What card for old D945PLRN mobo?

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dfk

dfk

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Dec 23, 2013
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Hi there, I'm thinking about upgrading the graphics card for my old pc, and am at loss as to what would fit it. Also if it's worth upgrading at all and what model will it be able to run smoothly.

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Guild Wars 2 and older games mainly

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY:
NVIDIA 9500 GT 512MB 128bit
AVF 500W ATX Power Supply (PS500-F1V2) just changed this year
http://imgur.com/DiJju2I

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS:
Pentium D 2.8
D945PLRN motherboard
http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/motherboards_d/Intel/D945PLRN/
2GB DDR2 533 RAM

PARTS PREFERENCES: either ATI or NVIDIA equivalent

OVERCLOCKING: no

Thanks in advance.
 
Solution
lonewolf7
DDR2, DDR3, DDR5 on GPU's are VRAM(Video RAM or memory), which is different from your physical RAM. So it doesn't matter what VRAM was your previous GPU. So don't worry it will work nicely.

As long as your MB has a PCI-E x 16 slot, the GPU will work, no matter if its 1.1 or 2.0 or 3.0 version. Technically if you put a GPU which is version 2.0 PCI-E on a MB which has a version 1.1 PCI-E slot, you will loose some bandwidth, but only in theory, not in real world situation. You can play smooth.

128 bit and 256 bit are referring to the width of the GPU's Memory Bus.
It is one of three items that define the Memory Bandwidth, the other two being the type of RAM and the speed of the RAM.

Just because a GPU has a wider memory bus does not...
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lonewolf7

lonewolf7

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May 6, 2013
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I think this will be your best bet, depending upon your MB and PSU :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7750 1GB Video Card ($124.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $124.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-23 14:49 EST-0500)

http://www.hwcompare.com/11869/geforce-9500-gt-512mb-gddr3-vs-radeon-hd-7750/

And try to upgrade RAM by 2GB, which will be better on overall system performance and for gaming also. Good luck.
 
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dfk

dfk

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Dec 23, 2013
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Thanks for the recommendation lonewolf7. I see that it is DDR5, is that compatible since my current 9500GT is only DDR2 i think, also PCI slot for my mobo is only 1.1 or it doesnt matter?

And what does it mean by 128-bit Memory Interface (does it mean 256 is not compatible with 128)? Sorry I'm still learning the about the terms and how you determine whether a specific card is compatible on a system.
 
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lonewolf7

lonewolf7

Splendid
May 6, 2013
5,113
2
24,965
DDR2, DDR3, DDR5 on GPU's are VRAM(Video RAM or memory), which is different from your physical RAM. So it doesn't matter what VRAM was your previous GPU. So don't worry it will work nicely.

As long as your MB has a PCI-E x 16 slot, the GPU will work, no matter if its 1.1 or 2.0 or 3.0 version. Technically if you put a GPU which is version 2.0 PCI-E on a MB which has a version 1.1 PCI-E slot, you will loose some bandwidth, but only in theory, not in real world situation. You can play smooth.

128 bit and 256 bit are referring to the width of the GPU's Memory Bus.
It is one of three items that define the Memory Bandwidth, the other two being the type of RAM and the speed of the RAM.

Just because a GPU has a wider memory bus does not mean however that it has more memory bandwidth.
As an example, the GTX 260 has a 448 bit memory bus and 111.9GB/s bandwidth where the 4890 has a 256 bit memory bus and 115.2GB/s bandwidth.
This is because the 4890 uses GDDR5 RAM as compared to GDDR3 on the GTX 260.

And every GPU's are forward/backward compatible, so any GPU will fit on any MB, regardless of DDR memory, PCI-E version. The only exception is you cannot fit a AGP GPU on a PCI-E slot of MB, and vice versa. Good luck.
 
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