Replacement Video Card required - Need Assistance and Recommendations

[meridean]

Hi I currently have a Dell Dimension 4550 with a 128 DDR ATI Radeon
9700 TX w/TV-OUT video card which is causing me all kinds of problems.
I need to replace the card, however I need to find out what cards I can
use.

I think this card is an AGP card but am unsure. The card has 3 sections
which fit the slots on the motherboard. I would normally expect 2
sections on a PCI card but have not come across an AGP card before.

I have tried looking on the ATI website without success and really need
to find a list of Video cards I can use in it's place.

I don't need anything too fancy as I just need it to get my PC backup
and working.

Any help would be greatly received.

Thanks

 

[Julian Richards]

Hi I currently have a Dell Dimension 4550 with a 128 DDR ATI Radeon
9700 TX w/TV-OUT video card which is causing me all kinds of problems.
I need to replace the card, however I need to find out what cards I can
use.

I think this card is an AGP card but am unsure. The card has 3 sections
which fit the slots on the motherboard. I would normally expect 2
sections on a PCI card but have not come across an AGP card before.

I have tried looking on the ATI website without success and really need
to find a list of Video cards I can use in it's place.

I don't need anything too fancy as I just need it to get my PC backup
and working.

Any help would be greatly received.

I think that it has to be an AGP. There a lots of AGP cards about
going up to some quite powerful ones. A second hand 9800 pro would be
one option if money is an issue. Most more recent cards would be
powerful enough if you avoid the very "Happy Shopper" end of the
market.
--

Julian Richards

www.richardsuk.f9.co.uk
Website of "Robot Wars" middleweight "Broadsword IV"

 

[meridean]

thanks for that. I will do some investigation into it.

 

[Bob Knowlden]

I presume that it's an AGP graphics card:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4550/specs.htm#1101572

Here's the Wikipedia description of AGP slots:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port

I suggest looking at the video card selection at www.newegg.com, even if you
don't intend to do business with them. (At the least, you'll get an idea how
bad the prices are at your local Circuit City.) Try the AGP4X/8X selection.
There's an overwhelming variety of choices. Maybe a card based on the ATI
X1600 chip would be a good replacement, for about $100US. (I assume that you
don't want lower performance than your 9700 card.) If you'd like to try an
nVidia card, I'd suggest one based on the 6800XT chipset. (Avoid the ones
with a 128 bit memory interface. The performance hit wouldn't justify the
cost savings, in my opinion.) There are cheaper cards, if you don't care
about 3D performance (gaming).

Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.