Dell Motherboard combatability with Graphic Cards

[AndyQ]

Hi all,

Was wondering if anyone could help me. I have a Dell Dimension 8300 Series computer, but due to it being a bought PC I'm unsure of what motherboard i have. I currently have a nVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 graphics card and considering upgrading it, but I need to know what cards are going to be compatible with the motherboard first! If anyone can offer some advice I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks In advance,

Andy

 

[mczak]

Hi all,

Was wondering if anyone could help me. I have a Dell Dimension 8300 Series computer, but due to it being a bought PC I'm unsure of what motherboard i have. I currently have a nVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 graphics card and considering upgrading it, but I need to know what cards are going to be compatible with the motherboard first! If anyone can offer some advice I would greatly appreciate it.

Whatever board it is, should have standard AGP 4x or 8x slot. Thus, you can fit any modern AGP card into it. Though depending on the PSU cards with high power consumption (and additional power connector) might be problematic.

 

[AndyQ]

The next obvious question (bit clueless about details when it comes to things like this!) is how can i determine if I have a 4x or 8x AGP slot, and also my current power supply of my computer and the potential power drainage of an upgraded card?

 

[Diplo]

Try downloading a free tool like SiSoft Sandra Lite, which will tell you plenty of info about your current system. If you are unsure what anything means post what Sandra says and we'll try and help...

 

[mczak]

The next obvious question (bit clueless about details when it comes to things like this!) is how can i determine if I have a 4x or 8x AGP slot, and also my current power supply of my computer and the potential power drainage of an upgraded card?

It doesn't matter at all if it's AGP 2.0 or 3.0 (with speed 4x or 8x) as all of todays graphic cards support both (not to mention that there are no motherboards which support only AGP 3.0). About the PSU, your best bet is probably to look at it, they usually state on a sticker how much amperage they can provide on each rail. I don't think it should be a problem, though (as the same dell system was probably available with a more powerful graphic card anyway).

 

[AndyQ]

Try downloading a free tool like SiSoft Sandra Lite, which will tell you plenty of info about your current system. If you are unsure what anything means post what Sandra says and we'll try and help...

I've already got Sandra Lite and (never thought to use this bit ) the Mainboard tool to get a bit more info on it and it says that I have 1 AGP slot as listed: "AGP-8x 32-bit +3.3v PME Full Length"

So i guess that i have 8x speed slot, the next step would be to try and decide on a card in question to get. I'm primarily a PC Gamer so would want to get a fairly decent card. Currently playing WoW quite a lot and will be looking to buy Elder Scrolls Oblivion as my next main purchase......

 

[Diplo]

Well, it will depend on how much you can afford to spend. 'Oblivion' will (supposedly) be quite demanding so you will probably be looking at following AGP cards to play it optimally:

Nvidia GeForce 7800 GS
Nvidia GeForce 6800 GS
or
ATI Radeon X850 XT

 

[KimB]

Well, for an AGP card for Oblivion, I'd be willing to bet that nVidia would be significantly better than ATI (due to the support for FP blending). Now, I haven't heard about any motherboard incompatibilities with AGP parts since the AGP2x era, so any card you put in there should work.

And if it does, the most you should be looking at is a power supply upgrade as well. You can get a pretty good power supply for ~$50 (a namebrand ~300 watt power supply should be enough for a non-SLI system, like this one, for instance).