Graphics card upgrade for Dell Dimension 5150

[Marty999]

Hi

Apologies if this question has already been asked but I searched and couldn't find it.

I have a Dell Dimension 5150 which runs XP Home and is 3 years old. I pre-ordered Windows 7 but the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor says my onboard graphics adapter won't support the Windows Aero User Interface. I don't play games on my PC but I would like all the fancy visual features of Windows 7. How do I go about choosing a graphics card that will do the job for me?

Thanks in advance...

 

[stormy13]

Marty welcome to the forums.

Before buying a new card, wait until you get Windows 7 and install it. There is a good possibility that it will work (the upgrade advisor for the most part is a piece of junk, I have seen it flag components as unsupported when I know full well that it is).

Once you get 7 installed this,

ATI Catalyst? Legacy Display Driver

will be about it for a driver. If it doesn't work and you still want to get a card let us know and we can recommend something. If nothing else according to the specs for your Dell,

Dimension 5150 Desktop Product Details

you have a PCI-E 16x slot, which is good. It only has a 305W power supply which isn't so good, but there are still lots of cards that will be OK on it.

 

[Marty999]

Hi Stormy

Thanks for your speedy reply! I will give it a go next week and report back.

Marty.

 

[Marty999]

All fixed now!

Hi Stormy
Just to say I installed Windows 7 and, as you suspected, there is no problem with the graphics on my PC at all! And I am very impressed with the new O/S, especially how fast it is to fire up. Thanks again for your help.

 

[stormy13]

You're welcome and thanks for posting back.

 

[StormShockz]

performance with 7?

I am new to these forums and this is my first post

I am about to build a brand new dell dimension 5150 with 4gb ram and a 3.6ghz pentium 4 and a nvidia 7300 le 256mb with every thing else for under £100. so i am curious about how fast the computer is running windows 7? bare in mind it is maxed out on ram?

many thanks on your help.

StormShockz

 

[ThePizzaMan]

it should do reasonably well except for the gpu.... thats gonna be what will hold it back

 

[StormShockz]

The gpu is the graphics card right, im not sure? i was thinking about a nvidia 7300 256mb or a nvidia 7300 gt 512mb? my comp has a pci-e slot.

what card would be better im guessing the gt?
or should i get a different cheap express graphics card?

many thanks

StormShockz

 

[ThePizzaMan]

yes, and hm....... prolly the gt since it has more ram.... but even better if you could pull a 9600gt or something