jlocasto42

Hi. I am looking to upgrade my graphics card in my PC. Here are my specs:

HP Compaq 6005 Pro Microtower
Win 7 Pro
AMD Athlon II x2 215 Processor, 2.7 GHz
4096MB RAM
Power Supply: 320W
Card: NVIDIA Quadro NVS 290
Display Mode: 18680 x 1050 (32 Bit)

I want to get something that will make my games run faster. I do plan to also upgrade the RAM at some point, it can hold up to 16GB. My budget is really anything from 100-200 bucks as long as it will be ok with the PCI slot and the power supply. I don't have to stick with NVIDIA either. Any guidance is greatly appreciated!

blibbax

Firstly, I presume you mean PCI-Ex16 slot (as opposed to PCI)? If not, you won't find any decent graphics cards really.

The 320W power supply also kinda limits you to cards that aren't really intended for gaming. (Radeon 5450 ideally, maybe 5670/6670 at most but with a generic unit you'd be taking a big risk.)

If I were you, and the power supply was of a conventional form factor (is it the same size and shape as the power supplies you see on computer parts websites?) I'd be looking at a cheaper branded Power Supply and a 5670/6670 or, if you want to be really flash, 5770/6770/GTX550Ti. There are second hand cards you could consider also that'd be a good match for your processor if you have a suitable PSU - e.g. GTS250, GTX260, HD4870, HD5830.

As for RAM, DDR2 is increasingly expensive and 4GB is enough for 1680*1050 gaming atm. I dont think that 16GB would be a wise investment.

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jlocasto42

OK, please pardon my ignorance here I’m computer savvy but not that savvy! I would assume that I did list that incorrectly and it is a PCI-Ex16 slot.

Is the 5450 a card I can buy and put right into the computer? It will work with my 320W power supply? With regards to the power supply, I guess I would have to open up the case and see what’s in there. What did you mean by “taking a big risk” with the 5670/6670?

The RAM is a secondary upgrade and if it has no bearing on the gaming I won’t buy it. Thank you for the advice.

Judas

As mentioned.

I think your looking at a more significant number of changes.

First.... your most likely going to need to invest in a decent psu.. if you want something cheap yet decent quality and will give you more than enough for a good start..... look at the coolermaster 500 watt extreme power unit.... they retail for very little. and provide plenty of juice for most midrange~>higher end video cards with a single or dual PCI-ex power requirements.

Next i think upgrading your video card may clearly result in you cpu being a bottleneck. But yeah go for a video card first... .depending on the cash you have available... either jump for something like the 6770/6790 1gb model or maybe something the 68xx series if you want.... if you can afford/find a 2gb vram model, they have great value for some of todays and future games if your are interested in longevity.

Lastly your cpu should likely follow potentially.... you'll have to check hp's capability list for support CPUs.. something quad core should do the trick.. don't think anything overly powerful, but dual core is starting to show real signs of falling back while quad core continues to gain ground.

While 4gb is mostly plenty for today... i'd leave this as the last thing to change. Generally i haven't been installing anything more than 8gb in most machines for the past year.... but with the cost of 2x8gb DDR3/DDR2 dropping more and more in cost, i'll be moving to those very very soon simply because it's always a great idea to put the largest capacity ram modules in....

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Judas

the 5450 would be a card you should be able to plug in without the need to attach additional power to it nor should it overload your current power supply unlike a 5670/6670 which may push the power requirements beyond what your system is capable of resulting in hardware failure.... hopefully limited to the power supply but has been known to damage other components.

HP isn't known for putting quality power supplies in their computers, nor very powerful ones or even mediocre ones.

Personally a 5450 performs very very poorly in most games, it is however the lowest end video card you can put in... basically they are barely entry level, most cases used for someone with the intention of office use or HTCP without the need to play games..., it'll start a game fine, but playing it may give you headaches due to low frame rates. 56xx/66xx series is your midrange level video card, balance of cost to performance... a real entry level gamer card.[/QUOTE]

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jlocasto42

Thanks for the advice. Would a Radeon 6770 and a corsair 600W power supply cause a bottleneck or would that run smoothly? Are CPU's hard to install?

Judas

600 watt corsair psu is an excellent power supply.. worth their value..

a 6770 provided you make sure it's a 1gb DDR5 model.. is also a good dollar value too and performance admirably..

both of which are relatively easy to install ... the psu you just follow the same kind of cable management as the old psu...

HOWEVER.... having looked at the specs.... you may need to check your current computers power supply dimensions..

HP Compaq 6005 Pro Microtower PC specifications - HP Small & Medium Business products

this is the specs .. although they only list the case dimensions.... i'm not entirely sure that case uses a common world used standard and likely HP may have put in their own custom non standard PSU which would make installing a new one impossible.

*sigh*... the follies of hp....

CPU installations are more tedious, while they aren't really all that difficult, they are definitely something you don't want to mess up. There are several videos and picture by picture instructions on how to remove and install a new cpu.... provided you get one with it's own heatsink using it's own thermal paste/pad pre-applied, they are quite often very very easy to install.

the cpu's listed as officially supported as also in the above link.

