AGP 4X/2X gaming card???

Dell Dimension confused 4550. 333-533 front side bus with a 4X/2X agp slot. Can I use a 4X/8X graphics card? Which card will rock my system, if any.

 

I have an 8x card running on 4x fine

 

What kind of card?

 

you could get a Radeon x800 or Nvidia 6800 series I believe. Those are the last AGP cards to ever be built. I don't know what kind of boost you'll get though with just a 4x graphics slot.

 

Sorry

Mine is a Gigabyte N76G256D-RH GF7600GS (Nvidia)
It was the best I could find for AGP at the time
Although I have seen other posts here with the 7600GT for AGP
GT is quite a bit better
theres also a 7800GS available
not sure about the ATI based cards

I didnt buy mine to 'rock my system' - just to play the latest(ish) games

To be 'rockable' its going to depend just as much or more on
CPU
&
RAM

I have had no problems with the card, although i would recommend getting one with a fan instead of passive cooling.

It will help if you can post some more details
CPU
RAM
Operating system
Power Supply

If you do hopefully someone else will give you an opinion/advice as well
Doesn't pay to rush into these things, give it a couple of days

You can also try googling:
Graphics card AGP
just to get an idea what is out there

Good luck

 

Ok
got off my arse, and back on it again - did a bit of research for you

here are all the details of your PC
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4550/

it comes in a variety of configurations

If you download Everest
http://www.majorgeeks.com/EVEREST_Free_Edition_d4181.html
it will help you collect the details required

once installed and running
just click on computer (in the right panel)
and then
summary

I did notice it comes with a 250W power supply which may struggle
will look into it a bit more
It also comes with Nvidia MX440
so a 7600 will be a big improvement

My card requires a minimum 300W power supply
I bought a 500W just to be on the safe side

My card also requires a minimum of AGP3.0 compliant slot or better
whereas I only have a AGP2.0 compliant slot - but it works confused - which means no guarantees for you

see what details everest returns and then will have to assess whether it is worth updating your PC at all
between the graphics card and the power supply you may be looking at around $200.00 or more
(I'm in Australia - so a very rough guess)

 

Will be adding a 450 power supply.:drool

 

No worries
If I had to do it again I would get the 7600GT, its pretty much at the top of AGP cards and is probably better than a 7800GS anyway

Just be careful because these transitional cards will come in both AGP and PCI-E

When I got mine they actually sent me the PCI-E one by mistake and I had to send it back !

Obviously what you end up getting, depends on how much you want to spend,
shop around it make a huge difference

http://www.newegg.com/
seems to be popular on Major Geeks
but there would be a thousand other sites around

It would be interesting to know how much ram and which processor you have
the 4550 came out with a lot of variety in both
128MB to 512MB RAM, maximum capability of 1GB
and about a 2GHZ variety in CPUs (big difference)

Feel free to run Everest
and post back here just out of interest

A RAM upgrade may be a good idea for you next