My brother wants to get a new graphics card so we've been looking around but it's a bit of a minefield, so many different options. Budget of around £100. It doesn't have to be epic but he would like it to play a few extra games. Anyone know anything?

i'll try and lend a hand does he play games/frequent photoshop video editing or just general use?

is it a custom computer or brought from shop and which one?

just helps so i can find a few decent cards on Ebuyer that are compatible.

He doesn't play a lot of games on it, he has an xbox for that but he does want to, hence the upgrade. Computer was bought from PC World about 3 years ago. Still a half decent spec though. Any help is appreciated though mate

do you know what package it is Dunc?

is it a Dell need a make mate otherwise finding a card will be hard

don't want to fire them over and they aren't compatible

Spec: Dell Inspiron 550
Intel Quad Core 2.33
Built in Graphics Card
4gb RAM

Tbh, its most likely going to have a pcie x16 and at £100 most cards should be small enough to fit in the case, so you should be ok.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-gigab...yefinity-dvi-dp

This should be fine But check he has a pcie x16 and whether his motherboard will support amd cards (Most new boards support both, but with it being a little older it may only like nvidia)

If nvidia only then probably something like this

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-evga-...-2x-dl-dvi-i-mi

Nvidia are a little more expensive, for, imo less, but I am a bit of an AMD fan boy

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Amd fan boy
It will most likely be pcie slot. One other thing you will need to check is if the psu has enough power/connectors to run the card. Most lower end cards will run off the pcie slot but some may need a connector from the psu.
Can go into more detail when i'm on the pc

If hes running a dell inspiron I would have thought it'd be a 450w atleast so should be fine on power.

He shouldn't need a power connection in the card but until we know the motherboard and psu not much more can be offered

I have had a look online and can't see no definitive base stats for the machine. So not much more can be done just yet

(Yes but my new build is intel, as the word on the street is amd a refocusing their market)

AMD fanboys Sorry, should of added that it is a pcie solt and he thinks that its only a 300w psu... Seems a little low but how can we confirm this? Do we have to take the case off or will the box tell us? (It's buried in the attic somewhere...) From when I built my PC a few years ago I still have a few power cables left so that shouldn't be an issue if it does need power.

Links look good mate

you wont know until you get the case but until i can actually confirm the motherboard and specs i wont be able to get direct no finicky bits to add to replace or add to the motherboard hassle free

Duncan i can't find the full specs any where for the computer i found the 570 and 560 lol

is this it?

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-570/pd...mp;isredir=true

If it is there is an optional choice between between a integrated ATI Radeon HD4200 card or....

NVIDIA® GeForce G405 512MB Graphics Card

bare in mind the inegrated card is a pile a s**t but the motherboard can support some decent, but not amazing cards.

But the power supply is a pain though, but you can pick up a 400W powersuply for next to nothing.

http://www.ebuyer.com/120674-sumvision-450w-20-4pin-sata-power-supply-psu-retail-boxed-sumvision450

http://www.ebuyer.com/222076-his-hd-4670-iceq-edition-1gb-ddr3-native-hdmi-dvi-vga-out-h467qs1gha

Both those will fit your computer and just under budget, that card will be more then enough

Yeah to be honest. If it is only a 300w psu he will probably want to upgrade that then get a card. do you know what his long term plans are?

Best thing to do is to whip the side off (however dell have an awful habit of keeping all the sides stuck together, so you may need to pull the whole case off) and look at the board. It should say on the board somewhere the make and model. Get that and choosing a card is much easier.

As he has 4gb ram, I'm guessing he has upgraded a little as most new machines back then would come with 2gb...so he may no what board he has already

You will struggle with 300w. minium i would say now is 450w but more is always better.

Tell him to downlaod cpu-z http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
Will tell us what all the bits excluding the psu are

Came with 4gb RAM as standard. I'll get him to do it tonight Micky, cheers guys

This any good?

Looks good. Did he get a chance to find out how powerfull his psu is?

100% its 300w. He said hes happy to replace it

Replace that first, go for a brand like Antec/Corsair though. £50 should get something decent.

Then look into graphics cards, try and plan the two together as some graphics cards need plugs on the psu

Only one solution

I love that picture!

What resolution is he gaming at?

If it's not massive 1366x768 or less you could get a cheaper card and psu for not much over £100. You won't really see the benifit of a mid to high range card and lower ressolutions.

Im unsure, he plans to plug it into his tv, 17 inch I think, and use that. I run 1920xwhatever on my 27 inch tv so I'd imagine he'll be around what you said

As he's not going for big resolutions you could get away with these
600w psu. Gives you room to upgrade the rest of the system at a later date. Never by a cheap unbranded psu. If a psu dies 9 times out of 10 it will take the whole system with it.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduc...amp;subcat=1084

This gfx card should give you decent performance. Its nvidia but i don't know my way around the ati range
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduc...914&subcat=
Little bit over the £100 mark but will make a huge difference to his system!

This is the card i use and will cope with anything i throw at it
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduc...amp;subcat=1830

Go to Scan they are cheaper and have better service from my experience.

Save some money and get this: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/550w-psu-...iet-fan-atx-v23

or

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/450w-psu-antec-basiq-vp450p-gb-80-pluseps-12vquiet-fan-atx-v23

You won't be able to upgrade that machine to use over 450w unless you replace most of the components and therefore it would make more sense to build a new pc. Which will mean you will need to reconfigure your psu requirements.

If he plans to do that by all means get a better PSU, I'd recommend this one, it's meant to be a very good modular PSU scoring highly for a great price: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-ocz-...5-year-warranty

That will leave you with around £65 for a card...

For AMD I would say the Sapphire 6750, but as it is not in stock...http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-msi-hd-6570-1334mhz-gddr3-gpu-650mhz-480-cores-d-sub-hdmi-dvi-d-low-profile-compatible

If you want to go Nvidia though

You can't really get a great Nvidia card for £60...but if I was limited to that budget - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-msi-g...dmi-low-profile

With graphics cards always look at the manufacturer too, as RMA procedures are quite important with Technology, try to stick with MSI/Gigabyte as they have the best reputations, Asus has good reputations elsewhere but let themselves down with their gpus and xfx/powercolor AVOID as their RMA is awful. Sapphire are ok.