Need help upgrading video card...

Ill start with my horrid specs, keep in mind most of it is all stock parts, the only thing i really know the name of is my underpowered video card.

Model: HP Pavilion slimline e5510y
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 240 2.8GHz
RAM: 3gb
OS: Win7 Home Premium Edition
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 (1.4gb video RAM)

I got this computer as a gift a few years ago, it does everything fine, except play video games...to a point. I can play older games, that came out almost 10 years ago with no problem, but once i try playing an MMO with 3d graphics, which is my preferred gaming experience, i get hit with major lag issues, HORRIBLE framerate, im talking 1-10fps average.

Ive soldiered through the muck for 5 years almost, trying game after game, only to find them unplayable (many cases where i cant even start the game). Finally, I'm old enough, i have a job, i have money of my own, now what should i do?

I love the idea of just tossing this one in the closet and buying components to build a new pc, strictly for gaming, but i wouldnt want to do that until i know i can build a great rig for a great price. Honestly, if i could, id just run out today, buy a new video card, stick it in and get to gaming, but i realize my rig is severely underpowered (many gaming friends have let me know), and that if i were to do that, the new card would just get bottlenecked, and i would only get a tiny improvement in gameplay.

So, what are your opinions, my tech friends? (keep the geek speak to a minimum lol i dont know a thing about computers)

reply to post by 8fl0z


You would be farther ahead to part out your drives and such and rebuild.

I just bought a new ASUS motherboard and i7-4770 cpu on TigerDirect for $460.

16G of DDR3 ram for $150.

I bought a Nvidia 660ti a few months ago thinking it would help out, but my current motherboard is only capable of 4 gig Ram max and it is using the old DDR2. My graphics improved greatly but I still had really low fps.

Sucks to have to spend that kind of money, but in the end, with the motherboard I am getting will be able to run dual graphics cards in the future for the next upgrade if I should choose to do so.

EDIT: You will also need to buy a new power supply! 800 Watts should be more than enough. I am actually running with a 650 WATT currently. So I will have to see how that works out. According to the people whom built my old pc they said it should be fine.

You would definitely be better off putting together a new pc. On the plus side you have a native machine to play all the old gems without having to fiddle much. =D

PC Part Picker

This is a good place to start. Gives you a list and specs and prices from different vendors. It will also restrict your parts by compatability.

8fl0z
Ill start with my horrid specs, keep in mind most of it is all stock parts, the only thing i really know the name of is my underpowered video card.

Model: HP Pavilion slimline e5510y
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 240 2.8GHz
RAM: 3gb
OS: Win7 Home Premium Edition
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 (1.4gb video RAM)

I got this computer as a gift a few years ago, it does everything fine, except play video games...to a point. I can play older games, that came out almost 10 years ago with no problem, but once i try playing an MMO with 3d graphics, which is my preferred gaming experience, i get hit with major lag issues, HORRIBLE framerate, im talking 1-10fps average.

Ive soldiered through the muck for 5 years almost, trying game after game, only to find them unplayable (many cases where i cant even start the game). Finally, I'm old enough, i have a job, i have money of my own, now what should i do?

I love the idea of just tossing this one in the closet and buying components to build a new pc, strictly for gaming, but i wouldnt want to do that until i know i can build a great rig for a great price. Honestly, if i could, id just run out today, buy a new video card, stick it in and get to gaming, but i realize my rig is severely underpowered (many gaming friends have let me know), and that if i were to do that, the new card would just get bottlenecked, and i would only get a tiny improvement in gameplay.

So, what are your opinions, my tech friends? (keep the geek speak to a minimum lol i dont know a thing about computers)

edit on 2-2-2014 by 8fl0z because: (no reason given)

My understanding is you are using an onboard GPU, so to upgrade we'd need to know the power supply and the details of the GPU slot (if any)

The size of the case would also be a factor..


A pre built system like yours is not really made for upgrading to be frank. I would seriously suggest upgrading the whole thing - throwing it out and building from scratch.

