Help With DDR3 GRAPHICS CARD

[wayne19540]

Need some help on buying the write GRAPHICS CARD""

I have a new tower Pavilion P6-2171A --H1M93AA. In it I have;

INTEL CORE i5-3450 QUADCORE 3.10/3.5GHz CPU

8GB RAM (2/4) - 1 TB HARDDRIVE DDR3

CD & DVD BURNER

1GB AMD RADEON 7450 GRAPHICS

WIFI N / HDMI /DVI

The Graphics card that is in it is shocking need it to play BF3 at the moment have a lot of lag and the color OMG its bad so I need help boys and girls I don't need top of the range but I do need one that I can get with out burning a hole in my pocket.

[Nightstaar]

You going to have to find out what power supply you have in it wayne. Unfortunately with those pre-built ones they generally don't come with a good one.

[Tydus]

You going to have to find out what power supply you have in it wayne. Unfortunately with those pre-built ones they generally don't come with a good one.

^this. Assuming its 420w+ of decent quality, which it should be then id go with one of these. Still pls post the make and model of the powersupply first.
Palit GeForce GTX 670 2GB $439
Sapphire Radeon HD7950 3GB $389
There are other options if these are too expensive, but you are going to be looking at the $250+ range for the bare minimum half way decent playing experience.

[VeritronX]

You only need those cards if you want to run BF3 at ultra graphics settings with AA and everything, which is totally unnecessary. Even low settings on BF3 look better then the 360 or PS3, and are about the same as medium in BF BC2. All you need to play BF3 smoothly is something like a ASUS Radeon HD7770 DirectCU 1GB for $149, this will manage low to medium detail depending on if you're happy with 40fps or want closer to 100. It also needs about half the power of a 7950 and is much smaller so it is an easier fit into the pc in question.

[InAUGral]

You going to have to find out what power supply you have in it wayne. Unfortunately with those pre-built ones they generally don't come with a good one.

^this. Assuming its 420w+ of decent quality, which it should be then id go with one of these. Still pls post the make and model of the powersupply first.

Never assume a pre-built PC has an even remotely good PSU. Your experience may differ to mine but ive never seen a good quality PSU in a pre-built machine.

I will offer some advice but I would urge some degree of caution towards an AMD card unless you like to spend all your free time reinstalling/rolling back/updating drivers to get different games to work.

[wayne19540]

Thank you so far with the replies.

Power Supply
Internal 300W (100V-240V)
Form factor: Internal ATX
Total wattage: 300W
Nominal input voltage range:
100-127V/6A (50-60Hz)
200-240V/3A (50-60Hz)
Dimensions: 150mm x 140mm x 86mm (5.9 x 5.5 x 3.4 inches)
This power supply has an LED to indicate a possible failure condition when the LED is off and power is connected.

[v4moose]

we really should have rallied together to help wayne build his own pc.

i feel sorry for ya bro - buying a pre built machine which is castrated by a couple of **** components. 300W... theres another purchase you wearn't expecting.

[wayne19540]

we really should have rallied together to help wayne build his own pc.

i feel sorry for ya bro - buying a pre built machine which is castrated by a couple of **** components. 300W... theres another purchase you wearn't expecting.

But Evin with a 300W can I get a graphics card that can be stable enough to play BF3
I no I'm never going to be the best player as the same as in BF2 but for the time being just some kind of play to get me bye for the time being will make this old boy happy.

[Nightstaar]

What size monitor/resolution do you have wayne? There are a very small amount of graphics cards that would run on a 300w safely.

[wayne19540]

What size monitor/resolution do you have wayne? There are a very small amount of graphics cards that would run on a 300w safely.

Hi Colsey;
My resolution is 1920 x 1080 on a 24" Screen.

[Long John]

Hi Wayne,

Firstly - Highest GPU you can goto will be HD6670 *IF* your case can fit a full sized GPU (both height and beside space for the fan/heat sink and length). 1980x1080 maybe OK at low/custom settings in BF3. And look for a GDD5 version, there ~20% faster then GDDR3 models.

Other then that :-

• You may be lucky and it could be a ATX PSU you could replace
• It might have ATX standard MB you could transfer to another case

If you go along with either of these options get a computer savy friend/business to enlist help with.

[Ninja Catfish]

According to the HP website http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c03288841&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&cc=au&dlc=en&lang=en&lc=en&product=5252639#N1399
It appears it does use a standard Internal ATX power supply, so if it did come down to replacing the power supply, it's possible.
300W is gonna be limiting, I'm not sure how much though.

[VeritronX]

The Radeon HD7770 I recommended is a 100W card, so It should be within the confines of that system. The cpu will be 50-65W because while it is in the 77W class it is at the lower end of that class being an i5 with low turbo and no HT, and no gpu running. I'd expect maximum total power consumption to be easily less than 200W with a HD7770 playing BF3.

[steve_rogers42]

Hi Wayne,

Normally I'd be gungho about getting you a graphics card, but this is a new off the shelf system. Often its a bit of a pain finding equipment to suit the computer, and on the flip side it can void warranty for some components or the whole system.

I would recommend reading up on your warranty conditions, these are things you should know of when purchasing a new computer

ATI cards arent too bad, the 7770 wouldnt be a bad upgrade, but nvidia may fill the gap between its current 640 and its 670 hopefully in the next few months so thats an idea to keep in mind.

So if your not sure how much more your looking to spend to upgrade your current pc, maybe performance tuning for the system would come in a bit better? if your looking to make things playable @ 1080 resolution, it might pay to start with the lowest graphical settings ingame and working from there. if you set everything to low, does the game become playable etc?

chucking in a new gpu might open up an extra can of worms (psu, heat exchange, card length etc) so see what you can do with what you have at the moment, meanwhile, i guess the rest of us will see if there is another solution....

[Long John]

The Radeon HD7770 I recommended is a 100W card, so It should be within the confines of that system. The cpu will be 50-65W because while it is in the 77W class it is at the lower end of that class being an i5 with low turbo and no HT, and no gpu running. I'd expect maximum total power consumption to be easily less than 200W with a HD7770 playing BF3.

Without knowing the output amps on the 12v line I wouldn't assume its going to be enough for any powered GPU. Wayne, does it have the output 12v and 5v amps on the side of the PSU?