Hi All Have just purchased a new pc....the q6600 2Quad core(bargain £350)3gb ram huge Hd....blah Blah blah...but its got a crap graphics card,Nvidia 8400gs!!! As im a bit of a gamer..does anyone know of a decent graphics card,for tops £150? ive been looking at the Nvidia Geforce8600gts 256mb pci-e(£100) and the Geforce9600gt oc 512mb pci-e(£125)but the reviews for the 8600gts are grim to say the least, and the 9600gt may have power issues and heat probs....Maybe ATI..? Anyone with any kind of input would be a help....i need advice as im not made of money and dont want to buy somthing i dont need. Thanx in advance ME
Well first of all, you need to make sure that you have a decent case that will run cool enough to be suitable for use with a powerful grphics card. If you do that, you then have to realise that because the PC was cheap it'll have a crap power supply which you'll have to bin before you can get a more powerful graphics card, or you WILL experience problems. No ifs no buts, unless you have a decent PSU (tell us what the brand is, don't assume you've got one, no matter how cool it looks) your PC will probably go up in smoke when you add a new card. For a new Power supply, I recommend the Corsair HX 520W. Your best option for a card right now is a Radeon HD3870, priced at around the £130 odd mark. http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=718682 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=446788
Hi sammorris Thanx for the quick reply..! I may have misled you saying it was a cheap pc!! it cost £579 and its a month old..i just happened to get it for £350 on account (he) was skint. A Bargain. Im unsure about the CPU but will check it out when a get a chance (am at work at the mo) its an Advent 9610 2 quad core. The Corsair HX 520w..would that be a minimum requirment too run a card like the HD 3870? and could i run cod4 at high res? Thanx for your help i'll check out the cpu and get back to you.
the HD3870 requires a minimum of 450w. the corsair 520HX is more than enough, due to the stability and reliability of corsair units. you'll have headroom to add other hard drives and case fans later on. you should be able to play cod4 at high resolutions on the HD3870 with no problems. just make sure you have room inside the computer case for the HD3870; it a long card.
Well the good news is that Advent PCs have decent power supplies. The bad news is that they're still NOT suitable for use with an HD3870. The additional bad news is that Advent cases are usually small and poorly ventilated. The Corsair HX 520W is, however, plenty enough to run an HD3870. I use an HD3870 myself and can play COD4 at 2560x1600 on Maximum detail, and as long as I don't enable AA my frame rate is always above 30. At 1920x1200 it's above 45 even with AA at 4x.
Thanks sammorris & cee43ja1 for your help..... Ive opted for the Nvidia 8800gt 512mb......what a card..!!! All seems well and im still running with a 405w psu, but may still go with the corsair HX550w very soon before anything goes POP..!!!! I posted (in the graphics section) about available software to use ie ntune,rivatuner,3dbenchmark to keep an eye on the Gpu temp have you any thoughts..? And also how do i find out what my FPS are? Dont want to get into trouble for double posting...but if you have any info im all ears. Thanks once again for your help in helping me choose a Great Card.
