Updating my graphics card

Zac4084 · Postby **Zac4084** » Sun Apr 25, 2010 6:44 pm

300W is the max. Made in china. -.-

Postby **Franch88** » Sun Apr 25, 2010 7:13 pm

If you want to put an ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphic card you must change that very cheap PSU, 300 Watts of power are too few, the whole system in full load will require more, at least 450 Watts would be recommended. There are many quality PSU with a minimum of 650 Watts of power.
Also, is important that the other components of your system like the CPU and the RAM memory are kinda appropriate to work with that graphic card, to avoid possible games working limits becasue of them (I have no idea on how explain this possible thing).

reckless201 · Postby **reckless201** » Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:01 pm

I will help you Franch.

If you have a really powerful graphics card (like an HD 5870) it helps to have a powerful system. You can't buy Crysis and expect it to play well when you have a good graphics card but everything else would be horrible. Same goes if you get Windows 7 and have 256 MB of RAM. It wouldn't work, would it?

Is that what you are trying to say Franch?

HummersRock · Postby **HummersRock** » Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:07 pm

Yes, you want all of your components to be on the same level.

Postby **Franch88** » Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:57 pm

Yeah Reckless, the concept is that.

The most important component to play games without have big troubles is the graphic card, but also the rest of the system components are important to haven't for example lagging problems. The game Crisys needs a powerful system to be played in a very good way.
I don't remember which are the components of the Matt's system, but for them sure an ATI Radeon HD 5770 is the best and valid buy.

matt1314 · Postby **matt1314** » Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:59 pm

What would be a good new PSU? I mean, which would be recommendable and can be build in into my system? Does that mean, that my Core 2 Quad isn't enough for a 650W PSU? Is there any other graphics card, which is better than my current one, but doesn't require more than 300W PSU and which I use to can play some recent games?

I don't remember which are the components of the Matt's system, but for them sure an ATI Radeon HD 5770 is the best and valid buy.

These were my components, on the first page, first post:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2,33 GHz (HP Pavilion a6749de)
6144 MB RAM
1 TB HDD
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 (1 GB VRAM)

Postby **Franch88** » Sun Apr 25, 2010 11:10 pm

What would be a good new PSU? I mean, which would be recommendable and can be build in into my system?

In theory almost any PSU can be build into any case with any components, isn't a problem of sizes or other; remember that this components is the one for the entire system alimenting, so any powerful PSU is good for any system, that consume much or little. Of course is better don't mount a 1000 Watts PSU for a system with a little consume, it's all a waste.
The most recent CPUs have a maximum consumption of 125/150 Watts, your graphic card should consume less than 80 Watts in full load, and few consumption there's from the other components, where some aren't always in function, like the DVD writer. Your PSU of 300 Watts is pratically the minimum to let work your system, possibly without do really intensive uses.

Does that mean, that my Core 2 Quad isn't enough for a 650W PSU? Is there any other graphics card, which is better than my current one, but doesn't require more than 300W PSU and which I use to can play some recent games?

The CPU doesn't require a so powerful PSU, it's more important in case to put a powerful graphic card, or also two or more of them (SLI and Crossfire-X systems).
Maybe the suggested ATI Radeon HD 5770 can be good for that your PSU power, and it's good to play some recent games. It supports also the DirectX 11, used by Windows 7 and few games. On the graphic card box is always written the required system PSU to let it work properly.

HummersRock · Postby **HummersRock** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 2:17 am

Corsair has some good PSUs. I bought the TX750, but that is only because I am hoping I will be able to use it in future builds when I actually need 750W of power. I probably could get by with a 600W or less.

Just make sure to get a good one. My Corsair can keep my computer running if the electricity cuts out for a second. Older, bad PSU I've had in the past couldn't do that.

matt1314 · Postby **matt1314** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:08 pm

Okay, thanks for the tips. How much FPS would I get with the HD 5770 while playing e.g. Shift, Crashtime III (Highway Nights), TDU, FSX or GRID? Is it going to be above 30-40 FPS? And can that HD 5770 be build in into my system? Because as I imagined when I looked inside the case while cleaning my PC, the size of the HD 5770 might be a bit bigger than my GT 120. Maybe I could make a picture of how it looks like inside my system.

Zac4084 · Postby **Zac4084** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 12:30 am

I guess around maybe 20-30. Maybe less or more. Hard to tell.

reckless201 · Postby **reckless201** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 2:42 pm

I'd go further. Probably 30-40 fps, got to try out a game. Try FUEL's demo.

I have it (that's the full game, not the demo), despite me having terrible performance (under 13 fps), it's a fun open-world driving game with the biggest area any game maker has ever designed.

HummersRock · Postby **HummersRock** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:06 pm

Fuel is pretty darn nice. The difficulty and AI is a little whack though.

reckless201 · Postby **reckless201** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:47 pm

Fuel is pretty darn nice. The difficulty and AI is a little whack though.

Yeah I agree the AI is dodgy, on Easy they beat you for most of the part and then at the very end, slow down to let you finish. On Hard they get a boost of speed out of nowhere near the end and win even if they were miles away from you. I guess it was designed mostly for Free Ride and exploration.

/offtopic

matt1314 · Postby **matt1314** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 6:43 pm

I hope I'll get many FPS while playing these games. But I need instructions on how to build it into my system for my HP Pavilion a6749de. Because I didn't find a tutorial through Google and I'm new to hardware things. So everything should be clear so that I can buy it.

HummersRock · Postby **HummersRock** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 7:18 pm

Fuel is pretty darn nice. The difficulty and AI is a little whack though.
Yeah I agree the AI is dodgy, on Easy they beat you for most of the part and then at the very end, slow down to let you finish. On Hard they get a boost of speed out of nowhere near the end and win even if they were miles away from you. I guess it was designed mostly for Free Ride and exploration.

/offtopic

Well and it you can experience them losing or gaining speed at the end of a race no matter what difficulty setting you use, if I remember correctly. Some races are really easy no matter the difficulty and some are dang hard.

/sorry for all the offtopic franch...

Matt, putting in a new video card will be easy. When you open up your case you will see how it should go in since your old one will be there. Now the PSU will be a bit tricky since you have to unplug everything from the old one, etc. Just make sure to turn off your computer and unplug it first, just to be safe. You should be able to do it easily, just take it slow. Don't worry, it's easy.

Since you will be opening up your case and replacing things, I suggest you dust everything extensively.