Help chosing a graphics card.

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jodundee

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Oct 22, 2009
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Hi i have an hp pavilion model gx611aar-aba m8300f and a nvidia geforce 6150se nforce 430 and im looking to upgrade the graphics but not sure if i can due to graphic card being built in to motherboard altough i have 2 free pci slot, ps looking for best card under 200$.

Thank for the help.
 
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i think he's trying to figure out if you have a pci-e 16 slot on your board or just a pci slot. big difference in regards to what dedicated video card you can add. google image pci-e 16 slot. look at it and see what you have.
 
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and an update to your onboard gpu will be like putting a wing on your bicycle. utterly useless. your onboard nvidia 6150 has a hard time rendering your emoticons! forget any real gaming. add in card is only real solution.
 
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How much ram does system have, 2gig or 4? (have to wonder since its an HP with 32bit vista) If you've only got 2, a quick and easy upgrade would be adding another stick. Assuming you've got a single 2gig stick, upgrading to a good pair of DDR2 2gig could be done along with a quality video card for under $200.

Also, before I get into the video card, what is your PSU rated at? Your going to want at least a 450w for any new card requiring power (and nearly all do these days).

Back to the video card, depends on your preference ATI or NVIDIA. If your looking for something new, the 5770 is around $170 and gives you a good card with access to Direct X 11. Only problem is, by the time DX11 games come out your rig may not even be able to take advantage of the new DX11 settings/features. Will run on a 450w PSU (supposedly).

The 4890 is also a good choice, costs around 200 (more/less depending on brand). Its a really solid card, 256bit interface vs 128bit on the 5770. No DX11 though and it'll probably need a 500w power supply just to work.

You want NVIDIA? Wait until the 300 series of cards come out soon, you'll get major discounts on all of the 200 (current) series cards.
 
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Well it would not be wise to spend 200.00$ on a GPU since you will end-up bottlenecking your CPU. My suggestion would be this :

HIS H485FN512P Radeon HD 4850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161259&cm_re=4850-_-14-161-259-_-Product

or

MSI N250GTS-2D512-OCv2 GeForce GTS 250
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127423&cm_re=GTS_250-_-14-127-423-_-Product

Save whatever you have left for another motherboard in the new future. You can get one for as little as 60.00/70.00$ and you will be able to upgrade later on to faster CPU's =)



 
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A $200 dollar budget will be huge, considering what you are starting with.

You are currently used to onboard graphics (very weak) and I imagine any dedicated graphics card will give you a HUGE boost in performance. Spending 200 on a video card and PSU to power it might only give you the same benefit as spending $50-70 on a videocard that will run off your current power configuration.

Are you gaming? Encoding Video? If you are only using the computer for surfing and media (watching/listening to video/musuic) then all of this is very academic, and you could enjoy a better experience with a very small investment.

If you plan on playing games, then your resolution is also of concern, but your whole system will be holding back your GPU. That is not to say that your computer will not play games well, it can be a fun gaming machine for sure, but again, spending 200 may not be any better than spending 50.

Not a gamer? I would suggest:
ATI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102817&cm_re=ati_video_card-_-14-102-817-_-Product - 34.99

Nvidia
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127454&cm_re=210-_-14-127-454-_-Product - 44.99

Low power, low heat, will fulfill your needs without requiring any other upgrades like a Power supply or case ventilation.

Want to play some games with resolutions at or lower than 1650x1080?:

ATI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127440&cm_re=4670-_-14-127-440-_-Product - 39.99 after MIR and free shipping

Nvidia
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127456&cm_re=220_video_card-_-14-127-456-_-Product - 54.99 after MIR

They both use the motherboard to power to cards and would give respectable gaming performance without needing a new PSU.

Gaming on 1920x1080 or higher resolution, and want lots of sparkly settings? You will, in all likelihood need a new Power supply to run a card strong enough to give that to your. Luckily, they don't have to be expensive to be good. But, as you get into higher power Graphics cards, you also get into higher amounts of heat to exhaust from the case. If you go this route, prepare to invest in a couple $10 case fans to help in ventilation.

PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371006&cm_re=antec_PSU-_-17-371-006-_-Product - 59.99 and will power any video card you might be able to make use of in your current system.

ATI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127435&cm_re=4850-_-14-127-435-_-Product - 104.99 after MIR

Nvidia
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261050&cm_re=250_GTS-_-14-261-050-_-Product - 124.99
 
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Oh, well, I wrote that post while puttering around the apartment, obviously CAD prices will be different, but not so much in the near future as the exchange rate to USD directly effects our hardware pricing, and the CAD is almost on par with USD.

@Ovrclkr

I picked out the same PSU in my little essay there.
 
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As OvrClkr said, 200.00 will get you a decent card and PSU, 3gb ram is fine for your setup and 32bit vista.

You should decide whether or not to wait a month and half for the geforce 300 series to come out though, should be some serious price drops on all mid-high end cards depending upon how competitively NVIDIA prices their new cards vs ATI.
 
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I see 😉

Good job on that essay [:lectrocrew:5]

Im just trying to make the day go faster so I can get home from work and play some games 😀
 
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