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Dell Dimension graphics card upgrade

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  • 18-01-2009 7:08pm
    #1
    Barlett
    Registered Users Posts: 1,036 ✭✭✭


    Ok, looking to upgrade my Dell so I can play the new Total War game coming out.
    I want to get an ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB graphics card & was going to add 1gb of Ram to the computer.
    What I want to know is will it be compatible??
    Specs of the Dell are:

    Motherboard: Model Dell OHJ054
    Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz Dual Core
    Ram: 2 x 1024 DDR2 Smasung ( 2 additional slots free)
    Operating System: Windows XP
    Graphics card at the moment: ATI Radeon x600
    Has a PCI Express 1.0 port but I heard 2.0 graphics cards still work fine on this ??

    However the PSU Max is only 305 watts, now should I look to buy a new PSU or would I be better off going for a different type of graphics card??

    Anyway all input is appreciated!




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    #2
    Donald-Duck
    Registered Users Posts: 1,119 ✭✭✭Donald-Duck


    The Total War games tend to be pretty hard on the CPU and I'm not sure yours would even meet the minimum for the new one


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    #3
    uglyjohn
    Registered Users Posts: 747 ✭✭✭uglyjohn


    it'll meet the minimum requirements, but you probably wont be able to play massive battles with the biggest unit sizes. my computer is similar to yours and sometimes in medieval 2 total war i get a message saying "reinforcements not available because your cpu isnt fast enough" or something to that effect.

    i have a 2.8 pentium D and an hd3850.

    the graphics card lets me max out everything anyway.


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    #4
    TerrorFirmer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 29,930 ✭✭✭✭TerrorFirmer


    CPU is really old and slow, wouldn't bother getting a 4870 of any variant the machine is too handicapped. It does exceed the minimum requirements by a respectable margin, but a 4870 would be wasted on such a CPU. I'd look at either the HD4670 (around 75) or HD4830 (around 100) cards, but definitely not above. Both should work fine on your current PSU as well. Ram wise, just get a 4gb kit- they're cheap, a decent set of 667mhz 4gb corsair ram would cost 40 euro. Sell your old ram and X600 for about 30 euro together.


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