Graphics Cards

[wasy]

My son is asking for a graphics card for the computer for Xmas and I don't have a clue about them. He plays games on the computer and claims they are slow because we need to upgrade the graphics card. The computer is a brand new HP.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[AVB]

ATI brand w/ 256 meg of memory. There are various models to fit your budget.

 

[moki]

My son is asking for a graphics card for the computer for Xmas and I don't have a clue about them. He plays games on the computer and claims they are slow because we need to upgrade the graphics card. The computer is a brand new HP.

Any help would be appreciated.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1945665,00.asp

...has a nice summary at different performance/pricepoints.

 

[Lemon]

What parts does the HP contain? That information would help a lot, plus how much are you ready to spend on the card? You could buy a very fast graphics card now and it would hold its own for a longer time, or buy something on par with the rest of the computer and not spend as much money. Like I said, some more info would help a lot!

Tom's Hardware Guide has a similar article as moki linked, check it out:

The Best Gaming Video Cards for the money October 2006

 

[BlindedByScience]

Be aware there are two kinds of slots to install graphics cards in. "PCI-E" is the current standard and while you'd like to think that's all that's left in the market, I had a buddy that made a recent (albeit budget) purchase and actually ended up with the old standard, "AGP".

The chances are remote that you'd have the old standard to deal with, but it's worth a check; it's easy to do. If you get the model of the computer from him, you can look on the HP web site and make sure what type of slot the motherboard has for the video card.

Worst case, most vendors are very understanding if you purchase the "wrong" card and will usually offer to exchange it without much hassle.

Good Luck - B.B.S.

 

[Mark Twain]

Updating your PC to keep up with todays games is annoying and expensive as hell.

Your kids computer might need a new graphics card or
1). A faster cpu (3000 +)
2.) More RAM (512mb-1024mb+)
3.) More free hard drive space (A few games ask for 11gigs+)

Or all of the above. Find out what your kids hardware specs are on his pc vs the requirements listed on the games he plays to give you a good idea of what he needs.

 

[Swissy]

Another bit of info overlooked is, what games does he play? Solitaire ( ) takes a whole lot less than Battlefield2. There is even a fairly big difference in what is needed to play World of Warcraft Vs. Call of Duty2.

See if you can provide a list of games (he should have manuals around... or look at the games loaded on the computer if you can), as well as what his system is, both CPU speed and amount of RAM. And as BBS mentioned, the type of card plugin will be good to know as well. Maybe if you posted the HP model number... specs can be looked up online.

All that being said, I've been a fan of the Nvidia Geforce cards for a long time... you want at least 256mb video card memory, and the higher the model number, usually the better that card. I got a GF7950GTX and I'll tell you what, the thing SCREAMS. But, at $350 it damn well better...

 

[BlindedByScience]

....Maybe if you posted the HP model number... specs can be looked up online.

This is a good point; a fancy new video card may not be the best investment in performance if the system has, say 256MB of RAM.

Regards - B.B.S.

 

[wasy]

Looks as though I have the following,
AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core Processor 3800 + 1GHZ
960MB RAM
177GB Hard Drive
I think it has a Nvidia nForce graphics card currently

 

[Wurm]

What graphic slot? AGP or PCI-E?

The two Nvidia cards below are the top of the heap ATM... expensive but good

AGP go with the 7800GS - DX 9.0c card

PCI-E 8800GTX - DX 10 card

Stay away from ATI at the moment, AMD bought them and no one knows how its going to turn out yet.

Here is a review of the 8800GTX

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html...W50aHVzaWFzdA==

And if you dont want to spend that much... since the 8800 came out the prices on the 7900GTX and 7950GTX have dropped quite a bit.

 

[KeyserSoze]

Nice setup. More than likely you can put an 8x agp card but I would double check in case your limited to 4x. And I agree with Wurm on staying away from ati's. I've had numerous problems with drivers on ati cards. Can't go wrong with nvidia. Newegg.com is a great place to get one as well. I get most of my hardware from them. Great service, quick shipping and very competive prices. Reviews are very helpful as well. Hope that helps Wasy. Let me know if you need any help.

 

[wasy]

As far as I can tell this looks to be the best deal, any thoughts?

7900

 

[KeyserSoze]

looks good Wasy. I would just make sure your motherboard supports PCI Express x16. Core and ram speed looks good and supports both dvi and vga monitors so.

 

[Wurm]

As far as I can tell this looks to be the best deal, any thoughts?

7900

Bro its a great card (I have the 7900GTX), but until we know which slot you have, we can't help you.

Please post the model number so I can check if you have a AGP or an PCI-E.

If you order that card and you have a AGP its not going to fit.

 

[wasy]

As far as I can tell this looks to be the best deal, any thoughts?

7900

Bro its a great card (I have the 7900GTX), but until we know which slot you have, we can't help you.

Please post the model number so I can check if you have a AGP or an PCI-E.

If you order that card and you have a AGP its not going to fit.

