Hey, i am currently using the very old nVida GeForce FX5200XT 3D AGP Graphics card on my 3 year old HP Pentium IV 2.8GHz pc. I am thinking of upgrading my graphics card, and would like to ask whether my old PC and motherboard is able to support any newer graphics card availible in the market now? Or i can only purchase the older ones? Are there any limit?
Graphics Card Query
- Thread starter Zhiliang
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ok a couple of questions:
a) how much power is ur power supply? how many watts?
b) ur motherboard can support only AGP cards? or can it also take PCI-E gfx cards?
c) Does ur computer casing have a lot of free interior space?
IF u want to get the very good/best graphics card, u will need to think the above questions carefully. First, if ur power supply is only 250 watts, then u can dun think of upgrading ur graphics card already. For the better cards in the market now, u need about 350 - 400 watts true power minimum.
and since u mention ur computer is 3 yrs old, i m not sure if ur comp has PCI Express slot. this is a valid consideration because if u want to get the very good/best cards, they come only in PCI-Express format and no more AGP.... If u wan to go for the average to low end(which since u are upgrading, u wont be considering this range), u still can find AGP ones.
Lastly, the very good/ best graphics cards nowadays are humongous in size, and dun overlook this factor... Many ppl with those smaller sized casing might have trouble putting the graphics card in. Some ppl cant even put it in..
a) how much power is ur power supply? how many watts?
b) ur motherboard can support only AGP cards? or can it also take PCI-E gfx cards?
c) Does ur computer casing have a lot of free interior space?
IF u want to get the very good/best graphics card, u will need to think the above questions carefully. First, if ur power supply is only 250 watts, then u can dun think of upgrading ur graphics card already. For the better cards in the market now, u need about 350 - 400 watts true power minimum.
and since u mention ur computer is 3 yrs old, i m not sure if ur comp has PCI Express slot. this is a valid consideration because if u want to get the very good/best cards, they come only in PCI-Express format and no more AGP.... If u wan to go for the average to low end(which since u are upgrading, u wont be considering this range), u still can find AGP ones.
Lastly, the very good/ best graphics cards nowadays are humongous in size, and dun overlook this factor... Many ppl with those smaller sized casing might have trouble putting the graphics card in. Some ppl cant even put it in..
the kind of ram that the graphics card use doesnt matter at all.... even if ur pc is running DDR ram while the new graphics card is running 768mb DDR3 ram, it still works... both works differently.
Oh dear, i am not very sure of my power supply, is there any way i can check that? But i believe that my motherboard can only take AGP cards and not PCI. I have never opened my computer casing before but nevertheless its not the mini tower kind. And given all the above considerations, what would be the best i can upgrade to? Sorry i am so confused with all the terms....
Oh, which means that the DDR thing is not an issue right? Does the RAM DDR thing affect too? Mine is currently 512 MB DDR memory, can i change to DDR 2 for RAM? And also, it appears that the DDR RAM has a speed like 400MHz, is it important to get back something of the same kind when i upgrade the RAM? Thanks so so much.
to check ur power supply, u might have to open up ur casing. Then u look at the area where the power supply is, the part where all the power wires jut out. The power wattage will be written there.
At the bare minimum, u must really check ur power supply, the amount of empty space near the graphics card slot area and if it can take AGP/PCI-E
its quite hard for me to tell u which is the best u can upgrade to because a) there are too many graphics card in the market now & me myself is ultra blur abt the varieties available b) to know the best u can upgrade to, u must know wat can ur current system support..
Thank you very much for your help, maybe i will do a little poking around into my CPU tomorrow morning. Is bringing my whole CPU down to Sim Lim a good idea, so they can look at my PC and advise me on what to get, plus i cant install them myself too?
okok....i think u are a bit confused or issit me confused. On ur mother board and on ur graphics card, there is ram.
currently from what u mentioned:
Motherboard: 512 DDR ram 400mhz
Graphics card: 128 DDR ram
lets talk abt the ram on ur motherboard, to determine if u can use DDR2 ram and at a higher speed, it again depends on whether ur motherboard can support it. There is a certain range of ram speed ur motherboard can support and it is also depends on ur motherboard if it can take DDR2 rams.
