Upgrade advice on video card for old Dell

  • Thread starter Thread starter clp1939
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clp1939

Granddaughter has an older dell dimension 1100 which needs a graphics card
supporting Pixel Shader 3.0 for a game (Sim3) she was given for her
birthday. The Dell machine appears to have a PCI interface. Are PCI
Express usable in this situation?. I think not given form factor, buss
sugnalling, etc, but not a hardware maven and looking for confirmation.
If not then her new game is shelfware unless I can find a PCI board which
supports Pixel Shader 3.0. So far I have not found one. A new machine for
her is unlikely.

Any options here?

Thanks

Chuck
 
clp1939 said:
Granddaughter has an older dell dimension 1100 which needs a graphics
card supporting Pixel Shader 3.0 for a game (Sim3) she was given for her
birthday. The Dell machine appears to have a PCI interface. Are PCI
Express usable in this situation?. I think not given form factor, buss
sugnalling, etc, but not a hardware maven and looking for confirmation.
If not then her new game is shelfware unless I can find a PCI board
which supports Pixel Shader 3.0. So far I have not found one. A new
machine for her is unlikely.

Any options here?

Thanks

Chuck
Click to expand...

You're right, it is PCI. So a PCI Express card will not fit.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim1100/en/SM/techov.htm

But the thing is, there are still PCI cards for sale.
There are still AGP cards for sale.
There are PCI Express x1 cards and PCI Express x16 cards (although the
former might be harder to find now).

So I'd say, *something* still exists, for all form factors.

It gets trickier, if the computer is really tiny, and the
card form factor is smaller than normal. There are some machines,
where there just isn't enough product selection left, to satisfy
"Houdini" style requirements.

Just selecting a card at random, this one lists Pixel Shader 4.0

http://www.gpureview.com/GeForce-9500-GT-PCI-card-610.html

You might also want to consider the OS. If the OS is WinXP
or later, we can count on getting drivers and the like,
and having a version of DirectX the game might like. I
tried to run games on Win2K on my older box, and it
got to be a real pain (I had to edit files with a hex
editor in order to try new games). For best flexibility,
you'd want WinXP or later, as then there is less
hacking to be done.

So have a look through the following list. Use the sort function, to
sort by price, or sort by best rating, then use the gpureview.com
pages to see if they have the minimum Pixel Shader you're looking
for.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048 1069609642

You can see here, the Nvidia 6200 has Pixel Shader 3, so that
would be modern enough. The FX 5200 is a little too old.

http://www.gpureview.com/GeForce-6200-PCI-card-437.html

The 8400 GS is Pixel Shader 4.

http://www.gpureview.com/GeForce-8400-GS-PCI-card-576.html

There is a Sparkle brand PCI card for $39.99

SPARKLE GeForce 8400 GS SFPC84GS256U2LP Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187041

That one is fanless. You may have to add a fan next to it, to keep
it stable. You never know with these things. On the computer
I'm typing this on, I have an 80mm case fan next to the video card.
A paint stirrer stick, bolted to a screw on the PCI slot cover,
gives a mount for the fan. The fan is held to the stick, with
nylon Tie Wraps. And has done so without issues, for the last
three years or so. "Ghetto computing".

You can always get a video card with a fan...

I have two FX5200 cards that are fanless. One doesn't need the
fan next to it, but the other one does. Just to give you some
idea how these things go.

HTH,
Paul
 
You can work the problem from the requirements end. The published hardware
requirements for the game are:

http://www.thesims3.com/game/systemreq

The requirement listed is for pixel Shader 2.0, which is met by all DirectX
9 compliant cards. Shader 3 requires DirectX 9.0c compliant cards (newer).

NewEgg also has a useful "power search" function:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/PowerSearch.aspx?N=2010380048&SubCategory=48&GASearch=3

Select the PCI interface, DirectX 10, and DirectX 10.1 compatibility boxes.
(You could also include DirectX 9, but the cards will be older technology
and not much less expensive.) The nVidia 8400 mentioned by Paul is the least
expensive DX10 card. (Perhaps the air flow in the case is adequate for a
fanless card, but one with a fan may be safer, if higher priced.)

Does your granddaughter's Dell have the 1 GB or more of RAM installed? If
not, NewEgg has a memory configurator. If the Dell's memory is maxed out (2
GB, using two 1 GB sticks), it would cost approx. $60.

I've done business with NewEgg. I like them, but shipping can be expensive.
(However, some of their products are sold with free shipping. Look for that
when comparing prices.)

I don't know if you wish to spend $100+ to enable playing Sims 3, but it's
cheaper than a new PC.
 
Thanks Bob. I have shopped Newegg and found a fan cardwhich should serve.

PNY VCG84512SPEB GeForce 8400 GS 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Video Card

Memory is adequate. We are good to go. I was not aware of Neweggs power
search, its a great tool. Thanks again for your help.

Chuck
 
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