Buying a new Graphics Card?

[Gregor]

I'm looking at getting a new graphics card but my computers pretty old (5 years) so im worried about compatibility. Are there any tools that can analyse your comp and tell you if a card is comp? If not what do I need to consider? My motherboard has 2 16 lane PCI express slots and a 550 watt power supply. Anything else I need to consider?

Furthermore does anyone know a good review website for graphics cards? Ill be shopping in the <£50 market.

 

[Lee]

Your biggest concern should be size. Newer graphics cards are huge.

Components Graphics Cards Reviews

 

[Gregor]

Does this for example mean that I need DDR3 RAM? Sapphire Technology Web Site

How do i know if one is better than the other eg http://www.amd.com/us/products/desk...s/ati-radeon-hd-3800-system-requirements.aspx V http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-Radeon...1_9?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1322689063&sr=1-9

 

[Nathan]

No, that is just the memory on the GPU.

This should be alright.
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - Aria Technology

 

[Jak]

what is your current computer spec and power supply? this will determine what card you can get

 

[Raikan007]

1) do you have pci express x16 (at least one)
2) DDR is just the RAM on the card and has no correlation to your system memory (get DDR5, not 3, its ****)
3) do you like Nvidia or ATI?
4) how much do you have to spend?
5) do you have midi case? what CPU are you running?
6) ask me, I have been doing research on pc hardware for 3 months straight now, every part etc etc....

PM me if you want Gregor

 

[Gregor]

1) do you have pci express x16 (at least one) YES
2) DDR is just the RAM on the card and has no correlation to your system memory (get DDR5, not 3, its ****)
3) do you like Nvidia or ATI? No preference but the trouble thats lead to me getting a new card is with Nvidia
4) how much do you have to spend? 50ish
5) do you have midi case? what CPU are you running? AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+ with HT Tech.
Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition
Midi-Tower ATX Case +550W PSU -Black/Silver
ASUS A8N-SLI SE PCI-Express Mainboard - ATX
1024MB DDR400 Memory - PC3200 (2x512)
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer
RAM SONY 16x Dual Layer DVD-Re-Writable +R/-R/RW/RAM
256MB nVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS - Dual DVI,HDTV & TV-Out + DVI - PCI-Express
6) ask me, I have been doing research on pc hardware for 3 months straight now, every part etc etc....

PM me if you want Gregor

 

[Raikan007]

what games do you play?

For benchmarks and other things of that nature:

Tom's Hardware: Hardware News, Tests and Reviews

For research and even ordering (if you can from the US) just a great site:

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Video Cards & Video Devices, Desktop Graphics / Video Cards, $25 - $50

 

[Gregor]

So the card game, I got this but.... My computer wont boot with it in my computer. When I turn on my computer it turns on, the fan on the card spins away fine but nothing appears on screen and my comp doesnt make its usually cheery beep noise when its booting. Any ideas? Ive tried disabling my current graphics card in device manager and Ive had a fddle with the bios setting, its def looking at my pci-e slot first for a card. I installed my friends card fine in my computer by just sticking it in and firing on the comp that then found the drivers itself.

EDIT: This is the aforementioned card I got from my friend that works fine in my pc