Upgrading PC Hardware

B

bouness

New Member
Hello,

I have a nice machine (HP Pavilion Elite m9500f Desktop PC) I bought I few years ago and it still working just fine. However, when I install some games I bought through steam I notice it runs pretty slow.

I am not a hardware geek, so I come here for help. I was looking at MSI AMD Radeon HD 7750 2GB it worth about $90 from amazon. I don't know if this will work/improve my PC performance playing games.

I just want to make run better for games.

Thanks guys in advance :)
 
A 7750 would give you quite a bit of an improvement. For $10 more than the 7750 you can get a new gtx 560 on ebay which is quite a bit more powerful, and for the price it's an amazing deal. You will also need a better psu with any video card upgrade. A cx500 should do the job for you.
 
Look at the 7770 or the 7850 instead. You'll need a new power supply. CX 500 should be alright.
 
SpringWater said:
A cx500 should do the job for you.
Click to expand...
I didn't wanna miss with the power supply so I went ahead and bought MSI ATI Radeon HD6450 1GB instead. A person told me that he has been running on Dell Optiplex 360 desktop that has a 235 watts power supply for over a year and half (1 year and 7 months to be exact) with no problem. I was told that my 350 Watts power supplly will handle it with no problem.

Since I reduce the cost, hopefully I did not reduce the quality too much.

Here is the full name of the devise: MSI ATI Radeon HD6450 1 GB DDR3 VGA/DVI/HDMI Low Profile PCI-Express Video Card R6450-MD1GD3/LP

Any idea about this video card. I have paid for it anyways, should be in the mail within 2 days or so. I just want to know what you guys think about it?

Thanks for the inputs :)
 
I'm really sorry to say, but the 6450 is probably one of the worst graphics cards in existence at the moment.

The 7750 is far better.
 
spirit said:
I'm really sorry to say, but the 6450 is probably one of the worst graphics cards in existence at the moment.
Click to expand...
Can you please give some specifics, I just thought that 1GB is better than 512MB I have, plus it cost only about $40.
Is it going to be better than the one comes with HP M9500F or no? Is it gonna run 3D games?
 
The 6450 is designed for web browsing and watching 1080p videos. You'll be lucky if you can run any modern games on it. If I were you I would return it if I can and get a 7750 with a cx500. Sure you'll end up spending $50 more but it'll pay off in the end cause you'll be able to play all games on medium.

Oh, and just cause a card has 1gb of memory doesn't mean it's good. It's the gpu which is the heart of the card that makes it good or bad. For example a 9800gt 512mb is much better than a 1gb 9600gso because it contains a way higher end gpu.

With that being said a 256mb x1950xt (which is an antique by now) would probably beat your card in dx9 performance because it is a higher end gpu.
 
Last edited:
bouness said:
Can you please give some specifics, I just thought that 1GB is better than 512MB I have, plus it cost only about $40.
Is it going to be better than the one comes with HP M9500F or no? Is it gonna run 3D games?
Click to expand...

It has 1GB of RAM, but it can probably barely utilize it. The GPU is so weak. It's not intended to be a gaming card by any means. It's so cheap for a reason.

Mid- to high-end cards from years ago which came with 512MB of RAM (I'm talking about 8800s and 3870s and the like) perform far better than the 6450 does. Simply because those 8800s and 3870s were designed for gaming and were high-end cards, whereas the 6450 is not. They were strong GPUs (at the time), the 6450 is not.

Some cards from the previous few generations came with 1GB of RAM. Let's take the Radeon 6870 for example. That card usually came with 1GB of RAM, the same amount as your 6450. But guess which one is faster? The 6870, because the 6870 GPU is much stronger than the 6450 GPU.

I presume your HP comes with onboard graphics, in which case, yeah it might be a bit better but probably not a lot. It's still a very weak and poor-performing card to say the least and not for gaming.

