Help upgrading my graphics card.

[SmorlFox]

Hello people,

I would really appreciate some advice. My 256mb Nvidia 8500gt graphics card has just recently packed up on me so I am now looking to replace it. I was gonna just do a like for like as a used replacement would only cost around £25.

This got me considering spending a little bit more cash and perhaps installing a better one and also add another 1gb of memory since when I opened up the machine, I realised I have a memory slot spare. (This would take me up to 3gb)

Now its been a while but if I remember correctly my choice of gfx card is limited to my power supply, which is 245w (I really don't want to upgrade this component if i can help it)

So here's my question, what would be a better graphics card that is still compatible with my setup? I have had a look but it really is a minefield out there and would dearly appreciate some advice.

Oops, nearly forgot, the machine I have is an Acer Aspire T180, the AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800+



Thank you very much.

 

[andrewcarr]

You can get a 6670 or a 7750 if you want to spend that much. Of those the 7750 is better but you'll want to get the GDDR5 version of both not the DDR3 version.

Even those could be bottlenecked by the CPU a bit. Do you know what speed your current memory is?
http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/desktop/0000/Acer/AspireT180/AspireT180sp2.shtml
Here is some though
533- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145525
667- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231106
800- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231170

Some other card options that'll work but aren't as powerful are the Nvidia GT 430 & 440, GT 630 &640 and AMD 6570.

Here is a list of the cards in order of worst to best.
GT430<GT440=GT630<HD6570<HD6670<GT640<HD7750
All of those are the GDDR5 version if they have a GDDR5 version.

 

[SmorlFox]

You can get a 6670 or a 7750 if you want to spend that much. Of those the 7750 is better but you'll want to get the GDDR5 version of both not the DDR3 version.

Even those could be bottlenecked by the CPU a bit. Do you know what speed your current memory is?
http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/desktop/0000/Acer/AspireT180/AspireT180sp2.shtml
Here is some though
533- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145525
667- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231106
800- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231170

Some other card options that'll work but aren't as powerful are the Nvidia GT 430 & 440, GT 630 &640 and AMD 6570.

Here is a list of the cards in order of worst to best.
GT430<GT440=GT630<HD6570<HD6670<GT640<HD7750
All of those are the GDDR5 version if they have a GDDR5 version.

Thank you so much for the information, plenty for me to think about there. I would imagine my memory is the slowest type but I'll check it, may be worth buying some 800. Thank you very much once again!

 

[andrewcarr]

You're welcome, should help you make an informed decision. If you want to uplug the PC and open the side panel (after grounding yourself on the case) it should say what it is on the side of the memory.