(GeForce 6800 GTO) not your average vid card questionFollow

Whats the size of the fan and the connector (ie. 4-pin or board connection) ? .. and personally Dell does give crappy comps that are overpriced.

and while im on the topic.. i do have the option of returning this card. And if so i would be getting the ATI Radeon X800. Which do you guys think is better, they are very similar cards.

ive actually searched around everywhere and still no luck

While looking to upgraade my own Dell I found out:

Dell motherboards are made to run on a their own low powered power supply. High performance on low power. It's not crappy at all.

The new GF card runs on 120 watts(I think) because it supports some DirectX Shader somethingorother technology. You'd probably need a new power supply and motherboard. I'm not sure.

What is crappy about Dell is that they make their computers in a way where your only safe bet, aside from practically making a new computer, is to buy things that are compatible with the parts they make... which are usually sold by them for super high prices. I will never buy another Dell. I'm buying parts and making my own comp when it comes time to get a new PC.

If you do decide to overhaul your PC I'd figure out what I want and then see if any computer stores sell their wares through EBay. It should be cheaper. For 512MB RAM(2x256) Dell wanted $300. I paid $179 for the same exact thing off EBay from yogi-computers.

Ok heres a dumb Question. Did u plug in the Video Card? When i first got my 6800 it freaked me out thta i had to use a power connecter to plug in the video card.
Dracosy
Innothule Server

ok, i have a nvidia geforece 6800gt by gigabyte...hope that was the one you bought instead of the other geforce 6800s(it not only has a Huge fan infront, it also has a Giant heat sink in the back. if you look at the installation hardware section in your manul, it tells you to connect the power cable to your video card...the power cable should be in the box and thats what you need to make the fan work. just to make sure you uninstall your old driver for your old video card before you remove it and get on the website to update the latest driver after you installed everything. hope this will help you. good luck.

Im pretty sure the cards in right because it can run my game. The card was shipped from DELL however in a Dell box so it had been opened prior to me getting it. Ive actually been on the phone with Dell for several hours and finally arranged for a tech to come by and see if he cant figure it out himself.

Word for the wise.. DONT buy a dell. The computers arent bad if you customise them yourself but they have the worst service ive ever encountered.

forgot to mention, there is also no manual in the box. They shipped it dry :(

Edited, Fri Nov 26 15:44:01 2004 by xKnightfallx

Edited, Fri Nov 26 15:45:32 2004 by xKnightfallx

Another Poor Sucker screwed by Dell....

Here's a Hint:

Find a really good local computer shop that has a sales rep that knows what he's doing and put you a package together that works.

Better luck next time..

as far as which card is better> as of now the nvidia 6800 256Mb is the top of the line but then again, if you dont have enough ram, you wont get the full effect of the video card. i had used both ati and nvidia in the past and now i am back at the nvidia again. who knows in the next 6 months maybe the ati will have something out that will blow the market away again. if you can return the gforce you have right now to dell, do so and get the one thats made by gigabytes. its just a much better nvidia 6800 gt card. also do some price shopping, i got my for $380.00 at PC Club, where some place sell it from $400-$500+ for the card and also buy on line its probably going to be cheapest because the retail markup are much lower.

Gotta cut Dell a little slack guys...

Yes their computers are giant legos(TM), but we are forgetting one thing when we keep telling everyone to "go make your own computer." Most of the people in the world don't even know what the inside of a computer looks like, much less know how to put one together. Granted paying someone to do build one is sometimes a viable option (though most of em charge $50 an hour), but for a common user of a comp dell is pretty good, exspecially with Laptops which aren't really customizable anyways.

In speaking from experience, the customer support for Dell isn't "that" bad compared to whats out there. I've had to send in a adapter for my laptop like 4 times... every time they would very promptly mail a shipping box and all for it. Once the screen broke during shipping (I'm guessing) cause when I got it back it was fully replaced, no charge. I can't complain when it comes to that. Now, not getting into tech support (I swear they just call a random number in India), but for replacing an honoring warrenties, its all good. Just for the love of god don't go Compaq(HP now?) or Gateway.

If your a little more knowledgable bout computers though, I would suggest building your own, or buying from a computer that lets your specifiy every part so you can at least still get a warrenty on it. I would suggest IBUYPOWER.com, but hell thats just me.

get Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600XT. wicked!!

I have a Dell notebook , and I love it. Flawless performance, no problems. SO neener neener Dell bashers!

EQ2 on a notebook, now if it only had a cup holder......

As not to add another thread,

Does it matter if the type and speed of your video card RAM is different than that of your system RAM's type and speed?

Also, if you have a 256-bit interface video card can you use a 128-bit interface card to replace it?

I have a ATI Radeon 128MB 9700 and I think it has a 128-bit interface. The X800 has a 256-bit interface and I'm not sure if has something to do with the motherboard connector type or what.