Replacing my Geforce 9500GT

[jampolulala]

Hi I'm planning to upgrade from my NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT, im a casual gamer, just want a good upgrade from my 9500 GT video card, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, im not into the high end cards which costs $500 or more. my budget is anywhere less thank $200. I also prefer small sized video card since my tower is kinda small. And also my pc is not that good, here are my specs:

Processor: Intel Core Duo processor E5200
2.53GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB, EM64T, Execute Disable Bit
MOBO: BostonL-GL6
RAM: 2GB DDR2 800Mhz
PCI One (One available)
PCI Express x16 One (One available)
PCI Express x1 Two (One available)
PSU: 300
Resolution: 1600x900

I prefer Nvidia Geforce card and I dont plan on investing on upgrading my ram or my psu or anything else, just need to have an upgrade from my current GPU. Thank you in advance!

 

[alvine]

i would suggest getting amd 7750, nvidia currently doesnt have new low power graphics cards unless you want to buy 1 year old technology

 

[UAhmed]

for an hd 7750 u'll need a 400w psu. It clearly says on amd website. I think u must upgrade ur psu. U didn't tell ur psu is of which brand

 

[willard]

Looks like a boutique computer. That PSU might be a problem. So long as the video card you upgrade to doesn't draw more power than the 9500GT, you're fine. I definitely wouldn't try anything more power hungry, though.

 

[alvine]

it doesnt require additional pcie 6 pins so it will work my friend has one in his 350w box 😛

 

[dudewitbow]

for an hd 7750 u'll need a 400w psu. It clearly says on amd website. I think u must upgrade ur psu. U didn't tell ur psu is of which brand

do not use the website for accurate psu requirements. they only highly rate the psu requirement so that there would be no way the card can be screwed up. it is possible to run a 7750 on a 250w, assuming the 250w is of at least decent quality


basically OP, you have 2 choices:

stick with 7750 because its the strongest choice without a 6 pin power cord.
dedicate ~60ish dollars on a good psu, and using the rest of the budget on a gpu.

 

[UAhmed]

do not use the website for accurate psu requirements. they only highly rate the psu requirement so that there would be no way the card can be screwed up. it is possible to run a 7750 on a 250w, assuming the 250w is of at least decent quality


basically OP, you have 2 choices:

stick with 7750 because its the strongest choice without a 6 pin power cord.
dedicate ~60ish dollars on a good psu, and using the rest of the budget on a gpu.

so how do we know what is the exact psu requirements???

 

[willard]

so how do we know what is the exact psu requirements???

Testing. I've seen detailed figures on power draw from both Tom's and AnandTech. Others probably do it too.

You can also infer a lot from whether or not the card has external connectors. If it doesn't have any, it has to get all its power through the slot. The slot provides at most 75W for PCIe 1.0/1.1, and 2.0/2.1/3.0 provide 150W. So, that gives you a firm upper bound on some cards.

 

[rdb853]

i've used a 7750 on several 300w power supplies and they ran fine. if you want to try it go ahead, but it works fine for me.

 

[jampolulala]

thanks! question about the HD 7750 according to the site it requires PCI Express 3.0 x16 bus interface, I only have PCI Express x16 bus interface, will this still work?

 

[dudewitbow]

thanks! question about the HD 7750 according to the site it requires PCI Express 3.0 x16 bus interface, I only have PCI Express x16 bus interface, will this still work?

all pci slots are backwards compatible. so the gpu will force itself onto a pci express 1.0 x16 level

 

[jampolulala]

by the way this is exactly my pc:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01683917&lang=en&cc=us&taskId=115&contentType=SupportFAQ&prodSeriesId=3884665&prodTypeId=12454

regarding the PSU brand, it does not indicate there so i have no idea 🙁

Planning to get the HD 7750 hopefully it works out. thank yall!

 

[dudewitbow]

by the way this is exactly my pc:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01683917&lang=en&cc=us&taskId=115&contentType=SupportFAQ&prodSeriesId=3884665&prodTypeId=12454

regarding the PSU brand, it does not indicate there so i have no idea 🙁

Planning to get the HD 7750 hopefully it works out. thank yall!

only way to be sure is pop open your case, and take a picture of the rail's amperage sticker

 

[quilciri]

You're good to go. The 7750 peaks at 43w, which is less than the 9500gt uses.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/HD_7750/24.html

Hell, the difference between the 9500's idle and peak usage is more than the total power the 7750 uses.

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/NVIDIA-GeForce-9500-GT-Review-Budget-Gaming-Redux/Power-Consumption-and-Concl

 

[jampolulala]

only way to be sure is pop open your case, and take a picture of the rail's amperage sticker

sorry buy I have no idea what a rail's amperage sticker is 🙁 but here's a picture of my Motherboard!
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01701251

 

[jampolulala]

as a cheaper alternative, will a nvidia geforce GT440 have a noticeable upgrade from the 9500 GT?

 

[quilciri]

It'll be about 50% faster than your 9500gt. The 440 is about equivalent to the 256mb 8800gt.

The 7750 is more than twice as fast as your current card, however.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

 

[willard]

I'd go with the 7750. It's not powerful enough to be bottlenecked (maybe a tiny, tiny bit), and it doesn't use enough power to be at risk of being too much for your PSU.

Looks like a good buy to me.

 

[randomkid]

so how do we know what is the exact psu requirements???

The exact can only be done thru actual measurement. But if you just want an estimate, here is a useful tool:
http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

 

[jampolulala]

saw this available on my local store, should I get this now?

http://www.powercolor.com/Global/products_features.asp?id=393#Specification

 

[willard]

Go for it!

 

[randomkid]

saw this available on my local store, should I get this now?

http://www.powercolor.com/Global/products_features.asp?id=393#Specification

Sure. The fact that it does not require a PCIe connector make it a safe bet.

 

[Adsuki]

New Generation - HD 7750

Old Generation - GTX 550 Ti, HD 6750, GT 540

And that's what your choice is but you might have to get 400-500W though. A HD 6670 works nice with a 300W. But your choice man, good luck. And I would go with the new generation, should last you for a couple of years or more if your a casual gamer. Good luck. =)

 

[jampolulala]

saw this on another store cheaper by 10 bucks haha should i get this instead?

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1159&lid=1&pid=1454&leg=0

or just stick with this?

http://www.powercolor.com/Global/products_features.asp?id=393#Specification

 

[randomkid]

I think they come out the same even in terms of accessories. So I guess the cheaper Sapphire wins.

But maybe you want to consider which suits your motherboard & case aesthetically. For example, I do have a case with red paint inside so in this case, I will get the red powercolor. But that is me.