after556677

Was the graphics on your computer a lot better after you installed this card??? I am just trying to find out if this is worth buying because in know PCI cards are poop.

LeeJend

What are you changing from? Card? On board? If on board, what chipset?

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after556677

What i have is a Intergrated graphic card from a new dell dimension 3000, it is the stock graphic card that came with it.

LeeJend

Ok, I'm checking the performance differences.

I still can't find any head to head comparisons between the Intel Extreme graphics 2 in your Dimension and a 9250 card so I'll wing this.

The 9250 is not a very good card. It is only DX8 hardware, has a reduced clock speed compared to earlier 9200's. I would not spend the money to upgrade from what you have to a 9250.

If you just want to speed up or improve image quality on your surfing and desktop applications there won't be a noticeable improvement.

Add in video cards are for 3d gaming and the 9250 is useless for that. The minimum you want to look at is the ATI 9800 Pro or the Nvidia 6600GT. The GT would be a little faster. There are people who claim the ATI graphics "look better". It comes down to personal preference on quality.

The 6600GT has better performance for the price and the 9800 PRO is out of production and may be hard to find. Both sell mail order for $120-130. You won't find a gaming card for less than that.

What exactly did you want to work better?

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after556677

What I want to work better is the clarity of watching mpeg's, avi's, etc., and computer gaming, also with this new graphic card will pictures look better on my screen?

Mastershakes

Go with LeeJend's suggestion of the NVidea then - they seem to do really well on 2D stuff.

LeeJend

It depends on the nvidia card. I don't like the image quality on my wifes FX5200 and a budy who switched to 6600GT from an ATI 9800 Pro was not impressed with image quality either.

If gaming was NOT of interest and image quality was I would go with one of the low end ATI cards (like the 9200 which still comes in a PCI version). The 9250 is not as good a card as the 9200 and the 9250 is about the same price. The 9200SE would also be better than the 9250 and is cheaper. You can get a 9200SE really cheap with just 64MB of memory.

If I was trying to game on the cheap side I would do the 6600GT.

Home Office TYpe cards for 2D stuff:
Card Price
9200SE $30-40 w/64MB RAM
9200SE $40-60 w/128MB RAM
9250 $60-80 w/128 MB RAM
9200 $70-80 w/128 MB RAM

Entry Level Gaming:
There is not really anything I would consider acceptabel entry level gaming that uses the PCI card interface. If you have an AGP slot (dark brown and set back from the rear of the case more) then either of these:
6600GT $120-130 128MB RAM
9800PRO $130 128MB RAM

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