- Sep 12, 2011
- 2
- 0
- 18,510
Hello everyone. Now, before I even get into what I'm asking help for, I know so little about graphics cards that it basically amounts to nothing. I'll probably ask some very stupid questions along the way, so I'll be ever grateful if you can just bear with me, and I'd really, really appreciate any help I can get here from all you geniuses/smartarses (joke! 
).
So, the situation is that our family has a pretty bog standard family PC - an HP Pavillion a6305. Specs for it can be found here:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&docname=c01312589&lc=en&product=3660121#N341
(One thing worth mentioning is that whilst it came with Windows Vista HP, it's been upgraded to Windows 7 HP now. Everything else is the same as in those specs)
It's all pretty decent-ish for a normal everyday-use computer, and can play most games from the mid noughties backwards - a good example of its limit is the 2007 racing game rFactor, which runs at about 20-40 FPS on lowest settings. All of this probably sounds like stupidity to you people, but the thing is, I've never been that much of an avid PC gamer. (Whilst it would be nice) I've never been super interested in having the latest games - heck, the one genre I am interested in, which is racing sims, all the good games are really old now - and (whilst it would be nice) I've never been super interested in running games at max settings. So I've never been that bothered about spending money to "move on" from that Nvidia Geforce 6150SE nForce 450 chipset.
However, this caught my attention:
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/3320/2...8400GS-Super-512MB-Graphics-Card/Product.html
Albeit with my limited knoweledge, a graphics card - any graphics card - for less than £20 sounds like a steal for someone like me, who normally wouldn't be bothered otherwise and isn't looking for the latest and greatest hardware. And this (finally!) brings me on to my two big questions:
1. Will it be better than the integrated graphics currently on my PC? Now in my head this really does sound like a stupid question, but I've done some reading around and people talk of the 8400gs like it's the spawn of satan, haha. So I just wanted to make sure that this will DEFINITELY, in every way, be an improvement. As I've hinted at above I'm not interested in hearing how much better card x is than card y, or how crap card z is, or whatever. I've gathered that the 8400gs isn't a great card, but I'm not interested in looking for something significantly better - I have no allocated budget for this, I'm only really doing it's possible, it's dirt cheap, and having the games I already own running a bit smoother would be nice.
So all I want to know is, will this card definitely. be better than the integrated graphics currently on my PC. Second question..........
2. Will it work? There's a few things here I'm not entirely clear on. First, the play.com page says it's a PCI-E 2.0 card, but the free slot on my PC is PCI-Express x16. I'm confused as to how the two standards relate, but it should work, shouldn't it? The other thing is the play.com page also says the minimum recommended system power is 300W. According to the spec page above, my HP has a 300W PSU (I haven't opened up the PC to verify this though). Is this too borderline? How cautious are they minimum requirements? Would I be risking breaking something if I installed this card into this PC? If I bought the card, should I be thinking about buying a new PSU as well? (I noticed this one for instance, also on play.com: http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/20471142/-/Product.html?opFR=true)
Lastly, one more question - is Palit a good maufacturer? Is their product likely to come as advertised, and........well, not break my machine?
.................and that's about everything I think? Well it isn't really, I'm still unsure about things like physically installing the thing, and the processes of disabling adapters and properly uninstalling/installing drivers, but I'll take all that as it comes (and there's probably enough tutorials out there to help me with all that). A big congratulations if you had the patience to sit through my exceptionally long-winded drivel - and thanks in advance for any help!
). So, the situation is that our family has a pretty bog standard family PC - an HP Pavillion a6305. Specs for it can be found here:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&docname=c01312589&lc=en&product=3660121#N341
(One thing worth mentioning is that whilst it came with Windows Vista HP, it's been upgraded to Windows 7 HP now. Everything else is the same as in those specs)
It's all pretty decent-ish for a normal everyday-use computer, and can play most games from the mid noughties backwards - a good example of its limit is the 2007 racing game rFactor, which runs at about 20-40 FPS on lowest settings. All of this probably sounds like stupidity to you people, but the thing is, I've never been that much of an avid PC gamer. (Whilst it would be nice) I've never been super interested in having the latest games - heck, the one genre I am interested in, which is racing sims, all the good games are really old now - and (whilst it would be nice) I've never been super interested in running games at max settings. So I've never been that bothered about spending money to "move on" from that Nvidia Geforce 6150SE nForce 450 chipset.
However, this caught my attention:
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/3320/2...8400GS-Super-512MB-Graphics-Card/Product.html
Albeit with my limited knoweledge, a graphics card - any graphics card - for less than £20 sounds like a steal for someone like me, who normally wouldn't be bothered otherwise and isn't looking for the latest and greatest hardware. And this (finally!) brings me on to my two big questions:
1. Will it be better than the integrated graphics currently on my PC? Now in my head this really does sound like a stupid question, but I've done some reading around and people talk of the 8400gs like it's the spawn of satan, haha. So I just wanted to make sure that this will DEFINITELY, in every way, be an improvement. As I've hinted at above I'm not interested in hearing how much better card x is than card y, or how crap card z is, or whatever. I've gathered that the 8400gs isn't a great card, but I'm not interested in looking for something significantly better - I have no allocated budget for this, I'm only really doing it's possible, it's dirt cheap, and having the games I already own running a bit smoother would be nice.
So all I want to know is, will this card definitely. be better than the integrated graphics currently on my PC. Second question..........
2. Will it work? There's a few things here I'm not entirely clear on. First, the play.com page says it's a PCI-E 2.0 card, but the free slot on my PC is PCI-Express x16. I'm confused as to how the two standards relate, but it should work, shouldn't it? The other thing is the play.com page also says the minimum recommended system power is 300W. According to the spec page above, my HP has a 300W PSU (I haven't opened up the PC to verify this though). Is this too borderline? How cautious are they minimum requirements? Would I be risking breaking something if I installed this card into this PC? If I bought the card, should I be thinking about buying a new PSU as well? (I noticed this one for instance, also on play.com: http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/20471142/-/Product.html?opFR=true)
Lastly, one more question - is Palit a good maufacturer? Is their product likely to come as advertised, and........well, not break my machine?
.................and that's about everything I think? Well it isn't really, I'm still unsure about things like physically installing the thing, and the processes of disabling adapters and properly uninstalling/installing drivers, but I'll take all that as it comes (and there's probably enough tutorials out there to help me with all that). A big congratulations if you had the patience to sit through my exceptionally long-winded drivel - and thanks in advance for any help!
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