My son has a Dell 5100 desktop. Which is the best video card to use?

Question

I dont know whether to get a PCI-E or PCI-E x16. Which is best?

Answer 1

I believe that PCI-E and PCI-E x16 is the same thing. They are both considered PCI-Express cards, the next step up from PCI.

To check for compatibility, go to www.dell.com and enter the service tag from your Dell Dimension 5100 and see what cards are available, and what video card it came with.

As for the best video card to use, that depends on the things that he will be doing on the PC. If he plays games with a lot of graphics requirements, you will want him to have a pretty powerful card with a lot of onboard memory.

On the other hand, if he only uses it for the internet and school projects, the onboard video card or any low-end graphics card should be good enough.

What I would do is find out what games he has, or that he is interested in, and then find out the recommended graphics card for that software.

For example, I just bought EA Sports NHL 2008 and right on the package it indicates you should have a card that has at least 64MB of memory and that they tested the compatibility with these video chips:

- NVIDIA GeForce3
- ATI Radeon 9000
- Intel 915/950/965

They also indicated that the NVIDIA GeForce4 MX line is NOT compatible.

Pick out the games that your son is likely to play, then choose a card that has shown to be reliable with that product line, as well as is powerful, yet affordable.

Also keep in mind that whatever you buy today will be obsolete in a year or two when a new card comes out. And make sure that whatever you buy is compatible with Windows Vista, since that is likely to be the next O/S you may go to.

Answer 2

First, a Dell 5100 Inspiron is a laptop. Are you sure he has a desktop (Dell Dimension or Optiplex)? A laptop won't allow you to swap or upgrade a video card.

PCI-Ex16 is much more commonly found format than PCI-Ex1 or x8. There aren't many PCI-E x1, so get the x16 (it's just the configuration of how the card mates to the motherboard), as it'll be cheaper and offer more selections.

Personally, I'd stick with the NVidia chipsets, and EVGA boards. EVGA offers a lifetime warranty, and a unique "step up" plan that offers the ability to upgrade a card and only pay the difference in price from the first one to the next one. EVGA also prioritizes their chips to the highest performing tested bins (the chips that did the best out of the batch) Their drivers are the best (ATi drivers have lagged behind over the past 2 card generations) and until AMD (new owner of ATi) sorts out the bugs with their brand new product line, I'd reccomend waiting on them.

Depending on your price range, your options vary. If your son is a gamer, you should be looking to spend $350+ on an 8800gt or gtx. Look for the higher memory options offered (640mb rather than 320mb) If he's just looking for something to surf the web with, an 8600 series card will be less expensive and do the job for $150 or so.

Make sure your powersupply is at least 400w - 450w to run that card, especially with that power hungry Pentium 4!


Good luck!

Answer 3

PCI-E is a pci express (which runs 16X quicker then the old PCI slots) .. so PCI-E and pci-E x16 i believe are the same thing..You want to find him a 512 MB pci - express nvidia or ATI card which should pump out enough juice to run almost any game..just make sure your power supply can support the card

Answer 4

According to the specs on that model, it includes one standard PCI-E slot and one PCI-E x16 slot. If you have both slots available, go with the x16. The x16 means that the port is able to operate up to 16 times faster then the standard PCI-E port. You want that for the video.

Answer 5

PCI-E x16 is the common standards to PCI-E cards.
for your question, it depends on what you are after either value or performance. you can try any ATI or Nvidia cards in the market since these are common cards and are really fast. for performance, try the nvidia geforce 8600 series.