if your current grahics card has ddr2 memory is that the only type of graphics card you can install in your pc or can you put

[bobbywheel]

My Nvidia Ge Force 8400 GS graphics card packed in the other night, the screen all of a sudden went into lots of square pixel blocks. Anyway I've had that graphics card in my PC since new so quite a number of years now, and it has served me well. Now I would like to replace it with a new upgraded one if I can, My pc is an old Medion MD-7255 which serves me well, it has it's max 2gb of ram fitted, and it has a duel core 1.8 Intel processor. I don't play that many games on my pc, but I do a lot of video editing using various adobe programs & also rotoscoping using Mocha. My present card has ddr2 memory, so does this mean I can only install another graphics card with ddr2 memory or will ddr3 memory work in my old pc ? Also I have an original PCI-Express slot does this mean that the newer PCI-Express cards will not work in my machine ?

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

You don't have to buy a card with DDR2 memory as the DDR spec of a graphics card is totally independent from the DDR spec of your motherboard's RAM slots.

Also, the latest PCI-e cards (PCI-e 3.0) are backwards compatible with both PCI-e 2.0 & PCI-e 1.0 slots, but obviously a PCI-e 3.0 card won't perform at it's fullest potential when it's in a slower spec slot. It won't be an issue though unless you're into playing the latest games.

You also need to check the PSU wattage requirements for any new card you buy (card manufacturer's website has that info) to make sure your existing PSU's output wattage is sufficient.

 

[Redheadsrule13]

To support that, a card worth considering would be the GTX 750ti. It's new and should last a while, uses a tiny amount of power and is not too expensive at all.

 

[bobbywheel]

You don't have to buy a card with DDR2 memory as the DDR spec of a graphics card is totally independent from the DDR spec of your motherboard's RAM slots.

Also, the latest PCI-e cards (PCI-e 3.0) are backwards compatible with both PCI-e 2.0 & PCI-e 1.0 slots, but obviously a PCI-e 3.0 card won't perform at it's fullest potential when it's in a slower spec slot. It won't be an issue though unless you're into playing the latest games.

You also need to check the PSU wattage requirements for any new card you buy (card manufacturer's website has that info) to make sure your existing PSU's output wattage is sufficient.

 

[deadmaufive]

While you can install a new card with ddr5 memory, which is todays standard, I would highly recommend upgrading the entire PC. If you're editing with only 2GB of RAM I'm guessing it's either DDR or DDR2 RAM, it's got to be extremely slow. You'd be way better off just setting that one to the side for a web browser/word processor, and building/buying a new System with more RAM and better CPU/GPU.

Edit: You say you only have an original PCIe slot, I assume you aren't talking about legacy slot, but a pcie 1.0 slot... it's slow, and you aren't going to be able to fully utilize many of the new graphics cards.

 

[bobbywheel]

Hi Phillip

I purchased an Nvidia Palit Geforce 8400GS graphic card, which I was sure would be okay to run in my Medion PC desktop, after replacing my original Nvidia Geforce 8400gs card.

I installed the card okay and when I booted it up Windows found the new graphics card and proceeded to download the drivers for it. All went well and when it finished it required me to re-start the computer. It goes through the start up procedure but seems to lock during the windows flashing logo screen. Can you advise what I may be doing wrong, I thought may be my power unit was too low but it is 300w which the card specs says this is the min needed to run the card. I'm back using the internal graphics card just now to get me by, I hope you can help me get this card up and running.

Thanks.