Upgrading a graphis card

The Chad

The Chad

New Member
Hey:)

Currently I have a Nvidia GeForce 7300 GS (512mb)

I want to a new one to play more sophisticated games and I'm not sure what I'm doing.. So can you please help me by answering these questions or giving some advice?

1. To upgrade a graphics card, is it as simple as taking the old one out and slotting the new one in?
2. Which one should I go for?
3. How much would it be to do a upgrade?
4. Can you upgrade the memory on the graphics card? And how?
5. Downloading updates/Drivers??

Also, I'd like to play the game GTA IV but the requirements for the graphics are either:
256 MB Nvidia 7900
256 MB ATI X1900
512 MB Nvidia 8600
512 MB ATI 3870

Would my current graphics card run it?

Thanks for all your help:)
 
1. It is about as simple as un-screwing and un-plugging the power cord and pulling it out. Takes like 2 minutes.

2. It depends on budget really. You always want to get the best one you can afford. What would be your budget for this upgrade?

3. Refer to #2 above;)

4. You CAN NOT upgrade the memory on the actual graphics card.

5. Downloading and updating drivers is really simple...ATI and Nvidia have them all on their website. Just select the graphics card you have...operating system and that's it. It will show you the latest driver. Click on it, it will download. Once complete...just run the file, that's it:D

GTA IV is a very demanding game on the processor and graphics card. I will tell you that the Nvidia 7300 GS will not run that game. I would not even try.

What we really need to know are a coupler things:

1. Total budget you can spend

2. Complete system information (make and model if pre-built, all system specifications if it is custom or personally built, processor make and model)

Give us this information and we will help you through the process of an upgrade;)

Newest Nvidia Driver for your current card is here. Just fill in the drop down menus and hit search. 185.85 is the newest drivers they have out.

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
 
Hey wow thanks that was a really helpful post! :D

Uhm for the budget I haven't decided on anything yet.. And I don't know the price ranges of these things so just give the best you can get, but still reasonable. I'll try find out a price range though.

The full system specs:

Computer Type ACPI Multiprocessor PC
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition
OS Service Pack Service Pack 3
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)


Motherboard
CPU Type DualCore Intel Pentium D 950, 3400 MHz (17 x 200)
Motherboard Name
Motherboard Chipset Intel Lakeport i945P
System Memory 3072 MB (DDR2 SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award Medallion (02/07/06)

Display
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS (512 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA G72
Monitor Plug and Play Monitor [NoDB] (106329533189)

Multimedia
Audio Adapter Intel 82801GB ICH7 - High Definition Audio Controller [A-1]

Storage
Disk Drive ST3250823AS (250 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA)
Optical Drive HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GWA-4166B
Optical Drive PHILIPS DROM6216

Partitions
C: (NTFS) 30710 MB (6926 MB free)
D: (NTFS) 207746 MB (16819 MB free)
Total Size 232.9 GB (23.2 GB free)


Problems & Suggestions
Problem Disk free space is only 8% on drive D:.

The RAM I have two 1Gb and two 512Mb, So in total about 3Gb. Is that fine?
Hope I didnt leave anything out?

Thanks for all the help, it's really useful.
 
I would only recommend playing GTA IV on a quad core processor or a overclocked dual-core, and to be honest to be able to play GTA IV happily youd probably want at least a 9800GT AT LEAST. otherwise the framerate would drive you to homicide :)
 
Agreed on the GTA IV, I played it on a friends computer and saw how demanding it is. But do you really think a dual core processor running at 3.4Ghz (Not overclocked) won't manage?

Haha I know the feeling of slow frame rates.. Gaming with that just ruins it.

Can you give me some names of good graphic card upgrades? I hear the 9800 GT and also the GTS 250 are quite good. Are there any other ones and which ones do you recommend? Don't worry about a budget :)
 
Just a quick bump. Oh and by the way, the Nvidia 7300 GT I'm using now, on full-load its getting up to 120 degrees..
 
What is your max budget?

Im not sure where you would shop online though for South Africa...i dont think Newegg ship there?

I would reccomend nothing less than a 8800GT,I have one and although it flys through everything else with quite good framerates...gta iv realy does suck up some power but its been poorly optimised for pc i think and thats why,But non the less it plays GTA IV fine on 1680 x1050 with medium settings and some high.

You could search Ebay for a second hand one for fairly cheap now :)
 
Max budget I would say $150?

I've been searching and browsing on the internet and found three graphics cards that I'm interested in, all Nvidia's. The 8800 GT, The GTS 250 and possibly the 9600 GT. Which one would be best to play games like all the GTA's, the latest need for speeds, Red Alert etc? I need a good, fairly cheap priced one.

And will it with on with my motherboard? Its an OEM Mexico Viiv 2. Thanks for all your help guys.. wow.
 
ScOuT said:
4. You CAN NOT upgrade the memory on the actual graphics card.
Click to expand...

Imagine if you could though....imagine!




For $150 you could shoot for a GTX 260 192 core which would run the game very well.

The only issue sadly is your PSU would have to be 550w+ to run it.
 
Well I actually need to upgrade the PSU because I need another fan in there. Hey can you help me out here, my current PSU is a 250W right, would it be a problem if a put say a 450W in? And is it hard to upgrade a PSU?

Would the GTX 260 fit into my motherboard by the way?
 
Well, you're running a PCI-E card right now, which is the same slot interface as the new cards today, so basically as long as your case will allow the card to fit. A 450w PSU is the bare minimum I'd go for powering a decent card these days, 500w+ is what I would recommend. Although on the other hand, any card you get is pretty much going to be bottlenecked by your processor to begin with. You may have a dual-core, but its an old one, and while its clocked high, would be beaten by even a low end Core 2 Duo at much lower clocks. I would say, if you dont plan on building/buying a new computer any time soon, don't go for a more powerful card the the GTS250, it'll just be wasted. If you do plan on getting a new one sometime soon, get a larger power supply and go for the GTX260 core 216. You won't be disappointed.
 
Yeah thanks I agree. My processor may be old but it's still quite powerful for what I do.

If I upgrade my psu to something above 550W, will I be able to put in a newer processor? SOmething like a quad-core. Also, how will I be able to know if the GTS 250 will fit into my case?
 
What should I be getting between:

- Nvidia 9600 GT
- GTS 250
- GTX 275
- Nvidia 8800 GT / GTS

I will be upgrading my PSU to something in the ranges of 550-650W
 
The GTS 250 might be a good pick. The 9600GT actually performs a bit less than the 8800GT, and that would probably be the minimum that you want to go. Considering your budget, I wouldn't go with the GTX 275. On the NVidia side, I would go with the GTS 250. Have you considered ATi cards? The HD 4850 and 4870 are coming down in price.
 
Are really have no knowledge when it comes to ATi cards. I hear they're excellent and all but unlike the Nvidia range, where it goes 7 series, 8 series and 9 series the ATi cards are just numbers to me:p What would the ATi equivalent of a GTS 250 be?

And would the GTS 250 run games like GTA IV, Need for Speed undercover, Fallout 3, Red Alert3 etc with the graphics set on moderate + a good frame rate?
 
The ATi equivalent to the GTS 250 would be the HD 4850.

Are you planning on maxing those games? The GTS 250 would have no problem running Fallout 3 or GTA 4, but I'm not sure if it would max it. If you're looking for a card that lasts a little longer I would look into the GTX 260 Core 216 or the 4870.
 
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