Set yourself a budget and expectations and you can either build yourself with parts, or do the next best thing, which is to design your pc yourself and have it built for you. Many gaming PC stores offer such a service. Practically any build and any budget of gaming pc will be significantly better than your own, even those on the very low end.

reply to post by Thalestris


Thanks for that link!!!!

I wish I had that when deciding! Anyhow, according to that, my power supply is NOT compatible with my motherboard and CPU.

Oh well, will just take me a few more months to save up. At least I wouldn't have found out the hard way!

EDIT: Actually I was reading wrong. I was looking at the Modular section. So I believe my 650W WILL work!!

reply to post by 8fl0z


Here are the specs of your PC:

h10025.www1.hp.com...



When looking at that motherboard, there's only one PCIe slot for video cards, but it only takes up one slot. Most video cards nowadays take up two slots. Therefore, you are severely limited on what video cards you can put in there.

On top of that, your computer only comes with a 220 Watt power supply, which also severely limits what you can put in your computer.

Your options are either build a new computer, or replace that power supply with at least a 600W, then choose one of these video cards:

www.afox-corp.com... (fastest single-slot available)

www.newegg.com...

www.newegg.com...



Word of caution: Your power supply might be a proprietary size. Meaning it might not be a full-size, normal power supply. You could always take your PC to a computer store so they can check to see if your power supply can be replaced with something more current.

If you can't replace your power supply, then unfortunately, you can't put in a different video card that will be powerful enough to notice a difference in games.

I just ordered myself a a new set of PC parts so here's an idea of what to get:

Intel i5-4670k 3.4GHz
ASUS Maximus VI Hero
Nvidia GeForce GTX 660
Corsair Vengenge 8GB (2 x 4GB)
Sandisk 64GB SSD
Seagate 2TB 7200
LG BluRay Burner
XFX 750w 80Plus Silver PSU
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
Storm Scout 2 Mid Tower Case
Win 7 Pro 64

Nothing top of the line but more than enough to play today's games and plenty of space for a second graphics card to upgrade in the future. Total cost is about $1200 but some of that can be saved if you want to buy used off eBay. The computer I'm on now was built with 100% used parts about 5-6 years ago.

Some tips:

1. Pick your CPU and motherboard first. Everything else will build around those parts.
2. Decide if you want to overclock or not. My setup is OC ready but that tends to be a bit more expensive.
3. Decide if you want SLI/Crossfire or just a single GPU setup. Single GPU is cheaper to start with but leaving room for SLI/Xfire future-proofs your rig to some extent.

It depends on a few things. If its comparative to an amd3, amd2, or less. All the computers we now have are amd3, with 8 gigs of ram and we could put more in. amd2's are limited to 4 gigs or ram, and they are computers roughly 4-5 years ago. The ones before that are limited to 2 gigs of ram. ie 5-7 years ago, and before that its useless.

Now, you can play wow and a few games with 4 gigs. But not all games play well. Aion doesnt, it wants more ram. So, if your motherboard can take 4 gigs and you don't want to rebuild, then you up the ram to 4 gigs, buy a lower cost nividia card, ie in staples they often have the one that is 40-60, and then suddenly 120 dollar one. They didn't have that much variety , but the one they had roughly 50 plays wow nicely with good detail. Make sure your hard drive is suitable size, and you should be able to play wow, and some 3D games, like sims, but aion won't do well.

If on the other hand, you search linux wine and the name of your preferred game and find it does well under linux, like wow does, then its pretty easy, because any 32 bit linux operating system such as ubuntu based mint linux, or pclinuxos, both play wow quite easily with wine, and its quite a bit faster than windows on 4 gigs of ram.

I wouldn't really upgrade it though, because for the money it takes you would have 2/3rds of a new system. Even walmart has amd's with 8 gigs of ram now for 300.00.

