Is the 8400 gs 2gb good for gaming, or do i need to buy a new one?

[amanojaku]

Well, to start off i don't know much about computers. I just occasionally like to enjoy a game or to. So a while ago, i upgraded my 4 year old PC. The guy put in a new nvidia 8400 gs 2gb ram video card.

I thought more ram=Better. So i was fine with it.

But now when i look up the system specs for some of the games on www.systemrequirementslab.com, all most all new games say i need a graphic card upgrade.

I really want to play guild wars 2 when it comes it. So i'm planning to get a new computer. So it'd be really nice if someone can explain to me how to pick a graphic card. Because obviously the 2gb was a pointless waste of money.

Thank you for any help.

PSlease try to keep it simple for me. Im not very good with tech

 

[esrever]

the 2gb was a waste of money. the 8400 is a very low end card that would never use the extra ram.


whats the rest of your system?

you definitely need something new for guild wars 2.

 

[quilciri]

simplest answer:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

 

[amanojaku]

the 2gb was a waste of money. the 8400 is a very low end card that would never use the extra ram.


whats the rest of your system?

you definitely need something new for guild wars 2.

Umm, its an intel Pentium D CPU 2.80GHz.
2 gb ram
1tb harddisk
and windows 7 ultimate 32 bit. Which btw turned out to be a pirated. Wow, i really got ripped off. :/

 

[esrever]

I'd say you'd need a completely new system if you want to have a good experience with any new games coming out.

if you have the budget you should be able to build yourself a decent system for about $600-700 that would play games very well.

 

[maxinexus]

It is great for Farmville, Bejeweled...etc
To play BF3, Skyrim, SC2, Diablo3 at 720p on med you can get 7750 which does not require extra power cable( I assume your PSU is not great since you run 8400GS)
If you want more horse power you will probably need new power supply as well
It would be great to know your budget.

 

[venur]

Well as for GPUs we need to know how much you want to spend. Personaly I wouldn't go below a 7870 for a 1080p set-up but I can spend the 360$.

The 7850 is a good $/performance for 260$ but if your on a lower budget their is alternatives.

As for the Vram needed if you go for a stock set-up your probably fine. The upgraded Vram version are usualy for multiple monitor user (but I wouldn,t go for the 1.2G as it lag in some game at ultra quality). 2gb is more then enough for any 1080p solution.

Also waititng for the mid range Nvidia card might be a good idea if your not going to spend 500$ on a 680gtx.

 

[amanojaku]

It is great for Farmville, Bejeweled...etc
To play BF3, Skyrim, SC2, Diablo3 at 720p on med you can get 7750 which does not require extra power cable( I assume your PSU is not great since you run 8400GS)
If you want more horse power you will probably need new power supply as well
It would be great to know your budget.

About 900-1000 USD.

I just play mmorpgs and league of legends every now and then. I'm not really a hard core gamer. I would like for guild wars 2 to run on the highest setting because playing that game on anything but that would be a crime.

 

[quilciri]

Quick build you can use as a starting point:

$70 Thermaltake Smart SP-530P 530W
$128 i3 2120
$122 ASRock Z68 Extreme3
$47 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
$50 Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$240 HIS H785F2G2M Radeon HD 7850
$140 SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-120G-G25 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
$160 Western Digital Caviar Black WD1502FAEX 1.5TB
____
$957

 

[esrever]

About 900-1000 USD.

I just play mmorpgs and league of legends every now and then. I'm not really a hard core gamer. I would like for guild wars 2 to run on the highest setting because playing that game on anything but that would be a crime.

you can get decent advice on the system build section of the forum. I would say you'd want an i5 and 560ti or higher system with a budget like that.

 

[amanojaku]

thank you everyone for answering i'll start looking into getting a new pc now

 

[amanojaku]

Best answer selected by Amanojaku.

 

[doctortonic]

the 2gb was a waste of money. the 8400 is a very low end card that would never use the extra ram.


whats the rest of your system?

you definitely need something new for guild wars 2.

You are WRONG ! The 2Gb of ram memory will be SO GOOD for aplications like Photoshop! Better than an videocard with a lot of feat. like good high end processor and 256 / 512 mb of Ram.

Photoshop LOVES the Ram from the videocard! So more ram, the better!