Is the GeForce 210 compatible with my computer?

[centrix]

I have an HP Pavillion Media Center m7334n with an MS-7184 Motherboard. It also currently has an ATI Radeon Xpress 200 chipset. Now i'm looking to upgrade my video card for gaming with shader model 3, and the GeForce 210 seems like a good/affordable option. The only thing im worried about is the compatibility. Is it compatable?

Here is the GeForce Video Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130605

 

[MrWolf]

Yes it is compatible since your board has pci x16 slot,but let me tell you,if are planning on gaming with this gpu you might as well forget it,it's a 32 bit card,that's the rock bottom,it's not meant for 3d aplications at all.Trust me DO NOT BUY THAT,wait some more time 'till you have more cash.The cheapest card that can play some games is nvidia gt 220,it's 128 bit card with ddr3 memory and some decent power(slightly more powerful than 9500 gt) so that's the least you should consider !!! Cheers

 

[GI_JONES]

Trust MrWolf, he speaks the truth. (unless you are little red riding hood)

 

[jaguarskx]

I recommend against the GeForce GT 210. Yes, it is relatively inexpensive, but it has very poor performance. You did not list what resolution you plan on playing games at, so I will assume a relatively low resolution of 1280x1024. Below is how well (or poorly) the GT 210 performs in Crysis. Crysis is still one of the more demanding games even though it has been released a few years ago. That's with all graphic settings maxed out.

For other resolutions and other game benchmarks click following link.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_5550/10.html


Again, this is a chart for Crysis benchmarks, but with more modern cards. The same test rig is used as in the other review (Intel i7-980 @ 3.8GHz)

For other resolutions and other game benchmarks click the following link.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_6670/11.html


As you can see the Radeon HD 6450 does just as well as the GT 220 scoring a benchmark of 8 FPS while the GT 210 can only manage 3FPs. You can buy the Radeon HD 6450 for $33 after rebate in the following.

Radeon HD 6450
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121439


While the Radeon HD 6450 is more powerful than the GT 210 it still provides poor performance in modern games. I highly recommend that you increase you budget a little otherwise you may find that the GT 210 or HD 6450 will be a waste of money and you need to spend more money (and time) on a replacement card.

Stepping up to $50 after rebate you can buy the Radeon HD 6570. Although it is not part of the benchmarks above, other benchmarks have shown that it is marginally slower than the Radeon HD 5670. For slightly more money you can buy the Radeon HD 6670 for $55 after rebate. This card is on average about 10% faster than Radeon HD 5670 which means it is more than 10% faster than the Radeon HD 6570. It costs 10% more, but on a small budget the Radeon HD 6670 is the card I recommend.

Radeon HD 6570
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102934

Radeon HD 6670
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102952


Since you only have a 300w PSU, there is one other card that you can consider for your PC... the recently released Radeon HD 7750. However, this card sells for $109, that's a little more than 3x the original amount of money you wanted to spend, but it's just for comparison purposes. As you can see below the Radeon HD 7750 managed 27FPS at 1280x1240 resolution. That's 9x the performance for 3x the price of the GT 210; the card you were originally thinking about buying.

Radeon HD 7750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161403

See review in the following link.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/HD_7750/12.html


So... why am I recommending Radeon HD cards instead of GeForce GT/GTX cards? Simple... nVidia cards generally consumes more power than AMD cards. Therefore, to recommend a video card that can match the performance of the video cards I recommended you would also need to replace the power supply.

 

[refillable]

Yes it should be compatible, you get the old card out and put the new one in. But, as other says, We don't recommend G 210. Why? It has an extremely low performance, even at old resolutions like 1280x1024 (stated above). We know it's priced very well, but really, there is lots of better deals in the same price.\

This for example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121439

This should be OK on your PC, and with $7 more, you can get more than twice the performance by the G 210.

If you want much better performance, you can get this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102952