Which Graphics card?

Question

I posted a question about buying a game and you advised a new graphics card. just to reiterate, i have an HP pavilion with a pentium 4 processor and 3.06gz with a radeon x300 card. this card is apparently rubbish so what is a good replacement for around, preferably under, £50
Also, how do you go about replacing a graphics card? i don't just want to unscrew the back and hope for the best so would appreciate some advice.

Answer 1

I say save up a bit more and get the 1950pro it can max most games out there and its cheap

Answer 2

Best and easiest thing to do is go to www.powerleap.com and run a scan on your PC. This will allow you to see which slots are available for an upgrade or if you have any upgrade room at all. just click on the graphic section after the scan completes it will give you a complete layout of what you can upgrade too. And that will give you a idea on what card to get. I live in the USA so not sure of any decent online hardware store for Europe. I always use www.newegg.com their prices are great and they ship fast but not sure if they ship overseas.

Answer 3

The video card is the gadget in a working laptop or laptop that outputs seen suggestion to the video exhibit. Video enjoying cards are called video adapters or pics enjoying cards. GPUs get quicker and quicker with each era. Now they are on the element the place they now not supply a income to convey video exhibit instruments. and not using a pics card to accomplish the needed calculations. there is not any such concern as a suitable video card for all circumstances, yet via ... social media representative

Answer 4

£50 = $102.48 USD



Assuming you have a PCI Express X16 slot.



From fastest to slowest.

ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT ($100 USD)

ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro ($85 USD)

ATI Radeon X1650PRO ($39.99 USD)

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My opinion for a new video card:

For playing the latest games at full settings, a FRAPS (frames per second) of 50 or higher (80 or more optimum)

For moderate games a FRAPS of 30 or more.

For simple games or no games a FRAPS of 18 or more

Refer to:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html

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FRAPS (frames per second); higher is better per

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html



NVIDIA 8500GT ($59) FRAPS=17.5

ATI Radeon X1550 ($30) FRAPS=22.5 est

ATI Radeon X1650PRO ($39.99) FRAPS = 30.8

ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro ($85) FRAPS = 33.6 est.

ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT ($100) FRAPS = 47.7

NVIDIA 8600GTS ($133) FRAPS= 53.6

ATI Radeon X1950PRO ($130) FRAPS= 53.8

ATI Radeon HD 2900 PRO($280) FRAPS= 88.1 est.

NVIDIA 8800GTS ($269) FRAPS=102.2

ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT ($375) FRAPS = 108.6

NVIDIA 8800Ultra ($549) FRAPS=116.9

Prices in USD per newegg.com



X1550, X1650, X1950 Support DirectX 9

All others support DirectX 10

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Power requirements



ATI Radeon X1650PRO

http://download.hightech.com.hk/manual/X1650PCIe/mk0703004_X1650_PCIe_manualV2.pdf

450-Watt power supply or greater recommended



ATI Radeon HD 2600 series

http://download.hightech.com.hk/manual/HD2600/radeon_hd2600_users_guide_137-41353-10.pdf

A 550 Watt or better power supply.



NVIDIA All

http://www.evga.com/products/moreinfo.asp?pn=256-P2-N624-AR&family=18

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Higher performance video cards require more current from the 12 volt leg of the power supply that supplies the video card. This may require changing to a more powerful power supply. Determine the amps at 12 Volts the video card recommends and compare it to your existing power supply.



How to Buy a Power Supply

http://www.wikihow.com/Buy-a-Power-Supply

Nvidia SLI Certified Power Supplies

http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html

EVGA Approved Power Supplies

http://www.evga.com/articles/286.asp

ATI Radeon Crossfire Certified Power Supplies

http://ati.amd.com/technology/crossfire/buildyourown2.html

Diamond Video Cards Certified Power Supplies

http://www.diamondmm.com/certified.php

Answer 5

hi chris

the radeon x300 is a low end card and you will find it hard to play alot of games with this card

however you will be suprised how many decent cards you can buy for less than £50,even direct x 10

i am going to recommend 3 cards,one nvidia,one a.t.i and a direct x 10 card,and all these cards are capable of playing most games

the nvidia card i shall recommend is the Jetway GeForce 7600 GT 256MB DDR3 PCI-E from http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+7+Series/Jetway+GeForce+7600+GT+256MB+DDR3+PCI-E+?productId=28825,this is a great card with a core clock speed of 580mhz and 256mb of ddr3 memory running at 1400mhz,this equates to a very capable gaming card and with the high core clock speed the frame rates should be in the high 80,s

for the ati card i recommend the ATi Radeon X1650 PRO 512MB PCI-Express from http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/ATI+Radeon+X1600+Series/ATi+Radeon+X1650+PRO+512MB+PCI-Express+?productId=27248,this is a mega card with 512mb of ddr3 memory running at 800mhz,and with a core clock speed of 600mhz this makes this a brilliant card for everyday tasks including games,it also comes with a highly effective cooling fan design

finally for the direct x 10 card i recommend the 512 MB nVidia 8500GT - PCI-E from http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+8+Series/512+MB+nVidia+8500GT+-+PCI-E?productId=29022,this is a excellent card with both direct x 10 and pixel and shader model 4.0 capabilitys,however i must stress this should only be a option of you are running windows vista,otherwise you wont get the direct x 10 capabiltiys

apart from that this is a capable card,and worth the price

as for installing the cards,basically you open the p.c case(after turning the p.c off)and locate the pci-express slot,if theres a card there then unscrew the screw from the case bracket and remove the card

take you new card,watching not to touch any of the actual cards p.c.b(printed circuit board) and insert the card firmly into the slot and screw the card into place,note:some cards require a power supply,in this case attach a pci-express 6pin power connector(failure to do this can seriously damage your card),then close your case

when you boot up your p.c you will get a message in windows that a new video device has been recognized,cancel these and prepare to install the specific manufacturer drivers from these following sites

for the nvidia drivers go to http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us,and for a.t.i drivers you need to go to http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

also to get the full performance from your new graphics card you need to download the latest direct x update,which you can download from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en

and thats it,any problems let me know

good luck chris !