Dragon Age and Graphics Card

Hey, all.

Total n00b here, so I apologize in advance. I got Dragon Age from a well meaning relative for Xmas, but I know my simple hp P6110y doesn't have the graphics capabilities to handle the game. It's stock and has a GMA 3100 integrated graphics card.

I do have a PCIe slot, and a power supply that is 250 W (I believe). What cards are out there that will allow me to play the game? I was looking at it on youtube and it looks neat and I wanna give it a whirl.

Here's what it wants:
I need an ATI 3850 512MB or an NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 or greater (Recommended) or ATI Raedon X1550 256MB or NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB (minimum).


Let me know,

Keith

List of graphics cards and relative performance here.

The Nvidia and ATI cards do not seem to be on a similar performance level! 250 watts is a little limiting so you'll definately need a bus powered card have a looky here. The game is also CPU dependent iirc so this is going to be a tough call.

The 5450 seems to fit the bill at being better than the X1550 but is worse than the 7600GT. It only consumes 15W which your system 'should' be quite happy to provide. In terms of how well the game will acually run; I can't really comment!

I've got a mobile AMD 4550 in my laptop and that plays Dragon Age on medium settings ok. You might notice some slow down in the bigger battles though, so I would suggest something a little more powerful if you can. My laptop has a mobile core i7 too so it's not lacking in the cpu department.

You could try a 4670 or a 5670 as nrither need extra power but you might be better off buying a new psu

Powercool PSUPC550AUBAM 550W Modular £37:87
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/550w-...al-rail-atx-22

Akasa ES AK-P450AG8-SLUK 450W Power Supply (PSU) £38:53
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/450w-...and-affordable

Then your not so limited by your machine and a good psu is worth is weight in gold. Buy a second hand hd 4870/5770 or a GTX260/460 and play in high resolution.