If you can, I'd take it back and get the 7750 instead. The 7750 isn't the most powerful beast out there, but it's better than the 6450 by a quite a fair shot. You may need to upgrade the power supply too. A Corsair CX 430 or a CX 500 would do fine. Try to get the M version if you can since they are modular power supplies and you only use the cables you need to reduce cable clutter inside your case.

Personally, I think a 7770, a 7790 or a 7850 and a new power supply would be a good buy, but I don't know if it will fit into your budget or not.
 
SpringWater said:
Oh, and just cause a card has 1gb of memory doesn't mean it's good. It's the gpu which is the heart of the card that makes it good or bad. For example a 9800gt 512mb is much better than a 1gb 9600gso because it contains a way higher end gpu.
Click to expand...

Can you please tell me what is gpu on "XFX GeForce 8800GT 512M" and if it is better than "MSI ATI Radeon HD6450 1GB DDR3".

Thanks to all of you guys for your explanations.
 
8800gt not capable of gaming? Please... yes it is old and plays in dx10 only but it's still a strong card. I have a friend who sold his 6950 and had to temporarily use his 8800gt. He was playing games like the newest tomb raider maxed out. The only downside is no dx 11 so no crysis 3 etc... but other than that it stillvplays all dx10 capable games on high/medium at 1080p.
 
That's a load of bull. I had a GTX 260 core 216 and that destroys the 8800 GT and it could barely play battlefield 3 with no aa and low settings at decent frames, AND it was at 1366 x 768 which is much lower than 1080. I have doubts the 8800 GT would even run Tomb Raider with a decent FPS, or really any modern game for that matter especially at medium or high settings.

Op, why can't you afford a decent graphics card but you can afford a gaming PC?
 
bouness said:
Can you please tell me what is gpu on "XFX GeForce 8800GT 512M" and if it is better than "MSI ATI Radeon HD6450 1GB DDR3".

Thanks to all of you guys for your explanations.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's faster than the 6450. Would I recommend you buy one? Well, maybe if were talking 5 years ago I would. ;)

It'd probably be alright for running newer games at low resolution and at low(ish) settings, and for older games from about the time it came out it should be alright, so I wouldn't say it's completely incapable. But I still really wouldn't recommend one for a gaming computer, not even as a second hand buy.

If you are going to upgrade your graphics card to anything decent, you'll need a new power supply too. You could buy a second hand card from the older generations, and for the most part you would be OK, but I still believe your money would be better spent on something new.

Look at the 7770, 7790 or the 7850. Those are my suggestions for a new card if you want to keep it 'cheap and cheerful'.

The 7770 beats the old 8800 GT 512MB in almost every situation, and the 7770 is a relatively mid-range card: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/521?vs=536

The 7850 completely storms over the old 8800 GT 512MB: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/521?vs=549

You would be much better off with a newer card.
 
I had a 9800GT before I upgraded to my HD 6950.
Paired with an AMD Athlon X2 6400+ 3.2GHz and 4GB DDR2 RAM it could play BF3 on medium settings 1680x1050. And I'm an FPS>Detail kinda guy, minimum FPS needs to be 50+.
The only difference between the 8800GT is the 65nm vs 55nm chips.
I've also had quite a few 5450s, a 6450 and 6570s (for HTPC or office PCs) and the 6450 can barely play World of Warcraft on low settings in 1280x1024.
So Bounes: 7750 > 8800GT > a rock > 6450
 
Jiniix said:
I had a 9800GT before I upgraded to my HD 6950.
Paired with an AMD Athlon X2 6400+ 3.2GHz and 4GB DDR2 RAM it could play BF3 on medium settings 1680x1050. And I'm an FPS>Detail kinda guy, minimum FPS needs to be 50+.
The only difference between the 8800GT is the 65nm vs 55nm chips.
I've also had quite a few 5450s, a 6450 and 6570s (for HTPC or office PCs) and the 6450 can barely play World of Warcraft on low settings in 1280x1024.
So Bounes: 7750 > 8800GT > a rock > 6450
Click to expand...

Good one with the rock :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top