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Graphics Cards

D

dsawan

Guest
Hi, all. I am looking to get a new graphics cards but I am dumb in this category. I currently have a Nvidia 6150 card and want to upgrade without getting a new system. I am looking at 6800 or higher if possible. But I understand there is pci express and standard pci. I think mine is standard pci compliant but not sure. Is there a way to get one without the pci express? I looked online at best buy and there up to 9000 series nvidia cards whcih require pci express. My system is a Vista 32 bit os with Athlon 64 dual core processor at 2.3 mhz. My RAM is 2 GHz with a 240 gb hard drive and external hard drive space available at 500gb or so. Hope you can help. thx. i would rather take out the 6150 and put in a new card rather than take the pc to a shop and change a motherboard or whatever. It is to run cfs 2 but also the newest sims like DCS Blackshark, tank sims like Steel Fury and T-34 vs Tiger:banghead:
 
Do you know the mobo manufacturer? The 6150 is onboard video are you sure that's what you have? If you can find the (Mobo) name and model number we can see what type vid card you need to get. (AGP, PCI, PCI-E)

Joe
 
dsawan said:
Hi, all. I am looking to get a new graphics cards but I am dumb in this category. I currently have a Nvidia 6150 card and want to upgrade without getting a new system. I am looking at 6800 or higher if possible. But I understand there is pci express and standard pci. I think mine is standard pci compliant but not sure. Is there a way to get one without the pci express? I looked online at best buy and there up to 9000 series nvidia cards whcih require pci express. My system is a Vista 32 bit os with Athlon 64 dual core processor at 2.3 mhz. My RAM is 2 GHz with a 240 gb hard drive and external hard drive space available at 500gb or so. Hope you can help. thx. i would rather take out the 6150 and put in a new card rather than take the pc to a shop and change a motherboard or whatever. It is to run cfs 2 but also the newest sims like DCS Blackshark, tank sims like Steel Fury and T-34 vs Tiger:banghead:
Click to expand...

Yo dsawan;

The fact that you have a dual core CPU means that your mobo will accept a PCIe (PCI express) type video card. This is the best style card as PCI & AGP cards are older technology. (superseded by PCIe)

Like boobs; bigger is always better ...... at present a 512MB card should be the smallest one you consider. (I have seen a couple of 2GB cards recently but you'd need a mortgage to buy one)

You also have WinVista. Your card should be DirectX10 compatible as this will allow you to play the newest games.

Lastly you need the correct power supply (PS). All vid cards will specify how big a PS is required to run each card. Check your machine specs!!!

Generally; contemporary boxes come with a 250-350W. If you must upgrade this too remember: quality comes first. Cheap PS's will usually deliver dirty power that can fluctuate & cause problems or damage your box. Choose a quality PS that is a little larger than you actually need.

Maybe post the Make & Model number of your box so we can get a little more specific about which card might be best for you.

I hope this info helps you out.
.
.
 
Hi, its defintely a nvidia 6150 vid card. i threw away the box with specs on it. It is a Hp pavillion. I ran a system checker while installing Black Shark. See below.

Item Value
OS Name Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium
Version 6.0.6000 Build 6000
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name DSAWAN-PC
System Manufacturer HP-Pavilion
System Model GG781AA-ABA a6110n
System Type X86-based PC
Processor AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+, 2300 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Phoenix Technologies, LTD 5.08, 5/4/2007
SMBIOS Version 2.4

System specs:
Amd 64 athlon dual core process or at 2,1 ghz
OS: Vista 32 bit
Nvidia geforce 6150 vid card
RAM: 2gb
disk space: 320GB
with external drive space available via Western Digital.
 
This system checker does not mention vid card. So youre saying I could run a pci express card? Is there a utility that tells what type of pci it is or provide more info? I am just afarid to buy a new card and when i take it apart it doesnt fit into slot. I am trying to find out before i take the pc apart. I am not sure if system info tells you or not but if there is a util off the net I can try to provide you guys with info, let me know. As for mobo manufacturer, I amnot sure unless we can find out without taking apart.
 
Dirtman said:
Yo dsawan;

The fact that you have a dual core CPU means that your mobo will accept a PCIe (PCI express) type video card. This is the best style card as PCI & AGP cards are older technology. (superseded by PCIe)

Like boobs; bigger is always better ...... at present a 512MB card should be the smallest one you consider. (I have seen a couple of 2GB cards recently but you'd need a mortgage to buy one)

You also have WinVista. Your card should be DirectX10 compatible as this will allow you to play the newest games.

Lastly you need the correct power supply (PS). All vid cards will specify how big a PS is required to run each card. Check your machine specs!!!

Generally; contemporary boxes come with a 250-350W. If you must upgrade this too remember: quality comes first. Cheap PS's will usually deliver dirty power that can fluctuate & cause problems or damage your box. Choose a quality PS that is a little larger than you actually need.

Maybe post the Make & Model number of your box so we can get a little more specific about which card might be best for you.

I hope this info helps you out.
.
.
Click to expand...



All good stuff, but I just want to add this. Quantity of memory on a card does not mean that its great. For example, if your looking at a nVidia 9500GT, it has 512mb of ram, but it will not run as fast as a 9600GT due in large part to it's 128bit memory bus. Core speed and memory clock are important too, but so is the memory bus size.

