[YEPYTZME]

Hello all you nice people at PCW Forum. Just one simple question. My son wants to upgrade his (old~ish) video card for playing games. Any suggestions as to which is a (semi-really) good one and which to stay away from?

Thanks, folk.

Yepytzme

[AuroraDizon]

Be weary about where you buy them especially if you buy online. newegg.com is a good one. To help you decide what video card would be right for your son can you provide us with a little more computer information? Operating System, Ram, Processor etc.

[matchbox2022]

Well without more system info it's hard to say dude. If you bought the computer at a place like best buy or futureshop etc and haven't opened it, than it has an integrated card, and pretty much any video card from 150-250 dollars will be good, 300bucks amazin. That's a general rule I'd suppose instead of going into details about graphic cards, anything is better than integrated (unless the computer is spanking new and you got an ancient graphic card :P)

If you give us more information like;

cpu and clock speed and fsb;

Ram;

Operating System;

Current Video Card;

Power Supply ; Wattage:



I do suggest to be wary as well, don't go onto ebay and buy video cards, even if they do work, if they're old they may have problems and can be affected by shipping an be damaged, or also because of age, be affected by electromigration. (This is when a gpu or cpu is very hot and current is travelling in very confined spaces that any increase of temperature or current or both , even with normal operation over time, moves electrons eventually causing the pathways to fail and short = dead) New is probably the best to get, preferance is usually local pickups however.

[webgomer]

On your son's PC, go to Start> Programs> Accessories> System Tools> System Information. Select System Summary to get your details and post them here. If you could include the current graphics card details that would help too, look under System Information> Components> Multimedia> Display.

Also, include the PC's age and power supply details; very important! Adding a higher draw to an old power supply sometimes seals it's fate. I always upgrade power supplies when adding any new power consuming hardware to an older pc.

Also, what types of games will be played? The latest shooters are pretty intense and can be quite demanding of a graphics card. Most games will show recommended cards and also what cards are compatible. If your son is wanting to play a particular game, check that game's requirements, especially if it is a newer shooter. You can find hardware requirements and recommendations on the game manufacturers site usually.

This will give us a baseline of what to go on, for recommending a good video card.

Cheerio!
Message was edited by: webgomer

[coastie65]

Hi. Yes, this information is critical. First to determine what lind of expansion slots you hand and second, the size of your power supply which, as one post sais, was critical. The age of the computer is important, although there have been some new HP's that do not have any expansion for a decent video card as they they have neither an agp ( older accelerated graphics card) or PCIe ( the newest accelerated graphics card). Again, the more information you can give us about the computer, the better. coastie65