Can anyone suggest a good pci e video card for me that will run Skyrim on medium/high settings at least without needing to upgrade my psu? It will be for a dell dimension E521, 305 watt power supply that doesn't have a 6 pin connector so it kind of limits what i can use.Thanks for any help

(sorry just realized i posted this in the cheats section instead of the general discussion)

If you seriously want my opinion I would start saving to either build your new rig or get your own custom made gaming pc.

I have to agree with Raizen. Don't waste money on a good video card on antiquated setup.

gtx 550 is a cheap video card that plays skyrim well.....it does get hot though

I have to agree that just getting a better gaming rig would be best, but that wasn't your question. To answer your question, I would say the cheapest you could get is a gtx260 that can play the game on high/ultra settings (that's what I currently have), but 550 would be best.

thanks guys i appreciate the advice. I do plan on building something better later,i just don't have the funds right now though. i have been looking around all day and am considering getting a radeon HD6670 and a 550 watt power supply to run it. i found a place where i can get them and 2 more gigs of memory for just over $100 which is about all i can spend right now.any ideas why this won't work for me? in a few months i'll have plenty of money to build something brand new,just trying to get by in the meantime and get away from skyrim on the ps3

An HD 7750 would run fine on that power supply (the stock Dell 305w). Its more power efficient than AMD's old cards that didn't require a six pin connector (like the HD 4670, 5670 and 6670) and is about as powerful as the HD 6770 was. It may be overkill for your CPU though. What CPU do you have in that model?

Apparently you did not read his OP carefully, he currently does not have the 6-pin.

@Hairyola: Some (old) Dell systems had proprietary PSU/mobo wiring on the 20-24 pin connector, had some wires swapped around. If you replace your PSU with a standard one, and you have that wiring scheme, you will fry something (your mobo or the PSU)! That said, I think they were before 2006, but I am not sure. As they said, do not bother putting $$ into your old system. Sry.

The 7750 doesnt need a 6 pin power.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125417

Wow, Hairyola I would say go for it.

man, i already pulled the trigger on a radeon hd6670 and a 550 watt power supply that has a pci e connector,i should've waited and checked back first. my processor is an amd athlon 64x2 3800+ 2.00ghz. i'm certainly not expecting full hd flawless gaming from it,i just want to be able to play skyrim as smoothly as possible until i can build something better later on. i appreciate the tip on the psu wiring,i checked and the e521 can take any aftermarket psu that will fit,doesn't have proprietary wiring scheme. anyway its looking like the old amd athlon 64x2 3800+,radeon hd 6670,550 watt psu and 4 gigs of ram,hopefully that does it for me without looking like i'm playing under a strobe light.thank you everyone for your help

Uhh sorry man, I had athlon 64x2 4000+ and with gtx7800 fallout3 was cpu bottlenecked all the time even with lowest possible settings rendering the game unplayable with realtime combat, luckily it had turn based action too. I suggest forgetting about skyrim until you can manage a new rig.

well i got my parts and installed them with no problems,overclocked my meager little cpu just a little,(it won't take much before it becomes unstable) and i have to say,skyrim is running good and looks and acts as good as it does on my ps3(less glitchy too). it scans and wants to set to high settings but i keep it at medium and it works good. so i now i can use mods and enjoy the game and all it took was $100 in video card and memory upgrades.this will work fine until i can build a good gaming rig.thanks for the help and advice everyone,much appreciated

"gtx7800" doesn't exsist. Which do you have? 7850 or 7870?

Nvm.

Good, glad to hear it. Happy gaming!

Yes it does. It's an old Nvidia card. The proper name for it was 7800 GTX. I had a 7600 GT myself.

Here's the page for it: http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_7800.html

Oh, I was thinking AMD, oops

thanks!

When I purchased my new Desktop computer in January of 2011 and then purchased Skyrim in December of 2011, my computer runs Skyrim smoothly and easily!