Think of this, the memory bus is a highway, the bigger the highway, the more memory the card can really use. Any 128bit memory bus card will only be able to efficiently use 256mb of memory at most. The only caveat to this is if you play the game is really high resolutions, then if you had a card with 512mb of memory running on a 128 bit bus would the card start to use the extra memory, but at 17-19" normal monitor resolutions, the card's extra memory would be use less, and if your playing at high resolution's the card's core and memory clock speeds may even then not be able to keep up with a 'larger' 256bit bus card.

So once again also look at the memory bit bus, a 128bit bus can effectively support up to 256mb of memory, a 256bit bus can support up to 512mb of memory effectively. The next major leap is for ATI and nVidia to start releasing main stream cards with a 512bit bus which then can effectivly support up to 1024mb of memory.

if your on a tight budget I would recomend either the nVidia 9600GT, or an ATI 4830.

If your looking for a good system utility to explain the various parts of your PC I'd recomend Everest. http://downloads.guru3d.com/EVEREST-Ultimate-Edition-2007-4.10.1128-Beta_d1734.html
 
Hi, yeah somewhata tight budget. When i r an steel fury, it did a auto detect checker and sait you only have less than 256 memory vid card and you cant run the game beyond resolution 800x600. I tested it at desktop resolution at 1600 by 1200 and the game was slow when moving tanks around, although nice graphics. I just want to be sure that if i buy the nvidia 9600GT or any card for that matter, it will fit into socket. i have chanegd only once a vid card and its been a while. is there no utility off net that can tell what type of mobo, pci structure i have without taking apart the pc?
 
Blue Devil said:
If you still have an AGP board, ...like me, ...

nVidia GeForce 7950 GT 7950GT 512MB AGP DVI Video Card

$179.99 including S&H.

Was a $300.00 board last year.

These are the last of the hot AGP boards around, ...anywhere (in the US).

Nine(9) left... (though more may come around later, ...maybe...)
Click to expand...


Actually Newegg has ATI 3850 AGP cards for at a little as $119 that are faster then the nVidia 7950GT.

The untility that can help you I posted above, its called Everest.
 
Well if you do have pci-e mobo then yes that card will work. But for a few more bucks why not get an 8800gts 320 ddr3, which has a 320 bit memory bus and will handle higher resolutions.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127328

or a recertified for a few bucks less

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130410

You could also go with a 9800GT for a little over 100 bucks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130397

Anyone of these card would be better then the 8400 and give you better performance.

Joe
 
Hi all,
Somethings that has been overlooked here.
If you go for the later Nvidea boards 8800 and later a lot of them are very big in size.Will your case allow it to fit.
Secondly what is the output from your PSU.Tou will need atleast 400W to 500W to run a lot of the newer cards.

Buddha13
 
Dsawan,

If your budget is around $80, I'd go for a an ATI 4670. Its small to fit in any mid tower case, and does not require an additional power plug. Much better then even the 9500GT.

I just went poking around to try to see if I could get the specs on your system to see how big your PSU is. If I think I have the right one picked out, your PSU is good for 300watts.

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...+Vista+Home+Premium&series_name=a6660z_series

That limits you automatically to what card you can have. Nice thing about the ATI 4670 is that it's peak power consumption is only 59watts, which is really good and the over all performance of the card is very impressive.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/ati-radeon-hd-4670-review/14
 
Dsawan, the only thing I would add is to look at the newegg links provided. newegg, tigerdirect and others online always beat bestbuy and compusa price-wise and their support is second to none. The other thing is to look at putting a PCI fan card in next to your vid card to keep it cool. The cooler, the better. Heat is our enemy.
 
Hi guys, thx for all your replys. iw as tryning to find out the power supply using system info in vista and everest but could not see the wattage. Do you know where under system or device mgr to look at? I assume 300w. Newegg has defintely got my attn and will use that website. Dont really want to mess with the power supply. Is there a way to get an external PS or you have to take apart the case cover? I usually love external stuff via usb ports. The ati card you mention is interesting and would have to replace the nvidia drivers for ati.
 
dsawan, do not sweat the power supply change out. It is very easy to do. Power down, unplug the power, open the tower however it opens, either the side or whatever, ground the case, unscrew the four phillips screws holding the power supply to the back of the case, the PS will then drop and slide out of the case. Do not unplug any of the color coded wires inside yet. Now, take the new PS, set it along side the old, still connected PS and match plugs. As you unplug a connection, plug in the corresponding new plugs. They all only go to one type of matching plug recepticle, so not to worry. If you do it like I suggest, you cannot go wrong.

Then slide and lift the new into place in the case, screw the four mounting screws back in snug, close the case, plug into power outlet and turn it on. Everything should start up normally.
 
Dsawan,
To find out the watt and voltage of your PSU, open the case and all that info will be on the side of the PSU. It is very easy to replace a PSU, just do what devildog posted and your good to go. I may suggest that you get a modular type PSU. This way you only use what you need (cables) and don't have to hide the rest that you don't.
All of these are certified 80+

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256045

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817163109

But if you want an external PSU .........

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153069

This will power 2 GTX280's in SLI with no problem.:applause:

Joe
 
If you really want a good video card you are going to need to replace the PS. I upgraded my 1 year old Dell last spring (the E521 was not meant for gaming, until now...). Replacing a PS is easy, (Dell's are tougher, but fine if you buy a Dell compatible PS, just a few more $$$), as is replacing a video card. In my case, I also replaced the AMD processor. Everything runs fine, now. It's not cheap, though, and cheap doesn't buy you much in the performance department. If you are not going to upgrade the PS, then you are restricted to a video card without an on-board fan.
 
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