Graphic Card Replacement Dilema: AGP slot type 1 vs.2 vs PCI, also: Power Supply Size

My graphics card is dying.

Spent the weekend researching a replacement.

Problem: The Dell OEM nVidia chipset GeForce 256 AGP currently installed in this "ancient" 3-½ year old Dell is in an AGP-1 slot.

All the nVidia chipset aftermarket cards I found:

1) Require an AGP-2 slot
2) Recommend a 250 watt power supply (or more) mine is 200w, but I don’t use the available 2nd HD bay

Questions:

1) Will I lose noticeable streaming or other performance issues if I install a PCI version of a graphic card (like a GeForce Fx 5200 PCI) instead? I have a PCI slot available. I’m not a gamer.

2) Is the 50 watts shortfall in my power supply going to be an issue given I’m only running one hard drive in a chasis with a slot for a second.

Thanks

 

You will take a performance hit using PCI instead of AGP video. And since you can't use your AGP slot for anything else, you may as well put it to work. I have seen the S3 Savage 2000 (a 64 meg AGP card) for under $40 including shipping, so you don't need to spend much to get an AGP card. For your applications, it sounds like an 8 meg card is plenty.

The one thing to watch is how big a AGP card your system can take. My FIC VA-503+ motherboard has a 2X slot but can't handle AGP cards with over 8 megs (except certain 16 meg cards).

Too much power supply is not nearly as bad as not enough. Unless you upgrade to a big one with power to spare, you will have to add up the power needs of all the cards, all the drives, the RAM, the CPU, the motherboard, fans outside the power supply, USB devices, terminator power (if you use SCSI), and so on. Getting that information can be rather difficult. Devices may use 5 and/or 12 volts, and the power supply has limits on how much of each voltage can be delivered; therefore, even knowing the wattage rating alone is not enough.

You could probably get away with an 8 meg AGP card, especially if the hard drive isn't power hungry and you don't have a lot of RAM. But be wary of venturing beyond there without investigation into power needs or a power supply upgrade.