Do ineed two identical gpu cards

[shazzalol]

hey guys ineed a bit of help.
First ill give you the specs.
HP pavilion slimline s3760a
4gb ram
windows 7 ultimate 64bit
core 2 duo 2.80ghz
nividia geforce 7100.
i have room for another graphics card and im thinking of buying a better graphics card but the problem is i dont know what to buy or if it will work. My motherboard will support PCI express SLI 1 but i dont know if I can buy a completely different nividia graphics card, insert and install it and have my computer run properly.will my computer be able to run 2 different graphics cards or only my newest one? Or should i see if i can take out my other graphics card which came with the computer and buy 2 identical graphics cards.
Please shed some light on this matter. Thanks

 

[megamanx00]

Your motherboard does not support SLI. It may be able to support Hybrid SLI which basically means it runs off the onboard GPU and only taps a dedicated GPU under the demand of a Game or something. While this has some power saving benefits it generally significantly lowers performance compared to just using the dedicated card alone. Anyway that form of SLI didn't really work out, but it seems to have come back in the form of nvidia's "Optimus" technology.

Anyway, the fact that you have a slim line PC with a weak 160W PSU greatly limits your upgrade options. The best you can do is probably an nVidia GT 220 or a Radeon 5450. Going for a more powerful card like a Radeon 5570 would probably be a bit too much for that weak PSU.

 

[shazzalol]

Your motherboard does not support SLI. It may be able to support Hybrid SLI which basically means it runs off the onboard GPU and only taps a dedicated GPU under the demand of a Game or something. While this has some power saving benefits it generally significantly lowers performance compared to just using the dedicated card alone. Anyway that form of SLI didn't really work out, but it seems to have come back in the form of nvidia's "Optimus" technology.

Anyway, the fact that you have a slim line PC with a weak 160W PSU greatly limits your upgrade options. The best you can do is probably an nVidia GT 220 or a Radeon 5450. Going for a more powerful card like a Radeon 5570 would probably be a bit too much for that weak PSU.

thanks for replying so quickly.
I have checked my motherboard and i have a PCIE x1 and a PCIE x16 slot available. In my BIOS my video adapter was set as PCIE and its actually integrated according to the hp site. I have been looking for a good graphics card for my photo editing and gaming. I dont play games much but i just got a new Avatar game. My 128mb graphics card is so terrible its not worth the name graphics card. I was looking at buying a nVidia 9800 gt, so I could slot it in and disable my old integrated card. All the cards specifications match up but i was hoping for your opinion. here is the card in question. its GDDR3 so it will work fine with my ddr2 RAM. My computer is actually very fast but the only thing it has a problem with is the graphics hence my eagerness for a new card.

 

[shazzalol]

Best answer selected by shazzalol.

 

[shazzalol]

how do i upgrade psu to something like 400W?

 

[megamanx00]

Well, that's a bit of a challenge. Now bear in mind there are no PSUs that will fit in that case that are more than 300W. This may fit

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104072

And while it's only 300W it is a quality unit and should be more than enough to sustain a card like a Radeon 5570.