New Graphics Card for Dell OPTIPLEX GX620

[Windoze]

Greetings,

I am looking for a new graphics card for the Dell I use at my curren
job for doing graphic design work. I am using a Dell OPTIPLEX GX62
that has the default "Intel® 82945G Express Chipset Family" o
"Integrated Intel Media Accelerator 950" (?) graphics card installed.

Using Adobe Illustrator's 3D Effect is bringing this machine to it
knees, not to mention every day Photoshop tasks. I looked on the Del
Web site and found the 256MB ATI Radeon X600 as an upgrade option.

Do you think the 256MB ATI Radeon X600 will be adequate, or should
opt for something better?

Hopefully a better card will increase productivity without needing t
get more RAM, which I currently have 2GB of. I've never had to buy
graphics card for a PC before, so any advice would be greatl
appreciated.


Thanks

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Almost anything will be better than the integrated graphics you already
have! Just ensure you get either an AGP or PCI-E card, whichever your
motherboard will accept.

 

[Guest]

Oh yea - forgot to say I'm only running one gig of ram so you have plenty!
jim

 

[Guest]

With the 945 Express chipset you should have a PCI express slot available. My
Gateway has the 945 chipset and motherboard and I had the 950 graphics which
are onboard. I recently added an ATI X700 Pro graphics card. Other than the
fan being a bit noisy it works great.Plays all the high intensity games that
I have. I am not familiar with he X600 card specifications.
I checked with Intel and found that putting in the card automatically
disables the onboard graphics. So it was just as easy as powering
down-unplugging the computer- putting the card into the slot-starting up the
computer at which point I could tell the onboard graphics had been disabled-
then running the ATI software which loaded the drivers and control panel. The
ATI's are good in that they use less power and don't require a power
connecter inside, at least up to the 700 series. The comparable Nvidia card
does require that power connector. I'm sure the X600 would fill the bill.
Just be sure that you have the PCIe slot and you have to get the card for PCI
Express. There's a wealth of information on the Intel site.
Jim

 

[bxf]

3D work should certainly benefit from a better graphics card, but don't
expect any difference in 2D work, including anything Photoshop does. I
believe that neither you nor your machine will notice any difference.