Recommend Graphics card for a Dell Inspiron 530

[TheKiller]

Hello,

A friend of mine is seeking to upgrade his ATI HD 3600 Series card for his Dell Inspiron 530. It should be of 1GB and at least 128bit at an afordable price... Can anyone recommend one?

He already got a card but he had to send it back as it wouldnt fit his Dell case and it had driver issues anyways. Thanks in advance !

[Frank_Rizzo]

If it's a slimline desktop you may need a low profile card and a low profile bracket.

Another thing to consider is the power draw on the card.

But saying that the most basic cards these days are way better (faster, cooler, use less power) than something that is 5+ years old so you could just get the cheapest, low profile you can find.

Have a look at benchmark charts such as tomshardware Performance Charts. You can choose different years to compare the 3600 with modern day ones.

As for driver issues I assume this is not running XP!

[J_RaD]

well im seeing 2 case styles.....but after you said one card wouldn't fit.. im going to assume you have the slim one.

the 530 is pretty old with DDR2 ram. I wouldn't spend very much $$$ on a card for this as it doesn't really have the power to push it.

[newegg.com...]

i would throw something like this at it and be done, yes its slower DDR3 and its not 128...but for what they are charging for those cards... you start to get into the area of just get a new machine.

I'd find the cheapest low profile i could, even hit up ebay for some used ones from a personal seller.

[tangor]

What intended use is required? For a system of that age and power, the existing card should be pretty good. Trying to upgrade the card above the complete system's ability is usually an exercise in frustration.

[TheKiller]

He has a tower system that sadly runs under XP.....
Ive explaned him that XP is dead and nobody supports it but he is stubborn. lol.
He uses it for casual gaming and general browsing... it just has to be something with about 1gb of ram to play most of the latest games like Dayz...

[J_RaD]

kinda tossing a video card at a black hole.

he could pick up an AMD FM2 proc + board for under 100.00, toss in some DDR3. now you have a machine with legs....for around 130.00.. ditch that silly dell case for a standards ATX..which can be found cheappp on newegg.. 155.00 ish

throwing $$$ at that old clunker is going backwards....but if he is one of those XP sticklers, logic and reason won't do much good.

sad though... for around 200.00 he could have a new much faster DDR3 machine WITH a decent card. He'll go from "able" to play games... to, max settings on most out there.