EVGA nVidia e-GeForce 8400 GS 512 MB DDR2 PCI Card (512-P1-N724-LR)

Comment: I had absolutely no clue about replacing any hardware, but my Dell Dimension 3000 needed an upgrade for games like the Sims. I read other reviews and did searches online about upgrading until I felt comfortable enough to make my purchase. The only problem that I ran into was that my task bar had disappeared completely. I thought that I had disabled the original built-in graphics card, but apparently I had not. After doing more searches on how to fix it and another 20 seconds tacked on, I had spent about an hour with a major cleaning included (thanks to Dell for the superbly poor case design, the dust was trapped in the front). I used small paint brushes to clean it, fixed the task bar problem, and have had a great experience. A very old game, Virtual Families, has tiny, irritating lines in it now, but it's not enough to have my kids stop playing the game. I registered on EVGA's site, called tech support and got a real person ASAP, figured out it's just a problem with that one game, did a print screen/save file/upload file to my EVGA account for a receipt of purchase in case of future issues needing a receipt, and finished feeling very confident in my purchase.
My computer stays on at all times, and I have had zero problems with the new graphics card. The price was fantastic, but I also used gift cards purchased with points from a survey site making it a superbly cheap buy.
Make sure you don't lose the screw from taking off one of the plates as it only included an unusably scratched CD (I just used EVGA's site for updates) and the graphics card.

Comment: This graphic card is good if you want to play the TW series from Shogun-Medieval II. However if you are looking to play the newer games such as Empire total war or Napoleon skip this card and go a few steps further.

All and all thou, for the price you cant beat the deal!

Comment: I upgraded to this card from an integrated video controller on the motherboard. Installation was easy and works fine.

Comment: I must say ,the 512 PCI video card works ,for anybody outthere looking to upgrade a ol pc with PCI slot ,this is the video card for you ,the system in wich i used the video card is a SR1211NX compaq presario .Graphis are 100% better ,my litte nephew can play games that requiered more video memory.I recommned this video card ,so far no problems with the video card .

Comment: I have an old Compaq Presario that was a budget PC to begin with in 2003(specs at the bottom of review). I was planning to use it with an HDTV for watching DVDs. But since the integrated graphics on the old PC only go up to 1024 x 728, I needed to upgrade. However, this computer does not have AGP, and PCIe is completely out of the question, with this system's age.

So I sprung for this card. For a PCI card, especially on such an old computer, it works remarkably well. Not only did it give my old computer the ability run the TV at its native resolution, it actually gave the computer a breath of new life in terms of usefulness. Before, the PC could barely play SimCity 4 at 15 fps on the lowest settings. Now, it can play it on full settings at 60 fps. I can even manage the PC to play some Counterstrike and Half Life 2. However the FPS is fairly low on both games, I think that has more to do with the PC being so old, rather than the card itself. Photoshop actually runs very well if you enable GPU acceleration. Video play smoothly without stuttering too. Its definitely no gaming card, but if you have an old PC with integrated graphics and no option for AGP, this card may be able to squeeze a few more years of life into that PC.

System specs:
Windows XP Professional
1.4 Ghz intel Celeron (Single Core)
512 MB SDRAM
80 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive