Help me choose a suitable video card for gaming

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Oct 19, 2014
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Im lookin to upgrade my video card since the one i have intel R Q965/Q963 express family chipset is bogus AF. It features shaders less than 2.0, no T&L n a vram 64mb.
Im runnin windows 7, 64bit, core2duo 2.13ghz, 4gb Ram, on a dell optiplex745 full tower. What would be the most suitable/ compatible video card for this infrastructure/environment. PS. For Runnin heavy games
 
Solution
You could also likely get by with this PSU as well, and shave a little more off the price.:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB FTW ACX Video Card ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($28.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $138.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-24 01:37 EDT-0400



Or, with the RAM included:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (1 x 2GB) DDR2-533 Memory ($38.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB FTW ACX...
I dont knw much abou price range...i just wanna play games like call of duty modern warfare. So what is the cheapest video card that would be COMPATIBLE with my pc
Dell optiplex 745 full tower
Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit
RAM 4GB Ram (i can upgrade it to 8GB)
Processor : core 2 duo 2.13ghz
Video card: Intel R Q965/963 express family chipset, 64 vram. Shader 2.0
 
What is the exact model number of your unit? There are numerous editions of the OptiPlex 745 tower, i.e. 745 DT etc., so it makes a difference as some models won't support a full size card. It would also help to know the model of the motherboard, the exact same model of tower may have more than one possible motherboard. The model number for the motherboard is likely to be printed on the motherboard itself or may be indicated in the main window of the BIOS.
 


THAT, is not an answer. If you want help you need to reply with the relevant information and I fully explained why. Having a x16 slot, and saying "it's a tower", do not help us determine what will or will not fit and work in your rig.
 


sorry guys for delay, i just didn know how to look for this info, i clicked on f2 during boot to access system set up. i hope this info helps out. Kindly help a sister out 😉

SYSTEM INFO
SYSTEM: OPTIPLEX 745
BIOS VERSION: 2.3.1
SERVICE TAG 8MTNJD1

MEMORY
INSTALLED: 4GB
MEMORY SPEED: 533mHZ
MEMORY CHANNEL MODE: SINGLE
MEMORY TECHNOLOGY: DDR2 SDRAM

MEMORYSLOT SIZE ECC RANK TYPE ORGANISATION
DIMM 1 2GB NO 2 UNBUFFERED X8
DIMM 3 1GB NO 2 UNBUFFERED X8
DIMM 2 1GB NO 2 UNBUFFERED X8
DIMM 4 EMPTY

PCI INFO

SLOT ID

SLOT 1 NOT POPULATED
SLOT 2 NOT POPULATED
SLOT 3 NOT POPULATED
SLOT 4 NOT POPULATED

PROCESSOR TYPE
INTEL R CORE TM 2CPU 6400 @2.13GHZ
CLOCK SPEED 2.13GHZ
PBUS SPEED 1066MHZ
PL2CACHE 2MB
PROCESSOR ID 000006F2
MULTIPLE CORE CAPABLE
64 BIT (INTEL EM64T)

ADAPTER INFO
CHIP TYPE: INTEL(R) GMA 3000
DAC TYPE: INTERNAL
ADAPTER STRING: INTEL (R) Q965/Q963 EXPRESS CHIPSET FAMILY
TOTAL AVAILABLE GRAPHICS MEMORY: 256MB
DEDICATED VIDEO MEMORY 0MB
SYSTEM VIDEO MEMORY 64MB
SHARED SYSTEM MEMORY 192MB
 


No sir, i think its a PCI only 🙁
check this out,
PCI INFO

SLOT ID

SLOT 1 NOT POPULATED
SLOT 2 NOT POPULATED
SLOT 3 NOT POPULATED
SLOT 4 NOT POPULATED
 


Sir, is there a way i can check for the motherboard model without opening the cpu?
 


Opening the CPU will not tell you anything and will be very difficult to do anyway as the CPU is a separate component that fits onto the motherboard.
 
That's a pretty weak older dual core with no hyper threading. You're not going to be able to go very high on GPU performance with that CPU or it's going to severely bottleneck. It looks like you can install a regular full height GPU card but you will want to measure the distance from the where the card meets the back panel of the case to the hard drive cage to verify clearance as some cards may be too long.

For the most part this shouldn't be an issue for you, as you can't utilize a very high end card that's likely to be that long, but some lower tiered cards can be long too. I think it's likely anything beyond 8"-9" will be too long for your case but verify the measurement yourself.

Most likely the best options for your configuration that can be run without losing the full potential of the card are going to be either a GTX 750 TI, GTX 760, R9 270X or HD 7950. Your system might even struggle with three of those four, the 750 TI should certainly be fine, since you've only got 4GB of RAM. You can add another 4GB of RAM to your system to add a little gas to the tank.

More important however is you power supply. If you still have the OE power supply that came with the unit, which is likely, it's not going to be sufficient for any of those cards. Plus it likely won't have the necessary PCI power cable needed to power an aftermarket card.

You need a Tier 3 or higher (Preferably Tier 2B or higher) PSU between 450-500w. This would be a good configuration for your unit but don't expect to be able to play recent titles at high or ultra settings. You're never going to be able to do that with your system since your card selection is so limited by your CPU. It should play most titles at medium settings though, with a few very demanding titles perhaps needing to go a notch lower.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec 450W ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $164.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-22 18:02 EDT-0400



And if you wanted to bump the RAM you would need to either remove the two 1GB modules you have installed and install three new 2GB modules (Your MB only supports modules up to 2GB in size.) or you can leave it and install another 2GB module for a total of 6GB of RAM, which is probably the better option financially.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (1 x 2GB) DDR2-533 Memory ($38.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec 450W ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $202.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-22 18:07 EDT-0400



 
That's very good info.I will definately check out the gtx 750 ti, seems like a better option coz of the small power consumption. The prices are steep thou. Thanks. I will post later on development
 
Actually the prices have dropped considerably over the past few months. That card is much more powerful and it's capabilities far exceed what you are currently using. There's no other way I know of to get this much improvement in computing for 200 bucks without upgrading core components like the motherboard and cpu. And then you'd still need a new PSU and GPU card. It would be well worth the investment and keep your system relevant for your a while longer.
 
You could also likely get by with this PSU as well, and shave a little more off the price.:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB FTW ACX Video Card ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($28.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $138.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-24 01:37 EDT-0400



Or, with the RAM included:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (1 x 2GB) DDR2-533 Memory ($38.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB FTW ACX Video Card ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($28.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $176.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-24 01:39 EDT-0400
 
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