Need PCI Video Card Advice

Miscellaneous Topics
#1

Greetings. It’s been a while since I’ve been on this site. Anyways, I’m trying to squeeze some video performance out of an old el cheapo Dell Dimension 2400. I’d like to get the best possible performance for full screen Flash Video running on a 17" monitor. The current card is an onboard intel.

The computer supports only standard PCI cards. I have done a little research and it seems I can’t go wrong with GeForce FX5500 128MB, or ATI Radeon 9600. But my sources are kind of old. So I figured the gamers here would know a thing or two about video performance.

Any comments?

#2

I wouldn’t spend any money on upgrading such an old & out of date machine.
PCI is 3 generations out of date; if you buy a PCI graphics card you will be paying way over the odds.

I suppose you could try & get one for free from freecycle; assuming you have access to such an organisation where you live.

#3

The ATI 9600 was quite a good PCI card and about the best you could get powered directly from the bus connection. Anything better needed it’s own power supply connection and you’d need to check PSU rating and fit more fans. So I fitted one in an aging e-machines desktop about 5 years ago and was pleased with the result. If you find one in the bargain bin, then great, but as Abuse said, it’s not worth spending much on a machine that old. Windows XP support ends in 2014 which probably bounds your machine’s life.

#4

I once bought myself a Geforce 8500 GT / 256mb PCI for testing purposes. It was ok but far from being anything that allows you to play current games at moderate settings. It’s faster than Intel’s onboard crap though.