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jlocasto42

Ok... assuming the power supply fits and I get the 6770 do you think I would see improvement without a new CPU?

blibbax

Depending on the gameplay and longevity required, at 1680*1050, I think 2GB of VRAM and a quadcore are strictly optional at the moment.

Also, DDR2 seems to be going up in price, and is already a lot more expensive than DDR3. Iirc, that CPU does not support DDR3.

That PSU is overkill. The 430W Corsair or the PSU Judas mentioned, or rival units from Antec would be fine.

A 6770 would make for a nice gaming system for the moment. An excellent choice. And that's coming from someone who's never purchased an AMD/ATI GPU.

BF3 might still cause you a few issues (it likes quad core processors), and possibly Skyrim at higher detail settings (it likes high-clocked processors), but other than that you should be good to go.

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jlocasto42

What is BF3?

blibbax

Battlefield 3 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's pretty much the most demanding game going.

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Judas

Battlefield 3 appears to be very GPU demanding and not so much on the CPU demanding side...

where as for example skyrim.. seems to carry both a very demanding CPU (dual core usage is very very high with a third core providing a little assistance and then quad core not providing really any significant benefit but there is some offloading) and also very GPU demanding...

While granted 2gb is more than what most people would need currently... this is a rather hot topic recently... as i said earlier 1gb models would be a good choice for the models your considering.

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blibbax

Until you get to the higher settings, then it basically requires a quad / epic dual.

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jlocasto42

Well, thanks to HP it looks like I can't really replace the power supply anyway... The best card I can get is the ATI Radeon HD 4650 (1 GB DH) PCIe x16 Graphics Card. Maybe with that and some RAM it'll be better...?

IvanV

I'd take my chance with something like a 6670 or 5670. Both of those have a TDP of around 65W and your CPU also has the official TDP of 65W (which is generously high for that particular model). The rest of the PC consumes fairly little, so, unless the PSU is a total piece of crap (and it shouldn't really be that crappy), it ought to be enough.

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If anyone has Portal 2 and hasn't played the co-op and wants to do me a favour, let me know (PM me or whatever).

jlocasto42

I have the 6770 at home that I was going to return today. The PSU says 320W, what's the max you thnk it can handle? The 6770 says it needs "450 Watt or greater power supply with one 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended ". Whatcha think?

IvanV

The 6770 has a TDP of 108W, which is 42 and 44W more than the 6670 and 5670 respectively. You could try it (I know quite a few people who combined a C2Q and a Radeon 4870 back when those were all the rage with select 400W PSU models), but no guarantees as to what would happen.

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If anyone has Portal 2 and hasn't played the co-op and wants to do me a favour, let me know (PM me or whatever).

jlocasto42

I found the 6670 on best buy. Looks like 400W is the recommendation. I'll probably get it if you think it'll be ok in my system

IvanV

The 400W or similar requirement for a graphics card is for orientation. The exact number depends on the other components and their requirements and the specifics of a particular PSU.

If there is a table on your PSU that looks something like the one below, you can check how many amperes or watts the unit can give on the 12V rail:



Without that data, it's a bit of a shot in the dark, but what you need is around 130W of power from the 12V lane and a few tens of watts from the others which is well within reach of a decent 320W PSU.

__________________
If anyone has Portal 2 and hasn't played the co-op and wants to do me a favour, let me know (PM me or whatever).

jlocasto42

Thanks so much for the help. Is there a major difference between the 2 you mentioned besides the 1GB/2GB? I'm gonna pick one up today!

IvanV

The chip on the 6670 is a bit over 20% stronger than the one in the 5670 (480 vs 400 stream processors, a wee bit higher clock and a slightly tweaked architecture).

The thing to pay attention to with both, though, is the type of memory. Both 5670s and 6670s come with either GDDR5 or GDDR3 memory. Those with GDDR5 have twice the memory bandwidth of those with GDDR3, and the prices aren't too different, so they are preferred.

__________________
If anyone has Portal 2 and hasn't played the co-op and wants to do me a favour, let me know (PM me or whatever).

Judas

if you don't mind.. pull your side panel off your computer and read the power supply label.. if you can post a picture .... see we can see what the 12v amperage rating is...

Considering hp.... i wouldn't be surprised if it's just a single 12v with a rating of 14 or 16amps which is about 168-192 watts of total output.

Most power supplies are rated by their total output across all voltages.. this is 12v/5v/3.3v.... and manufacturers LOVE to boost their wattage rating by factoring in stupidly high 5v/3.3v rating like it is going to matter. Ignoring the important one being 12v.

Knowing your psu's capabilities is important.

if you can see if it has a something like this. to know if your psu even has a pci-ex 16x connector.... will help also.

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jlocasto42

I'll look for the specs on the PSU but i know i don't have that connector on it. That was why I wanted to upgrade it. I'll take a pic and upload it tomorrow