What affects whether a graphics card will work with your PC?
11 replies, posted
So my friend's birthday is coming up soon, and he wants a new graphics card to be able to play the latest games at least on medium, but he's not sure what he needs to know before he chooses a card. I know you need to know what wattage your power supply provides and what connectors you have, and what slots your motherboard has (PCI-E or whatever) but what else do I need to check? Because I don't want to make him buy a new PSU and GPU but then find out it's not right for his system. I will find out his system specs soon but it's not a very new (couple years old, maybe more) PC, with an in-built graphics card, so would it be at all possible to play Orange Box games anyway, if the GPU was upgraded? (because he tried to play GMod, but the graphics card wasn't good enough to get a decent framerate even on low)
UPDATE:
He has a Dell Dimension 3000 so the specs are:
250W PSU
Intel® Pentium® 4 processor that runs at 2.8 GHz
1GB RAM
160GB HDD
"Intel 82865G Graphics Controller" (GPU)
He is looking to spend > £150 if he just needs a card and PSU
Now I did some research and it looks like his Mobo only has PCI (not PCI-E) so I think he might be better getting a new PC altogether, and updating everything in his system, but what would you reccomend? Also country is England so it's most likely going to be overclockers.co.uk
just post his current system, the country and budget and we'll find a card
[url]http://www.piriform.com/speccy[/url]
[QUOTE=reapaninja;20362841]just post his current system, the country and budget and we'll find a card[/QUOTE]
I'll update the thread later when I get a chance to talk to him
Updated OP with his specs
Damn it what the fuck, I thought the forum merged posts?
The PSU is not going to support really all that much in terms of graphics cards.
The thing is, the other specs are terrible.
I would suggest saving up for a new PC.
The Dell Dimension 3000 doesn't have a PCI-E or a AGP slot, you'll have to use a PCI graphics card, which wont be as powerful as a PCI-E or AGP graphics card.
EDIT: I also agree with Master, this PC isn't worth upgrading.
I thought so but a new PC is out of the question.
Unless you can find one for £150 or less that needs no upgrades at all :\
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131325&Tpk=pci%20video%20card[/url]
That should do. Though i'm just assuming.
Forget the whole idea. Save up for a whole new PC and deal with the Dimension 3000 in the mean time.
No, for £150 would be impossible.
He's just going to have to save up some money I'm afraid.
Ok, thanks for the input, I'll try and persuade him to be more patient
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