Upgrade Advice

First of all I know virtually nothing about hardware, i guess thats why i'm here though I'm thinking of getting a new video card, I've looked at the Radeon X1900 with 512MB which I'm figuring should last me a while. But....I have no idea if my system is compatible with this, or if there is another card which might be a better choice.

I have a Dell Dimension 4600.....2.66GHz....all stock hardware except for a Radeon 9550 video card, and 2.00GB of RAM instead of the RAM that came with the system. I've heard of the PCI and AGP (?) ports, don't know which one I have, though I suspect PCI. The X1900 is PCI Express, is this different than PCI?? Basically, If I go and buy a high end video card am I going to be stuck unable to install it on my system with my current hardware? I've also heard about cooling fans and power sources or whatever they are, would this be something I would need to upgrade in addition to a new card? Can I go ahead and get the X1900, or do I need to buy other hardware to support this? Or is there something more compatible I should be looking into?

Would greatly appreciate some clarification here.

-questionhead

 

I doubt that you have a PCI-E slot (pci express graphics slot, it is different than a regular PCI slot.) since I do not think that they made the 9550 for it. You most likely have a AGP video slot so you would need to get a video card for AGP. (unless you want to get a new mother board too but....)

Why are you looking for a new vid card? Games, video, etc....

 

U should try looking at control panel>appereance/themes>display props>settings and click advanced at check the adapter it should give some info.
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6142716/index.html

 

Isnt AGP better than PCI by default?

 

But if youre really considering high end then the question isnt just memory but also a good stable power supply ..