Is my graphics card causing problems with my gaming experience?

[mcjleesmith]

I'm thinking about upgrading my graphics card, as i'm 90% sure it is what is causing my low fps in games,

I have an acer aspire, with specs as follows -

intel core i7 4770 @4.7Ghz

12gb RAM

Nvidia geforce GTX745


is it definitely my graphics card causing my low fps, and if so, how do i decide which graphics card to upgrade to? Could I buy any graphics card from Nvidia and it would work with my motherboard, or are there more specifics i need to look at?

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

First off, what kind of budget do you have? Unfortunately graphics card prices are sky high right now.

Also, what kind of power supply is in the computer? Just stock? If it's the performance power supply and you don't want to upgrade that, I would suggest a card like the GTX 1050ti. It's a 4gb card that should run medium/high settings on 1080p. Will run just over 200 right now, which is unfortunate. It should be about 140-150 under normal market conditions without memory shortages and the miners.

You might also look into the GTX 1060 3gb or 6hb, but those you are likely going to need to upgrade the power supply. If you are wanting to go to say 1440p or above you'd need to look at a GTX 1070 or higher.

Is your case a normal size or small form factor?

Either way, if you aren't wanting to upgrade the power supply, then the 1050ti is a good bang for buck card. I have one in my own system and it does well. I can run battlefield 1 for example on ultra reasonably smoothly with my ryzen 1600 CPU and only 8gb of ram. If on a tight budget, the GTX 1050 is decent, but only had 2gb of vram.

If you can give full system specs, including what power supply is in it now, if it's a mid tower for example or small form factor, what you are looking to spend, etc, we can help find something that is a decent fit for you.

 

[mcjleesmith]

As far as I know my case is a normal sized tower, and it runs a 300W power supply.

Since I opened it up it doesn't look like there's a great deal of room for a bigger graphics card, the one I have in there at the moment is very small - doesnt have a case on it.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

You think something like this would work?

https://m.newegg.com/products/N82E16814137056

If not, you could look at this one.

https://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-GeForce-Profile-Graphics-ZT-P10510E-10L/dp/B06XHZ29N5

Unfortunately both of those are a little overpriced with the mining craze.

Nvidia says a 1050ti should run on a 300 watt power supply. I forgot to check to see if they need a 6 pin power connector. Some do, some don't on the 1050ti. If you are looking for a less expensive card, you might check the RX 560 or GTX 1050.

Alternatively you could go upward and upgrade power supply and see if you can find a small GTX 1060 or 1070. But I imagine a 1050ti would be a decent upgrade. If you got a 1050ti and wanted to be sure on the power supply, something like this should be ok.

https://m.newegg.com/products/N82E16817139201

But theoretically your stock over should be fine.

 

[mcjleesmith]

Thanks so much for your help. I worked out i have about 17cm of space, which is a bit frustrating, but there are 1050ti's that will fit, so i;ll look into getting one of those.

Again thanks for your help.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

No problem. Just be sure to check to see if the card needs a 6 pin power connector. Some of the 1050ti cards don't require one at all, some will. Although Nvidia says the 1050 ti will run on 300 watts, it may not be a bad idea to drop a different PSU in there at some point to be safe.