New Monitor - Looking for new AGP card

[KJB]

Hello all,

My first visit to this newsgroup so if this subject has been touched in the
recent past, I apologize.

I have a Dell Dimension 8100 1.5GHz that has served me well over the past
5-6 years. I have no intensions of replacing it in the near future but may
a year or so down the road.

Anyway the Dell came with an NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra which so far has done
it's job quite well. I had a Samsung 15" LCD connected to it for 4-5 years
running at 800x600.

Last week for Fathers Day I received an NEC MultiSync 20WMGX 20.1" monitor
which IMHO is fantastic. The NVIDIA is having a tough time driving it in
it's native resolution of 1680x1050 for anything much more than
word-processing and web surfing.

I am looking for recommendations on the best AGP card I can use with this
monitor and recommended amount of memory I should add. Radeon or GeForce
etc.

Thanks for reading,

Kevin

 

[Bill]

Hello all,

My first visit to this newsgroup so if this subject has been touched in the
recent past, I apologize.

I have a Dell Dimension 8100 1.5GHz that has served me well over the past
5-6 years. I have no intensions of replacing it in the near future but may
a year or so down the road.

Anyway the Dell came with an NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra which so far has done
it's job quite well. I had a Samsung 15" LCD connected to it for 4-5 years
running at 800x600.

Last week for Fathers Day I received an NEC MultiSync 20WMGX 20.1" monitor
which IMHO is fantastic. The NVIDIA is having a tough time driving it in
it's native resolution of 1680x1050 for anything much more than
word-processing and web surfing.

I am looking for recommendations on the best AGP card I can use with this
monitor and recommended amount of memory I should add. Radeon or GeForce
etc.

Thanks for reading,

Kevin

First thing you need to know is what wattage you have left in your
power supply to drive a new card. It won't do to buy a new card that
takes more power than your power supply can put out. Dell ( and other
manufacturers ) are not known for being generous in the power supply
department.

What other requirements do you have other than word processing and
web surfing?


Bill

 

[Benjamin Gawert]

* Bill:

First thing you need to know is what wattage you have left in your
power supply to drive a new card.

The Wattage printed on the PSU is rather irrelevant. The only thing what
really counts is the current that the PSU can deliver on the power lines...

It won't do to buy a new card that
takes more power than your power supply can put out. Dell ( and other
manufacturers ) are not known for being generous in the power supply
department.

If you mean just the rated wattage then you're correct. Otherwise it's
BS. The Dell Dimension 8100 has no problem feeding a Geforce 6800GT
together with two fast 15k SCSI disk drives and a bunch of other cards.

Again, the wattage is rather irrelevant. The reason why most brand name
computers have a lower wattage rating is simply because bigger companies
tend to pay electricity by the power ratings of the devices they have.
The reason why a Dell with a lower wattage rating still can take a power
sucking gfx card is simply because the PSUs are much more efficient than
the ones you get in the PC store near you.

Benjamin

 

[Barry Watzman]

Your post makes no sense.

The wattage rating of a power supply (e.g. the "400" when we talk about
a 400-watt power supply) is the OUTPUT power of that supply, not it's
input power. Since it is the output power, the efficiency of the power
supply does not enter into the equation, and it makes no sense to say
"Wattage printed on the PSU is rather irrelevant" and then go on to say
that "The only thing what really counts is the current", because the
current and the wattage are effectively the same thing.

However, I will agree that the specification ratings (wattage OR
current) of cheap power supplies often irrelevant and bear no
relationship to what the supply can really deliver in real-world,
steady-state conditions. Many of them are simply over-rated, sometimes
grossly over rated. I'll take a high quality $40 to $70 Enermax or
similar "350 watt" power supply over a $15 500-watt power supply almost
every time.

 

[Pete]

Hello all,

My first visit to this newsgroup so if this subject has been touched in the
recent past, I apologize.

I have a Dell Dimension 8100 1.5GHz that has served me well over the past
5-6 years. I have no intensions of replacing it in the near future but may
a year or so down the road.

Anyway the Dell came with an NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra which so far has done
it's job quite well. I had a Samsung 15" LCD connected to it for 4-5 years
running at 800x600.

Last week for Fathers Day I received an NEC MultiSync 20WMGX 20.1" monitor
which IMHO is fantastic. The NVIDIA is having a tough time driving it in
it's native resolution of 1680x1050 for anything much more than
word-processing and web surfing.

I'd go for either a ATI 9600XT or 9800 card, or nVidia 6600GT or 6800
card. With only a 1.5GHz CPU a higher spec card would be wasted.

 

[Barry Watzman]

Do not buy a "new" AGP card; if you must buy a card, get something used,
cheap on E-Bay. Your next computer (or next motherboard) will use PCI
Express, not AGP.

 

[Benjamin Gawert]

* Barry Watzman:

The wattage rating of a power supply (e.g. the "400" when we talk about
a 400-watt power supply) is the OUTPUT power of that supply, not it's
input power.

You're right. Of course the power rating is output power (my mind was
actually thinking on PSUs in a different application which are rated
with input power and mixed something up). Sorry.

However, I will agree that the specification ratings (wattage OR
current) of cheap power supplies often irrelevant and bear no
relationship to what the supply can really deliver in real-world,
steady-state conditions. Many of them are simply over-rated, sometimes
grossly over rated. I'll take a high quality $40 to $70 Enermax or
similar "350 watt" power supply over a $15 500-watt power supply almost
every time.

Exactly.

Benjamin