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What's a decent, cheap video card for....

T

Tullphan

Diamond Member
My buddy has a Dell Dimension E521 (yeah, I know, but please hold comments).
I believe the onboard graphics are dying/dead. At first, when turned on, the screen is either multi-colored pixelated or a checkerboard pattern or text. Now, when it's turned on, all I can hear is the fan spinning. No display or nothing.
Before I hook up another PSU to this so I can try out a videocard I have lying around (the Dell doesn't have a PCI-e connector) to see if this is the problem, can I get some ideas of a decent videocard that doesn't require a power connector?
Thanks.
 
Tullphan said:
My buddy has a Dell Dimension E521 (yeah, I know, but please hold comments).
I believe the onboard graphics are dying/dead. At first, when turned on, the screen is either multi-colored pixelated or a checkerboard pattern or text. Now, when it's turned on, all I can hear is the fan spinning. No display or nothing.
Before I hook up another PSU to this so I can try out a videocard I have lying around (the Dell doesn't have a PCI-e connector) to see if this is the problem, can I get some ideas of a decent videocard that doesn't require a power connector?
Thanks.
Click to expand...

hd4670

edit: wow, this 4670 is only 68$ with a 30$ rebate. 38$ AR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121329
 
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Fairly certain my parents own a Dell E521 -- it's a BTX machine, socket AM2, right? My parents' has an Athlon X2 3800+ inside, and it came with a discrete graphics card (GeForce 7300LE, jah, not much of a card) for some reason.

I've seen that deal on the ASUS 4670 and wondered what the catch is... Is there a better video card available for $50 or less right now? I'm considering the 4670 for some light gaming (Bioshock, etc, maybe at 1280x720) on my ex-girlfriend's machine.

Tullphan, since the graphics chip is, well, onboard, you're not worried the chipset in general might be fried? I might try the alternate power supply and video card to test the system before shelling out $ for a new card.
 
Winterpool said:
I've seen that deal on the ASUS 4670 and wondered what the catch is... Is there a better video card available for $50 or less right now? I'm considering the 4670 for some light gaming (Bioshock, etc, maybe at 1280x720) on my ex-girlfriend's machine.
Click to expand...

There's a minor catch: the RAM is downclocked from 2GHz to 1.8GHz. No big deal really. It should be perfect for light gaming, especially at that resolution. As long as you don't expect max settings and AA/AF, that card is good enough.
 
My Radeon 4670's RAM was downclocked to 850 Mhz too and I didn't notice it. I was angry and decided to overclock it and see if I returned it. Turns out the mem chips are exactly the same as the ones they put out at 1 Ghz. Mine go up to 1.15 Ghz in fact.

A 4670 will eat Bioshock at 1280x720.
And BTW, how do you manage to keep your ex-girlfriend's rig around? Mine even took her slippers away. 😀
 
Jah, I built this machine for her ('Brisbane' Athlon X2, Gigabyte 780G board), which she's mostly using as a server. She has a MacBook as her primary computer. Since the 780G machine has HDMI output, I reckoned she could use it with the 40-inch Samsung telly I bought her, as an HTPC and maybe for some games.

(As you can probably tell, we're still on relatively good terms. She's a PhD student and got sick of waiting for me to do something with my life commensurate with my IQ. ...I expect Robert Carlyle and General MacGyver will beam me up soon.)

Looks like Newegg has raised the price $5.
 
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