6600 2.4 quad core with 4g of ram.I wont be doing alot of gaming but would like to do some.I t came with ATI 3650hd 256mb card and seems to work well with WOW and that is the main game I play but would to start getting into different games.Thanks for any suggestions! Also is this a decent card? TY
pbryanw
59 Posts
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September 29th, 2008 16:00
I think at anything over 1280x1024 resolution, your ATI 3650 is going to struggle with games. Even at that resolution, on a graphics intensive game like Crysis, it will struggle.
I recommend upgrading to an ATi 4850 or Nvidia 9800 (GT/GTX+), in the future, at least if you're going to do any serious/FPS gaming. I'm currently using an Nvidia 8800GT and that's fine too, but I'm looking to upgrade at Christmas.
Also, these cards should be fine with your current Power Supply too.
ccolt1
33 Posts
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September 30th, 2008 02:00
cd60
289 Posts
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September 30th, 2008 04:00
ccolt1
33 Posts
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October 10th, 2008 03:00
pbryanw
59 Posts
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October 12th, 2008 10:00
Hi,
The 3870 mentioned would be an upgrade over the 3650 but I would go for at least a 8800GT 512MB.
Below is a link to a round-up of cards done by bit-tech (a respected tech site) in the summer:
Bit-tech graphics card round-up
As you can see in the Crysis test the 8800GT is an improvement over the 3870 and the Radeon 4850 is a bigger improvement over that. You can also see over the next couple of pages how framerates of the different cards compare.
Personally I would think about a 4850. This draws about the same amount of power as a 8800GT which is what Dell packages with the XPS 420 and will be fine with your 375W power supply. If you don't want to go for an AMD card then the 9800GTX+ or 9800GT is probably the one to go for. Below is a link to the power consumption tests for the round-up above:
Bit-tech round-up power consumption tests
As you can see most of the mid-range cards draw mostly the same amount of power so will be fine with your PSU (If in doubt do a search on this forum for poeple with the same card and computer configuration) . It's only when you step up to the 280 or Radeon X2 cards when you're going to have problems.
Hope this helps, Paul
ccolt1
33 Posts
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October 12th, 2008 14:00