Video Card advice for Dell Dimension 2400 for ADT 2004

Dear Group,

After much heartache dealing with Dell, I have a Dimension 2400 and a 17"
flat screen. Because of all the incredible screw ups, the price turned out
extremely low.

I wish to run ADT 2004, Photoshop and maybe one other 3d program on it. I
will probably not run them all at the same time, but might be likely to run
Photoshop and ADT at the same time. Since I will be doing landscape
architecture, I MAY not need tons of 3d, but you never know.

I am told that the integrated circuitry of the 2400 will be inadequate for
any significant 3d work and that I will need a video card for PCI. In
addition, I will be upgrading memory to 768mb from 256mb.

Dell and ATI carry an ATI Radeon 7500 (64mb) for PCI for $79.00. Does this
sound like an adequate card? Are there more powerful cards for PCI?

Below are the specs of my Dell and for ADT 2004 as an FYI.

Thanks much for any guidance.

Michael



My Dell:

Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.20GHz with 400MHz front side bus
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Memory 256MB Shared DDR SDRAM at 333MHz (Performs at 266MHz for 400FSB
systems)
40GB ATA/100 Value Hard Drive
Video Card Integrated Intel® 3D Extreme Graphics
Network Interface Integrated 10/100 Ethernet
17 in E171FP Flat Panel Display


ADT 2004:

 

I too have a DELL dimension 2400 and am using an ATI Radeon 9200 PCI card
and it's a cracking card. I do only a bit of 3D work, and I have no trouble
with it. I use it mainly for autocad , but I have played a latest game on it
and the results were breathtaking .
My advice, for what it's worth . . . go for the 128mb cards, the extra
memory will be worth it when you do 3D stuff. Go for either ATI or Geforce
cards, purely through experience (other people may tell you otherwise)
Mine is currently £45 UK, which is only $75 or so!!

hope that helps

Jon

 

Geforce 5200 128mb card with DDR on board is only 53 bucks shipped from
www.target.com

I just put one in my pc at home.. all I do is 3d & most of my drawings are
in the 6 mb range...