Graphic card recommendations for Dell Inspiron 3847

[fjelstud]

Hi all,

I've used Tom's Hardware numerous times to answer my computer-related questions, but have never asked one myself. Y'all seem knowledgeable as hell.

I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 3847. Currently it's got a NVIDIA GeForce GT 705 1GB DDR3 graphics card in it, which I'd like to swap out. I don't get super demanding with the PC games I play typically—in the past year I've only played Cities: Skylines, Banished, LoL, StarCraft II, Heroes of the Storm, and Civ V. I'm mostly a sandbox/RTS/4X player (plus most Blizzard titles).

I've only tested Civ on this card so far, but I can't even run that on full settings without significant lag, and I got a new computer (my old PC was custom-built but had so many problems that I decided to get a brand-name one) specifically because I'd like to get into Pillars of Eternity.

With a budget of $150-200, what kind of card would y'all recommend? Here are the computer's current specs:

8GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz (4GBx2)
1TB 7200 rpm Hard Drive
4th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4460 Processor

Its power supply is 300W, which I know can affect what kind of cards the CPU can handle. Would I need to upgrade that as well? And if so, how do I go about that?

Thank you!!

 

[drapacioli]

A 750 ti could work, it doesn't use much power, but that's about all I would be willing to try on a 300w power supply. Also keep in mind Dell typically locks the bios on their inspiron model, you might want to head over to the dell community forums and check to ee if there are any problems with compatibility for your model. I know when I went looking for an upgrade a few days ago I had to rule out all AMD cards newer than the 7xxx series due to bios issues,and this was one an xps system.

Edit: the cpu is fine, it won't be a bottleneck. Also I would make sure the 750 ti you get does NOT require a 6 pin power connector (say away from any massively overclocked models to be safe). A 750 ti should run you $150 or less, so it'll be well within your budget. This one for example is below $150 plus it has a rebate, and it's a smaller card which should make installation easier: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00IDG3IDO/

 

[fjelstud]

A 750 ti could work, it doesn't use much power, but that's about all I would be willing to try on a 300w power supply. Also keep in mind Dell typically locks the bios on their inspiron model, you might want to head over to the dell community forums and check to ee if there are any problems with compatibility for your model. I know when I went looking for an upgrade a few days ago I had to rule out all AMD cards newer than the 7xxx series due to bios issues,and this was one an xps system.

Edit: the cpu is fine, it won't be a bottleneck. Also I would make sure the 750 ti you get does NOT require a 6 pin power connector (say away from any massively overclocked models to be safe). A 750 ti should run you $150 or less, so it'll be well within your budget. This one for example is below $150 plus it has a rebate, and it's a smaller card which should make installation easier: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00IDG3IDO/

That one looks pretty good to me. It should be able to handle (at least) those games I mentioned with medium-to-high graphical settings?

 

[drapacioli]

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with most of those games, but my best guess would be it will do fine. The 750 Ti was able to manage 30-50fps on most games when it was reviewed by Tom's at release, you can check that out here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-750-ti-review,3750.html

As long as you don't expect to run games like Witcher 3 or turn up all the eye candy, that card should perform well.

 

[fjelstud]

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with most of those games, but my best guess would be it will do fine. The 750 Ti was able to manage 30-50fps on most games when it was reviewed by Tom's at release, you can check that out here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-750-ti-review,3750.html

As long as you don't expect to run games like Witcher 3 or turn up all the eye candy, that card should perform well.

Nah, I'm using my PS4 for that. This card seems good to me. Thank you!