Right where do i start... i do not have a clue what i want, just a good Graphics card So i can Play all my games, some info..

Dell Dimension C521
Windows Vista Home Basic
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processer 3200+
960 MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE

Apparently its crap for games and it cant fit many Graphics card's.. but there must be a graphics card out there somewhere for it

i Keep getting asked what my PCI Is but i dont have a clue, my dads chucked out the box years a go and apparently it says it there,

Budget is max of £200

If anyone can help please do

Thanks Jordan

I believe that computer can only take low profile cards (the short ones), and I believe it can take a PCI Express card. Your best bet is the ATI Radeon 4550 512 MB card, make sure it's "low profile", and should not cost more than 50 pounds. The card you currently have is likely not a card, it's onboard graphics, meaning the video card is build into the motherboard.

Ok thanks Sound's good, i only need a little upgrade.. im trying to play Counter strike source and it just wont cope with it, But LFS works perfect .

If I had that much to spend on your system i would spend £50 on a processor upgrade (LFS uses CPU more than GPU) & get a £50 - 60 graphics card to go with it.

There really is no point is spending more than you need to on the latest & greatest uba gpx.

another GB of ram wouldnt hurt either. make sure u get a pair though. RAM works in pairs.

If he really has 200 pounds to spend, he should get a new CPU (50), more RAM (50) and new video card (50), that's 150 pounds well spent.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... ies%20DDR2%20(OCZ2G8004GK) (ram 4gb) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... s%20DDR2%20(OCZ2P800R22GK) (ram 2gb)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... ocket%20AM2)%20-%20Retail (cpu) that comes to £106.35 (4gb ram) or £84.51 (2gb ram) leaving plenty for a new graphics card.

edit: i got a NV8800GT 512mb for £80 but it was far from low profile lol.
looking at your specs though, i'm not sure if you're running a socket 939 with ddr1 (in which case, this post is useless).

Why couldnt these things have simple names...


would anyone try finding a graphics card for a dell dimension c521 on pc world or currys?

or could someone tell me what to buy to upgrade it.

PC World is going to be a rip-off price...

I'd say get a Radeon 4850, or a 4670 or 4650 (with most powerful of the three first, there)

A stupidly fast card would be utter overkill considering the rest of your specs, a mid range one will work wonders though.

Quote from Jordan2007 :

Why couldnt these things have simple names...

About the naming of cards, with cards made by ATI, the first number is the generation - so 4xxx cards are the current generation, the 3xxx are the one before that (from about 2 years ago). The second number roughly defines whether it's a high, mid or bottom range in that generation, so for the 4xxx series you have 43xx, 46xx and 48xx cards, each family will be faster than the one before it. After that you usually have the last two numbers which say how fast it is within that family, so for the 48xx cards you have the 4850 and 4870. ATI also make the X2 cards which are two cards together on the same board so a 4870X2 is two 4870 cards working together.

For nVidia cards, it's a bit more complicated as they're a bit.... ballistic with their naming conventions. Up to the 9xxx cards, it's pretty much the same as ATI cards, with the first number stating the generation of the card (nVidia are about 5 generations out of sync with ATI, so their 8xxx series roughly corresponds to ATI's 3xxx series), and the numbers after showing how it ranks within that generation. nVidia also like to add extra letters after the name so you get 'LE', 'SE', 'GTS' 'GT', 'GTX', 'Ultra' in order of ascending power.
The lastest generation of cards have new names - the current crop are, in order of power, the GTX260 and GTX280, with the GTX285 and GTX295 coming out in a few weeks.

^^^ more or less. nvidia have had the same system for years (mx440, fx5200, 6600GT and so on), ATI have caught on and addapted it for their cards.
ATI also have letters after them like VE or SE and so on. but yeah, more or less what crashgate said.

Quote from dadge :

^^^ more or less. nvidia have had the same system for years (mx440, fx5200, 6600GT and so on), ATI have caught on and addapted it for their cards.
ATI also have letters after them like VE or SE and so on. but yeah, more or less what crashgate said.

Erm the mx440 is in the GeForce 2 line, then you jumped to the GF5s etc. ATI haven't been any different, at the time of the GT6s they had the 9xxx, then they went to Xxxx (X being 10) then 2xxx and so on.

i always thought the mx440 was a 4th generation. ah well.

Quote from dadge :

i always thought the mx440 was a 4th generation. ah well.

mx4xxx is from the GF4, the GF3 didnt have any MX if im correct, they had TI instead right?

yeah, i'm sure i saw a NV2xxTI once or twice.

What Mobo you have? If its an AGP board, don't bother.

Build a new system; or go buy a new one. I'd build, but you don't seem very tech-savy. I built mine for 450 and i run LFS at Max settings, full AF/AA and i NEVER lag and sometimes see over 200 frames. If you'd like, i can post my system specs. But that isn't the issue. If you're not upgrading to anything new like i said, tell us your Mobo. Whip up a google search on how to find out what it is.

Anyways, GL!