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Urgent: Friend needs new video card today

Supermercado

Supermercado

Diamond Member
So my friend has a Dell system from a couple years ago that had a 9800PRO in it. It crapped out today so he's looking to buy a new card and needs to get the order made today. He's of course limited to AGP cards. We found this X850PRO for $143.99. I know that's a pretty good step up from where he's at now. My question at this point is the power supply in his machine. If it can handle a 9800PRO, is it going to be able to handle the X850PRO? The max wattage on the power supply is 250W.

He'd prefer to stay with ATi but is open to nVidia cards. Let's say the budget is sub-$175.

Any help with this would be hugely appreciated. Thanks!
 
X850 series sucks up wattage. I would definitely not run it with a 250W PSU. Try to find an X700 or lower AGP card.
 
6800 series is also a power hog, i wouldn't run any, even the vanilla 6800 on a 250 watter.

tough to say, give us system specs so we can suggest a card that would 'fit' the system all around and not be overkill.
 
I'm not very knowledgeable about this era of card - the X700 series are still better than the 9800, right? As long as we're moving up and the power supply will handle it, that's the key.
 
I think it's a 2.6 P4 (not sure on that, it's close, though), 768MB RAM, 2 hard drives, 2 optical drives, 2 PCI cards. Most-played game is BF2, maybe some FEAR and Oblivion from time to time.
 
Everything on the machine will be run stock, as well. No overclocking will be done or ever will be done on the system, if that factors in at all.
 
X850 is a great card, but it does suck some serious juice. A 250W supply may not be enough. Dell PSUs are notoriously underrated though so it really depends.
 
That's exactly what I was afraid of. I figured it was a great card for that range but the fact that it's a Dell and there's no wiggle room is the limiting factor here. As long as it's a step up from his 9800PRO, I think that's about all we can ask for at this point.

If there's something nVidia in the range, that's also fine.
 
OK, then you might consider a 7600GS AGP if you can find one. I've seen several recently in the $140 range. There is a 7800GS AGP as well, but it is probably out of your target price range... ($200 or so)
 
k, sorry for the delay in response... Had to leave work 🙂

The 7600GS... how does that compare to the 6800 that Spikesoldier mentioned above? I'm very out of the loop on the numbering and naming schemes for both ATi and nVidia. I think I've heard that the 7600GS is a very good AGP card.
 
Is there a good place to go to see how much power these cards use? I think that's probably the most limiting thing here, the probably crappy power supply.
 
The 7600GS is a great card. The 7800GS is of course better, it is actually the fastest AGP card you're going to find at the moment.

You're also in luck because nVidia's 7 series run fairly cool and consume less juice than any comparable ATI alternative.
 
I got the model number of the PSU that's in his computer. It's a NPS-250KB D and is apparently only a 170W unit? I don't know the most about this stuff but isn't that really low for a P4 system that had a 9800PRO in it? Granted, it only came with 1 optical drive and 1 hard drive and 256MB RAM, but still.

I don't think the 7800GS is an option, unfortunately, since they're all over $200 and that's the absolute ceiling on this buy. The 7600GS looks good... this question may not even matter since the ATi alternatives are going to use more power than the system can make... but how does the 7600GS compare with the X850, X800, and even the X700 cards?
 
Originally posted by: SuperCommando
I got the model number of the PSU that's in his computer. It's a NPS-250KB D and is apparently only a 170W unit? I don't know the most about this stuff but isn't that really low for a P4 system that had a 9800PRO in it? Granted, it only came with 1 optical drive and 1 hard drive and 256MB RAM, but still.
Click to expand...

One option would be to purchase a drop-in replacement for the Dell power supply. PC P&C makes several that will fit right in.

I don't think the 7800GS is an option, unfortunately, since they're all over $200 and that's the absolute ceiling on this buy. The 7600GS looks good... this question may not even matter since the ATi alternatives are going to use more power than the system can make... but how does the 7600GS compare with the X850, X800, and even the X700 cards?
Click to expand...

X850 would be fine but it draws a lot of juice and runs very hot. I think the 7600GS is going to be your best bet. Don't even consider X700 or below.
 
Made the buy a little while ago. We went with the X850 and got a new Sparkle 350W PSU to power it. Came out to right at $200 with $30 UPS Next Day shipping that he wanted. I wanted to go with a better PSU all along as it would open more doors and once he agreed, the decision to go with the X850 was pretty easy.

btw, thanks for all your help, Pabster.
 
I sure hope everything turns out okay for my friend. Haha, that sounds really lame - "my friend." Really, though, it's all his stuff. He had to go to work so he left me as his proxy researcher and purchaser and I really wanted to make sure that he got the best bang for his buck.
 
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