What PCI Video Card should I get?

So I have a 4yr old Dell XPS 400 I am looking to upgrade my video card but I don't know anything about video cards so I don't know what I should get. I'm upgrading from a Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series video card in order to play PC games comfortably.



Here's a link to the PCI cards on Tiger Direct if that will help:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/…|||Well, first off you don't want a PCI card... you want PCI-Express. Dell's XPS 400 has a PCI-Express x16 slot for graphics card upgrades, which is vastly better than old PCI.



http://www.dell.com/content/products/pro…



It also comes with a 375W power supply, which limits your choices. The best cards you'd be able to install without upgrading the power supply are the GeForce GT240 (guaranteed) or Radeon 5670 (about 95% probable to work).



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…



While the Radeon 5670 has an official psu recommendation of 400 watts, on most systems it doesn't require nearly that much. Most people with 350W power supplies can run the 5670 just fine. Also, Dell's power supplies are slightly underrated compared to generic units.



Here's how the cards perform- you can also see power consumption in part 9:



http://www.techspot.com/review/240-ati-r…|||You're looking at the wrong type of card. The Dell XPS 400 supports a PCI Express x16 video card, which is the type you should be buying. PCI based video cards are way out of date and seriously underpowered for today's games.



The processor in that PC is fairly limited (Pentium D series at best) so I wouldn't go crazy on buying a ultra high end video card. A GeForce GT 240 would work with your existing 375W power supply and allow you to play pretty much any game that your processor can also handle.

$90 GeForce GT 240 1GB GDDR5: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…|||http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…



That is what you're looking for. It's a bit pricey, but it's the only choice.|||The 1650 Radeon is a good card|||you're almost better off getting different parts...like motherboard...quad/hex core...4+G Ram...600+W Power supply...etc...*_*...