Better GPU for ancient XP SP3 computer

[Miu]

Last year I asked about what GPU would be best for my system and I was told several times that the EVGA GT 630 card would work with my system, well I got it and it was completely incompatible with my motherboard.

Anyways I have a Dell E520
MOBO is OWG864
2.66Ghz Dual Core Processor, 3GB RAM Window XP SP3
Currently have a Radeon 6450

Anyone have any suggestions for a cheap GPU that would work?

 

[ajhockey3]

Whats your budget? and are you A team red or green kind of person? or doesnt matter

 

[Miu]

Budget doesn't really matter, I just would like to know what options there are out there. I just don't want a repeat of last year not being able to use that GT card.

 

[ajhockey3]

Whats the wattage of the PSU prebuilt's use sketchy PSU's that wont have nearly enough wattage for GPU's you might need to upgrade the PSU to upgrade the GPU. And when you say 2.66Ghz CPU is that a Pentium D or a Core 2 Duo? or AMD athlon? Just so we can help pick a card that won't be held back by the cpu

 

[Miu]

PSU is over 400 Watts it's not from the prebuilt, as I had to replace it.

And it's 2.66Ghz Core 2 Duo
I'm not sure on the make of it, but the CPU was made by Conroe.

 

[ajhockey3]

Intel made the CPU. Conroe is the code name of that generation of CPU. Basically its the Core 2 Duo era so Anything PCI E will work. What do you plan to do with the PC like what games are you trying to run? I just don't want to recomend something under powered or overpowered

 

[Miu]

Yes I was checking and it is Intel.

I would just like to play some older games like Skyrim and Fallout 3 and New Vegas. I can play them on my current setup, but only on medium to low.

Do you have any idea why that GT 630 rejected my MOBO? It was a PNY manufactured one BTW. When I went to install the drivers it went ERROR Conroe something.

 

[ajhockey3]

Yes I was checking and it is Intel.

I would just like to play some older games like Skyrim and Fallout 3 and New Vegas. I can play them on my current setup, but only on medium to low.

Do you have any idea why that GT 630 rejected my MOBO? It was a PNY manufactured one BTW. When I went to install the drivers it went ERROR Conroe something.

Do you have Windows XP? And did you download the XP Drivers? As most places assume your using 7+ and give you incorrect ones

 

[Miu]

Yes I do.
And I couldn't even download XP drivers for it because I couldn't even install anything. It just flat out totally rejected it.

 

[ajhockey3]

And something like this http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127763 Could rock your Skyrim and Fallout new vegas. If thats too pricey you could go for a r7 240 or if your on the nvidia side go with a 750(Non Ti)

 

[ajhockey3]

Also when you installed the GPU did you change the video connector to the card not the monitor? it also could have had insignificant power. Or a dead PCI e Slot or more likely dead card. I haven't had the best experiences with PNY cards over the years

 

[Miu]

I changed the connector to the GPU.

Are you sure those would work on my PC?

 

[ajhockey3]

In theory yes. You have a PCI E slot. However if your motherboard is rejecting cards I can't garenteed anything. Do you run the latest bios?

 

[Karadjgne]

Sometime around pcie 2.2, amd switched power delivery processes, so you end up with 3 types of amd cards. Pcie 1.0, pcie 1.1-2.2 and pcie 2.3+. Nvidia didn't do that. Their cards are compatible all the way back to pcie 1.1. Pcie 1.0 is special and specific. If you have a pcie 1.0 motherboard, only a pcie 1.0 gpu will work.

OP has an lga 775 mobo. Whether it's pcie 2.2 or 2.3 I cannot find anywhere online, so it's a crap shoot with Amd cards. Nvidia cards will work because it's at least pcie 1.1 or better. There must have either been a problem with the pny gt630 or with the psu. It should have been a good match for that psu. The cpu is capable of handling it easily.

Certain steps must be observed though, in bios, you must enable the graphics card as primary video (pcie not igpu) or when you plug the monitor into the pcie card you get nothing as video is still from the motherboard. You must also do a clean install of drivers, when you download from nvidia or from CD, do not choose express, choose instead custom and check the box for clean install. This deletes all the old drivers so there is no incompatibility.

Hope that helps.

 

[Miu]

So a GT 730 should work then?

 

[Karadjgne]

Absolutely. If you do indeed have a 400w + psu you could run pretty much any card gtx745 or below, gtx650 or below. There will be some cards like the gtx740 with GDDR5 that require an additional 6-pin pcie power connector, but for the most part those cards don't.

There is one word of caution. Not all 400w psu's are made the same. Some say they are 400w but in reality this is a bogus claim as they are incapable of that wattage. If the psu feels feather light, chances are it's a really cheap psu that's not going to output what it says it can. If the psu was kinda heavy, chances are it's a better built, better quality psu. So please be careful when choosing a gpu that's going to require 300w+ system, unless you happen to know exactly what psu you do have.