I have a Dell Vostro Slim tower.
C2D 2.66 GHz Processor
4GB RAM
ATI X1300 Graphics Card
22" Dell monitor, run LFS on 1680 x something
250W PSU

I only ever play LFS, COD4 and do some AutoCAD work.
Wanting to upgrade my graphics card, LFS plays at around 50FPS at moment with the above resolution, which goes down to 43 at the start of a race.

Wanted to know what half heights graphics card people had? Choices are limited. Best I can find suitable for my machine is the ATI 2400 XT. Does anyone know of any better ones available?

Will these work with my power supply without upgrading it?

thx in advance!

The Radeon 4550 is your best option right now (sorry I'm known to be an "ATI nerd" around here, ahem TVE). Make sure it has GDDR3 memory not GDDR2. Also, don't worry about power requirements though with low profile cards, they don't consume more than 25W so you should be fine.

As a side note I have that 2400XT low profile at work, but I can't play games at work so I can't say anything about it's performance. But it is useful because I can run 2 monitors on it, not like the crappy onboard Intel one.

Here's a list of low-profile cards at the 'egg, But you probably shop at overclockers or wherever it is you brits shop for pc hardware
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ ... toreType=&srchInDesc=
out of that list, id recommend the 9600gt, best bang for your buck.

Thankyou

I hadnt even considered the 9600, one of the guys reviewing it in that link has the same PC as me, and says it seems to be holding up, although he too is some what concerned with the power supply being able to handle it.

Cant find it on overclockers and is very expensive on ebuyer and ebay

Y'know that's a pretty decent rig apart from the card.

Unless you get a decent case with some space and a uprated PSU, no matter what crappy GFX card you get, it will always be bottlenecking your CPU.

Get a new case, £45-60 for a nice one with flashy lights, and a 600w+ PSU (£50+), and that will be that best £110 ish you'd have ever spent. Get a GTX260 or 4870, which will allow you to take advantage of your CPU and RAM.

Ta for that S14.I quite like the slim tower, Hides nicely behind my monitor. Not into all the flashy lights etc. Prefer it looking sleek. Not all that into my games, but if I were, then I would look into the XPS range. Watched a couple of their Utube vids and they look awesome. Probably wont need that much power until s4 comes out though.

This card plays LFS fine, and also I havent noticed any problems with COD4 but maybe thats just because I havent played it on anyhting better, I have played on XBOX 360 and PS3 and there wasnt a noticeable difference.

Real reason I want another card for is because I want the 30" Dell monitor which has resolution of 2560 x 1800 or somewhere along them lines and needs a dual input graphics card for max resolution.

I did look at having a second monitor and even third monitor, as this option would have worked out alot cheaper, but the resolution wouldnt be as good, would take up space, i would rarely need all three monitors except maybe if I had LFS set up on it. So 30" seems the way to go. Cant imagine having a PC monitor that big. Apparently can fit 4x as much stuff on it as a bog standard 19".

You probbably don't notice a difference because of the high res you play.

Doesn't have to be a flashy case, by the way. Plenty of nice plain cases

There are more games than LFS, and there's no point in upgrading if you only intend to play LFS and COD4.

Besides, with huge screens, you'll need the extra graphical power or you won't be able to play games at native res, which means it'll look rubbish :o

Isn't the limitation to stop you taking a full size graphics card likely to be because of a small form factor motherboard rather than the case?

Good point.

OP: care to share what motherboard you have?

Some micro ATX boards can take larger cards, however the cards I suggested (4870/GTX260) are around 30cm each, so maybe a bit big.

Doubley failing that, what's wrong with something like a 9800 (or was it 9600, can't remember) or an ATi X1950xtx / 2900HD as what I have. Plays most games fine, has dual output, and isn't that big.

What C2D is it though? 2.66 ghz isn't very important. Speed in ghz =/= power. The reason i recommended the 9600gt is because it was the only low profile card i could find that was decent. Try to find something in the 100-150 USD range, (50-75 pounds). If you have enough money, i'd agree to get a full tower and get a 9800gt. (gtx 260 is a bit much) [9800gt is same exact card as 8800gt but cheaper and better] PSU will need upgrade, but if you want a hi res monitor you're gonna have to shell out for new parts

Its an E6750 Processor.

A full height graphics card wont physically fit in the case.

I rarely play games S14 so it would just be to have more content on the screen, and for CAD work. Never thought about the games not being on full resolution though, good point. But I do need to upgrade to use the screen in its native resolution. And I want that monitor lol.

4550 seems to be the best bet. Will let you know how I get on.

thx again for all the help btw.

Just to confirm, the 30"ers require dual-link cards, not dual output, which I'm guessing all modern cards have.

Just ordered a new 24" myself, wish I could stretch to a 30" but sadly not at the moment

I was soooo tempted when the 24s were reduced in price recently, but couldnt warrant the upgrade from a 22, hence gonna go for the 30.

Ah I think my card is dual link compatiable because it came with the splitter lead thingy Might get the screen first then shell out for a card

Edit: just clicked on your link, Wow £500 for a 24?? How does it compare to the Dell Ultrasharp 24? That was reduced to £180 not so long ago. Is it worth the extra £320?

The Dell Ultrasharp (2408WFP) is still £400, and whilst better than the HP all-round, suffers from massive input lag which would annoy me. The cheaper 24s are all TN panels which are awful quality. This HP is supposed to be pretty good, I didn't pay full price either, in fact I got it a fair bit cheaper than the Dell equivalent so I'm happy there.

Dual-link is just dual-link DVI, this image explains more:

Thankyou, that has cleared up things.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item ... -24-full-hd-monitor-now-/

It was 2409WFP, not sure if that or the 08

On that HUKD website you can see it reached nearly 2000 degrees, that means AWESOME deal, hence why I was so tempted.

That there is the new Dell 'budget' panel. Make sure you get the product numbers absolutely right, that's a 2409W, not a WFP.

The E248W and this S2409W are TN type panels which are much cheaper but much worse in colour reproduction etc.

You won't find that problem with 30"ers, they all have IPS type panels which are the best type to have.

The HP I bought, and the Dell 2408WFP have VA panels which is the middle ground between TN and IPS. Of course you can read into it more at Wikipedia etc if you like