Newbie to gaming needs help
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
Being a newbie to gaming, we mistakenly bought a Dell Studio Slim 540s advertised as a "gaming" machine. It won't hardly play anything-even old games.
It has a 2.33 Gig prcessor with 3 Gigs of ram. It is a 32 bit 4 core 64 bit capable. It has a Intel G45/G43 express chipset. When Window analyzes it capability it rates it as 5.9 for processor speed, ram, and hard disk data transfer. It says a rating of 4.0 is minimum to play the game (FarCry2) correctly. But it says my Video Gaming Ram is only 1294 MB and is rated at 3.8 and my gaming graphics is rated only at 3.4.
I looked on the box for Far Cry 2 now and found out it recommends a 3.2 Gig Pentium or a 4.2 AMD.
Would updating to a new video card help and if so what would be the best to buy?
It has a 2.33 Gig prcessor with 3 Gigs of ram. It is a 32 bit 4 core 64 bit capable. It has a Intel G45/G43 express chipset. When Window analyzes it capability it rates it as 5.9 for processor speed, ram, and hard disk data transfer. It says a rating of 4.0 is minimum to play the game (FarCry2) correctly. But it says my Video Gaming Ram is only 1294 MB and is rated at 3.8 and my gaming graphics is rated only at 3.4.
I looked on the box for Far Cry 2 now and found out it recommends a 3.2 Gig Pentium or a 4.2 AMD.
Would updating to a new video card help and if so what would be the best to buy?
More about : newbie gaming
riffsrafft said:
Being a newbie to gaming, we mistakenly bought a Dell Studio Slim 540s advertised as a "gaming" machine. It won't hardly play anything-even old games.It has a 2.33 Gig prcessor with 3 Gigs of ram. It is a 32 bit 4 core 64 bit capable. It has a Intel G45/G43 express chipset. When Window analyzes it capability it rates it as 5.9 for processor speed, ram, and hard disk data transfer. It says a rating of 4.0 is minimum to play the game (FarCry2) correctly. But it says my Video Gaming Ram is only 1294 MB and is rated at 3.8 and my gaming graphics is rated only at 3.4.
I looked on the box for Far Cry 2 now and found out it recommends a 3.2 Gig Pentium or a 4.2 AMD.
Would updating to a new video card help and if so what would be the best to buy?
You'll have to be a bit more specific:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad???? Or Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Phenom x4......????
PSU: 300W???
OS: Windows Vista 32 bit???
You'll need a video card to get decent gaming.
At 2.33ghz and 4 cores it's a Q8200. From what I'm reading it probably came with an HD4350 so that's no good for gaming and the PSU is 250w.
The best card I would recommend for that PSU that comes in low profile version to fit you "slim" case is the GT 220;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
The best card I would recommend for that PSU that comes in low profile version to fit you "slim" case is the GT 220;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Wattage is an unreliable measurement of competence in PSUs. 250w should be able to handle most anything, but things never work as advertised.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/ite...
Low profile 9600 GT, it'll perform similarly to the GT 240, which is a step ahead of the GT 220. Will your PSU handle it? I don't know. Someone else will have to answer that question.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/ite...
Low profile 9600 GT, it'll perform similarly to the GT 240, which is a step ahead of the GT 220. Will your PSU handle it? I don't know. Someone else will have to answer that question.
Thank you for taking the time to respond and I truly will regard your advise. Rather than upgrade my Slimline Dell, I have decided to swap puters with my wife and try to upgrade her's to see if it will work before I attempt to build my own from scratch. However I do want to learn enough now to build my own someday soon.
It is a Lenovo 3000 H230 with an Intel Pentium Dual Core Processor E5300 with 4 Gig DDR3, a 320 Gig Sata II drive, the graphics is an intel GMA X4500 (DX10) with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.
It only has a 280 watt power system so I need to replace that also.
In one of the forums, someone wrote:
"However, if you are only upgrading your existing video card it becomes important to select the interface based on the interface sported by your motherboard as installation of your new video card becomes impossible without matching interfaces. "
How do I know if a new vidow card matches ok with what is in my machine?
How do I tell what card will work with what I have and what would be the best card to buy for the money say up to $300?
What power system would you replace it with?
I can't thank everyone enough for all their help and advise and I am taking it slow this time so I don't screw up like I did with buying my Dell.
I am seriously trying to read and learn enough to put a total new build together in the near future but want to learn more now to be safe!
It is a Lenovo 3000 H230 with an Intel Pentium Dual Core Processor E5300 with 4 Gig DDR3, a 320 Gig Sata II drive, the graphics is an intel GMA X4500 (DX10) with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.
It only has a 280 watt power system so I need to replace that also.
In one of the forums, someone wrote:
"However, if you are only upgrading your existing video card it becomes important to select the interface based on the interface sported by your motherboard as installation of your new video card becomes impossible without matching interfaces. "
How do I know if a new vidow card matches ok with what is in my machine?
How do I tell what card will work with what I have and what would be the best card to buy for the money say up to $300?
What power system would you replace it with?
I can't thank everyone enough for all their help and advise and I am taking it slow this time so I don't screw up like I did with buying my Dell.
I am seriously trying to read and learn enough to put a total new build together in the near future but want to learn more now to be safe!
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