We used to build computers, one component at a time, but now its cheaper to buy them. Their supposed bottom prices, that have good amounts of ram run well.

reply to post by 8fl0z

Most computers now have a pci-express (PCIE) slot which is different than a pci slot. I would say that 99.99% of all graphics cards are PCIE. So the first thing you would need to do is make sure your computer has a PCIE slot available for a graphics card. It's likely it does but it's always a good idea to check. Assuming that it does, then purchasing a new video card might give you a little bit of a performance increase even with it being bottle-necked with the rest of the system. Another way to boost performance is to purchase an SSD drive. (Solid State hard-drive) Many games need to read massive amounts of information and having a hard-drive that can deliver that information quickly can also boost performance some. Again, most drives use a SATA connection, so that's something you would need to make sure your existing computer can handle. An SSD drive is another component that could be used in a new system. The other problem you have is the amount of system RAM you have. You really should have at least 8GB but your computer may not be able to handle that amount of RAM and the RAM you purchase would probably not be compatible with a new system. (I've often found that you need to double the amount of minimum RAM Microsoft recommends for it's operating systems)

As you've already guessed, getting a new computer is probably your best way to go if you want to be able to game without massive system lag. If you purchase the video card and hard-drive with the idea that you could use the same components in a new system then it wouldn't be a terrible waste of money. Of course with the way computer parts evolve with better technologies, it would be best to build this new computer within a month or two of buying those components. In truth, if you are not mechanically inclined and don't like reading directions and how-to manuals, then building a computer yourself may not be the wisest way to go. However, if you take the time to research the individual computer parts and really learn what all those specs mean and take the time to understand how each part relates to the system as a whole, then eventually you'll be able to answer your own question.

If you want to mess around and get an idea on parts that are available and how much a new system would cost, you can go to pcpartpicker.com.... Every now and then I like to get crazy and build myself a virtual computer on that site just to see how much a beast of a system would cost and to keep myself familiar with the current technologies. You can find that build here.. pcpartpicker.com...

reply to post by thov420

I just wanted to note that all Intel Chips all only have 4 core's or less.
ark.intel.com...
Some newer I7's now have 6 cores according to this wikipedia entry.
en.wikipedia.org...

Each "core" is essentially one processor and regardless of the amount of threads a core has a single core can only do one thing at a time. So a processor with 4 cores can only do 4 things at a time. (It appears that a computer does more than that because programs use multi-thread technology) Intel chips do use Hyper-threading that allows windows to execute two instructions per core at once but my research so far has indicated that most other programs can't do the same and so the benefits of hyper-threading are usually limited to the operating system itself.
This is one of the reasons I usually go with AMD as you can get much more than 4 cores. (I currently have 6 on my AMD chip and the newer ones can have 8)
Here is a good video on Hyper-threading. lifehacker.com...
Just some extra info to digest.

reply to post by 8fl0z


8floz

Your complaint seems to be with online games. Perhaps your internet speed is slow? If you are using a wireless router,you can typically lose 30 to 50 percent of your service. Find out what speed your internet service provider is giving you then run a speedtest to compare. Wireless routers should not be near any electrical components like TVs,telephones,microwaves, etc. Also,speed is usually lost because other people around you are using the same wireless router channel as you are. Try switching your channel on the router.

Secondly, your nvidia graphics are embedded on the motherboard, and my guess is that it is 512 megabytes, while windows 7 provides extra "virtual memory" making it the 1.4gb you posted.

Best bet if your internet speed is okay, is buy an AMD Radeon 6450 1 gb,ddr3 PCIe video card and install it. With windows 7 you should get around 2 gigabytes of video memory.

Don't worry too much about the power supply as that is for more serious gamers with high end cards. The Radeon card will work fine.
Video card manufactures usually give you their "recommended" advice for power supplies.

your machine meets specs to play about any game.. Look into getting a used Geforce 8800GT or Geforce 9800GT (single card, not an Akimbo version which makes this card use a double slot) You can find them for about $50 and i almost guarantee you can play any game on at LEAST medium setting. Don't believe the hype, your machine is a dual core beyond specs, it may not play Crysis at full speed, so just knock it down to medium or low setting..You should have NO probs playing new Tiger Woods, GTA series, WoW, and crap load more.

I am assuming by the specs this has 2 memory slots. Your machine takes DDR2, kinda pricey, but you can get 1 2-gig stick and bring the total of your machine to 4 gig. No need to buy a new machine.

Bud316