hardware - graphics cards

[munky]

Right then fellas,

What's the practical difference between this for £90 and this for £38?

I ask because the AGP card in my girlfriend's old (2002) Dell PC failed at the weekend, so we popped to the above linked emporium for a new card. Told them it wouldn't be used for games, 3D graphics and the like so a cheap one would be fine. They said the cheapest AGP card they had in stock was the £90 ATI card above. Took their word for it and bought it, as there wasn't much choice really - couldn't research or shop around online with a broken graphics card. Plus it was Sunday and needed to get something quick. I installed it and all works fine. Now having checked the website it seems there are much cheaper alternatives like the £38 ATI above (currently out of stock at her local branch, in fairness) or this £40 nvidia card which oddly does seem to be in stock.

Any reason why I shouldn't take out the new £90 card they sold me which seems way over spec and take it back and swap for a £40 card and a £50 refund? I'm fairly sure either of these £40 quid jobs will still be better than her old card.

cheers

[wolves_wanderer]

The only difference between the cards is in 3d (games) performance, considering that you have no interest in games then you just need the cheapest. If you go back to where you bought it and tell them the same story as you have told us you should be able to swap it for the cheaper option with no problem.

The only problem is that when the web shows stock at a store, sometimes that stock is one faulty item that nobody can find but if there is boxed stock on the shelves you will get a swap. If they get funny then mention that you have been misrepresented as the company used to be very down on this sort of behaviour (I used to work for them).

[mcarrick69]

I assume almost anyting AGP would fit and work, if, as you say it isnt required for intensive tasks such as gaming, video editing.

[Jinx]

You should have been offered the cheaper option - as has already been said it's only the games/3D performance that differs (assuming you don't run at stupidly high resolutions in your desktop environment) .

[road2ruin]

Whilst I agree with previous posts that for surfing and word processing the cheapest card you can get will do sadly I suspect the supplier in question will deny all knowledge of any such recommendation and just say buyer beware. Next time pop down to their store an look or better still go somewhere else where they know what they are talking about. They tried to sell me a cable for £45 that I got from my local independent supplier for £4.00

[munky]

road2ruin said:

Whilst I agree with previous posts that for surfing and word processing the cheapest card you can get will do sadly I suspect the supplier in question will deny all knowledge of any such recommendation and just say buyer beware. Next time pop down to their store an look or better still go somewhere else where they know what they are talking about. They tried to sell me a cable for £45 that I got from my local independent supplier for £4.00

Well, the sales guy did initially say there was a cheap one on sale, but when he looked it had sold out, none on the shelves. Being a Sunday afternoon there weren't any other shops open. Thinking I'll take the card out next time I'm there and get a refund on their 14 day return rule. Need to go back there anyway as they also sold me the wrong type of RAM for my laptop! All in all a fairly unsuccessful visit, although her PC is working at least.

[munky]

mcarrick69 said:

I assume almost anyting AGP would fit and work, if, as you say it isnt required for intensive tasks such as gaming, video editing.

Well, it would be handy for video editing, I currently do this on my laptop which only has onboard intel graphics. It works but it's slow. Thus regarding her desktop PC I was trying to decide whether to keep the whizzy (literally, has its own cooling fan) new graphics card and gradually upgrade the whole PC - but being a Dell, and a fairly old one, getting a core duo chip no doubt means getting a new motherboard, which will mean getting a newer type of RAM, then upgrading to a newer DVD writer, bigger HDD and no doubt a beefed up power supply to run it all, and then getting vista.. basically everything new except the monitor. Which will probably end up more expensive and certainly more hassle than just buying a new PC. Which may as well be after we move house. In which case I may as well get the cheapest graphics card for now.

So whaddya reckon - upgrade the old Dell PC or just buy a new machine? Could always keep the old one in a cupboard as a network drive/server/firewall if I can work out how.