I'm at work but it is definately an HP Pavilion A1600 series, I believe all 1600 series have the PCI-E.

 

[Lemon]

I have an ASUS GF7900 GT Top. It's a nice card, and I think a 7900 GT is still a good card for the price. I wouldn't shut out the Radeon X1900 XT either. The 8800 GTX might be a bit overkill ???

 

[Wurm]

I have an ASUS GF7900 GT Top. It's a nice card, and I think a 7900 GT is still a good card for the price. I wouldn't shut out the Radeon X1900 XT either. The 8800 GTX might be a bit overkill ???

All I know is I want one! :love:

And Wasy I just looked at the HP website. It has onboard graphics and only lists 3 normal PCI slots.

This either means it has NO place to put a graphic card or a PCI-E or AGP slot.

Can you open it up and take a picture of the motherboard? That will settle the discussion and we will know which card to recommend.

Shawn

 

[wasy]

I have an ASUS GF7900 GT Top. It's a nice card, and I think a 7900 GT is still a good card for the price. I wouldn't shut out the Radeon X1900 XT either. The 8800 GTX might be a bit overkill ???

All I know is I want one! :love:

And Wasy I just looked at the HP website. It has onboard graphics and only lists 3 normal PCI slots.

This either means it has NO place to put a graphic card or a PCI-E or AGP slot.

Can you open it up and take a picture of the motherboard? That will settle the discussion and we will know which card to recommend.

Shawn

Shawn,

I'll post a picture tonight, thanks for the help.

 

[Lemon]

I have an ASUS GF7900 GT Top. It's a nice card, and I think a 7900 GT is still a good card for the price. I wouldn't shut out the Radeon X1900 XT either. The 8800 GTX might be a bit overkill ???

All I know is I want one! :love:

And Wasy I just looked at the HP website. It has onboard graphics and only lists 3 normal PCI slots.

This either means it has NO place to put a graphic card or a PCI-E or AGP slot.

Can you open it up and take a picture of the motherboard? That will settle the discussion and we will know which card to recommend.

Shawn

A picture would be the best way. And yeah, who wouldn't want a 8800 GTX? It wipes the floor with other cards, and is only slower in some tests vs. 7900 GTX in SLI. I've never bought the best card around, usually something like the 7900 GT, which was a great card for the price when I bought it.

When googling around a bit, I found this page: HP Pavilion Media Center A1600n. According to the system specs there, it says there's one PCI-E 16x slot on the motherboard. But still, I don't know how much HP modifies these desktop computers, so I can't be sure. But if this is the system, then buying a high-end card would probably not be a great idea, becase the rest of your system might create a bottleneck very soon. The biggest issue being the 1 gig of 533 MHz DDRII RAM, which is too little and too slow to last very long into the future. For example when I used to play Battlefield 2 (nowadays BF 2142, great game), it would take up about 800 Mb of RAM for itself. Add all the Windows Services in the background and you have choppy gameplay. Now, I don't want to sound harsh, especially when I'm not sure what your system holds, but when games will really use the power of the high-end cards, they will most likely need faster components all around.


P.S. That integrated NVIDIA graphics controller is not much of a gaming card Your son is right about the bottleneck right now.

 

[Wurm]

I have an ASUS GF7900 GT Top. It's a nice card, and I think a 7900 GT is still a good card for the price. I wouldn't shut out the Radeon X1900 XT either. The 8800 GTX might be a bit overkill ???

All I know is I want one! :love:

And Wasy I just looked at the HP website. It has onboard graphics and only lists 3 normal PCI slots.

This either means it has NO place to put a graphic card or a PCI-E or AGP slot.

Can you open it up and take a picture of the motherboard? That will settle the discussion and we will know which card to recommend.

Shawn

A picture would be the best way. And yeah, who wouldn't want a 8800 GTX? It wipes the floor with other cards, and is only slower in some tests vs. 7900 GTX in SLI. I've never bought the best card around, usually something like the 7900 GT, which was a great card for the price when I bought it.

When googling around a bit, I found this page: HP Pavilion Media Center A1600n. According to the system specs there, it says there's one PCI-E 16x slot on the motherboard. But still, I don't know how much HP modifies these desktop computers, so I can't be sure. But if this is the system, then buying a high-end card would probably not be a great idea, becase the rest of your system might create a bottleneck very soon. The biggest issue being the 1 gig of 533 MHz DDRII RAM, which is too little and too slow to last very long into the future. For example when I used to play Battlefield 2 (nowadays BF 2142, great game), it would take up about 800 Mb of RAM for itself. Add all the Windows Services in the background and you have choppy gameplay. Now, I don't want to sound harsh, especially when I'm not sure what your system holds, but when games will really use the power of the high-end cards, they will most likely need faster components all around.


P.S. That integrated NVIDIA graphics controller is not much of a gaming card Your son is right about the bottleneck right now.

Yeah 2 gigs of ram is normal in gamer's rigs now days.