Hardware What graphics card?

[ByteMunch]

Hiya,
Basically, I want to buy a graphics card decent enough to play Minecraft with Bumpmapping, etc. (Daxnitro's GLSL renderer). At the moment I have an ATI x600 (PCI-E). I have no clue what i'm talking about here, any help? My budget is probably £150 max.

 

[Sausage Head]

you dont need a good graphics card for minecraft, you need ram memory and a good processor

 

[ByteMunch]

you dont need a good graphics card for minecraft, you need ram memory and a good processor

But as I said, the bumpmapping mod is what i'm getting the new card for. The X600 was moved to legacy support, and as such cannot have any catalyst drivers over 10-2. 11-1 is required

 

[Deleted User]

you dont need a good graphics card for minecraft, you need ram memory and a good processor

But as I said, the bumpmapping mod is what i'm getting the new card for. The X600 was moved to legacy support, and as such cannot have any catalyst drivers over 10-2. 11-1 is required

More information would be required, as to how old your computer is, what processor it's running, what motherboard, what power supply you have. You can't just go and stick a AMD 6850 in a random machine without knowing the power requirements, because it may do several things, break the PSU, draw too much power and throttle other components, things like that. Also number/type of slots. Yeah.

http://www.filehippo.com/download_speccy/ - is a good place to start.

 

[ByteMunch]

Sorry about the late reply, GCSE week

But anyway, I got speccy... What should I be buying first if I wanna play higher-spec games??

 

[Deleted User]

So this is a dell computer then? Most companies tend to use customized, proprietary parts, so they're often difficult to upgrade (if at all possible). I searched around for a little bit and came across an old forum post from 2007 where this motherboard diagram was posted.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/syst...sm/parta116.jpg

On the other hand, what I'm worried about now is the fact that your computer has integrated graphics. Which probably means that your PSU would have to be upgraded as well to support a graphics card. Then again, this also depends on what actual graphics cards your system can support in the first place (which isn't my best category). Could you show us the specifics of the motherboard tab?

 

[Rydian]

Click the "motherboard" button on the left and take another screenshot.

EDIT: Ninja'd by less than a minute.

 

[doyama]

I always look at Toms Hardware's Graphics Card recommendations

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-g...670,2935-3.html

Looks like the Radeon HD 5770 (Radeon HD 6770) is probably optimal for you considering your price point. It's also a low end enough card that you're not going to run into major power supply issues. You'll just need to check if you have a spare molex available for the single power draw that it needs.

The only thing is that if your Dell chassis can't hold the card. It's a full length video card and I wonder if you have one of those Dell 'slim' models where putting in a video card might be an issue? If it's a tower desktop type then you should be ok. Just something to think about.

 

[Originality]

Normally the graphics card is the most important part to upgrade for playing modern games, however the CPU you're using is rather old so it may cause a bottleneck.

Here's a Scan link for their nVidia GTX 550, 560 and 560 Ti. They are all modern mid-range graphics cards that can easily handle the new games, although even having the best PC will still encounter problems with minecraft, or so I hear. At least getting a decent graphics card will take you a step closer to a modern upgrade.

After that you should replace the CPU for something more modern like an AMD Phenom II or an intel Core i3. That also means replacing the motherboard (you can find budget motherboards for £40-60) and the RAM (£40 for 4GB of DDR3 RAM... Bit less if you can find a deal at a local computer fair).

EDIT: I missed the mention of Dell. Most Dell PCs simply cannot be upgraded. Some are packed too small, most cases don't have good enough cooling for better components, and almost always the power supply won't handle anything more than the parts it came with. Those are the biggest corners Dell cut on to get low prices.

 

[Deleted User]

On that note, you'll probably have much better luck with a modern low-budget machine with a dedicated graphics cards (and an upgrade path). Best of luck. Edit: Ninja'd w/ love man.

 

[ByteMunch]

Cheers for the replies guys

I'll stick up a motherboard tab shot anyway... And (I think) my card isn't integrated, I've been inside the tower to add RAM, and I saw that it was removable

Edit: Its a Dell Dimension 5150

 

[Rydian]

I can't find any info on what expansion slots there are, if any.

 

[raulpica]

I can't find any info on what expansion slots there are, if any.

Judging by the northbridge, it should have a PCIe 16x.

And well, looking at the motherboard..

It is pretty much confirmed

EDIT: You were talking of the GPU slot, with that "expansion slots", right, Rydian?

 

[Minox]

The Dell Dimension 5150 should have one PCI-E x16, one PCI-E x1 and two PCI slots as can be seen in the manual Dell provides here (page 67).

And the ATI x600 from what I remember is a dedicated GPU and not an integrated one so it should already be plugged into the PCI-E x16 slot.

 

[ByteMunch]

So shall I try with the Radeon HD 5770 or will that cause bottlenecks?

 

[Originality]

The graphics cad won't cause a bottleneck, the CPU and intel chipset (motherboard) will cause a bottleneck (probably). What you need to take note of is how much power the power supply provides. That is what will dictate whether or not you can upgrade your graphics card.

That, and the cooling ability of the case, which is almost non-existent.