For the graphics card ram, which we call video memory, we can safely assume and be assured that the larger the amount of video memory, the better it is the performance. the graphics card ram got DDR, DDR2 and DDR3 kinds. The older graphics card are all DDR ram only, while the newer ones are DDR3..
IF ur motherboard is running DDR ram, while ur video card is running DDR3 rams, it will still work. they are independent.
Yeah actually i really understand what you meant just now.
And just want to ask you about my 512MB RAM on motherboard, whether the DDR thing matters or that it doesnt matters just like the video RAM that you advised me about.
u have a very good and interesting question here. Here's why it is interesting:
in the past, for the compaq desktop computers, do u know that u are unable to install computer parts (ram, graphics card etc.) bought from outside vendors and install into it? the whole system wont work.. They specially configured their computer in such a manner that if u want to do upgrades, u got to go back to compaq.
In ur case, urs is a HP made machine... i dunno if u are able to install things into it by urself using parts bought from outside shops. I dunno if HP has such restriction.. [in a way, self assembled comps are better because of this]
anyway for ur question, of course its best to bring ur computer down to simlim and ask the ppl there. they should be able to advise a) whether HP desktop has such restrictions b) what type of graphics card ur system can support c) Help u to take out the old graphics card and install the new graphics card into the machine.
Although u can definitely install the card by urself [its not too hard, really] its better to let them install and make sure it works. IF anything got problem, they will be responsible to ur machine, not urself..
Oh dear, because of this interesting question, i think tonight cannot sleep already. Meaning if really that case, i have to get the HP guys to do the upgrade right? But the parts inside my HP computer all come from different brands (as in not all HP brands) if i remember correctly. So will that mean that there might not be restrictions?
And just want to ask you about my 512MB RAM on motherboard, whether the DDR thing matters or that it doesnt matters just like the video RAM that you advised me about.
mmm..ok i will tell u the most important thing about why DDR and DDR2 ram matter a lot.
DDR 400mhz rams can cost $100+/- for 1 gb while DDR2 533mhz/667mhz rams can cost $55 +/- for 1gb.. the price is nearly double.
for the price u spend to build a 2gb DDR machine, u can built a 4gb rig machine...
In a sense, why not just upgrade ur whole computer now, IF there is really a very big need....
Sidenote: i am having tt same headache as u now, mine pc is the small form factor type, really small one, and it cant fit the bigger cards. second, my power supply is only 250watts, and many of the newer cards require >350 watts.thirdly, my comp can only support AGP cards. Fourth, mine comp is only 2.26ghz and using DDR rams, its really not economical to upgrade the system at all. I m thinking of just rebuilding a new comp from scratch up again..maybe u can consider this too?
mmm...if thats the case, i think u can change la...ok then just erase this interesting question from ur head.... relac relac..
if u need more information regarding pricing, u can go to here:
http://sg.hardwarezone.com/priceguide/download.php
From this link u can download the pricelist of the various shop in simlim and get a rough idea of the pricing of the various parts and graphics cards..
http://sg.hardwarezone.com/priceguide/download.php
From this link u can download the pricelist of the various shop in simlim and get a rough idea of the pricing of the various parts and graphics cards..
Yeah i was considering that too, but to me like a bit wasted as i think everything still working fine and in good condition. And also my budget for this upgrade might just be at most 400 dollars. Yeah i checked the prices at hardware zone and saw the very big difference between DDR and DDR2. Technology moves so fast that things are getting phased out so so soon. Actually it was because i bought this RTS game called Company Of Heroes yesterday, and after installing and trying to play, i got this msg that says "not enough virtual memory" and dont know what "memory page something something fault" and "need 728MB memory" or something like that. Thats why thought i can do some minor upgrades on my RAM and graphics card so that at least can play the newer games. Quite sian, cos the game min specs mention that i can play with 512MB RAM and the graphic card availible.
This is so helpful, hey bro, i really appreciate that.
I am going down tomorrow with a friend here from clubsnap. Hate the crowd on weekends though, and have to lug the heavy CPU around. :thumbsd:ah...ok maybe u might want to try this:
go to control panel --> system --> advanced --> under performance, click on settings --> advanced --> under virtual memory, click change --> click on the drive that has the most empty harddisk space --> custom size --> initial size: 500mb, maximum size 1000mb --> set --> ok then done.
u try relauch ur game afterwards see if now can or not.
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