Graphics card upgrade

I want to upgrade the graphics card for my new comp. I want to get something reasonable, but that will also run the game in Ultra mode without any problems.

The rig is: HP Pavilion AMD Athlon 11 650 quad 8GB DDR3 w/ ATI Radeon 4200 and the monitor is HP 2311x

Any suggestions for a nice card to throw in?

First thing to ask is "are you sure a discreet graphics card will fit?"
I haven't been up on the pre-built, brand name, computers for a while... But I think they have gotten better about that.

If the answer is yes, the next question is "do you have a brand preference?" (AMD/ATI, or nVidia)

If not, then a Radeon HD 6870 or GTX 560 would be a good starting point. (Links used as examples, not true suggestions.)

Depending on your budget, we can narrow in on the best card for you.

Does this look like your system? (PDF link)

You say you aren't a hardware person, but any information you can provide can help. Can you link to the system? Maybe provide a model number at least?

I don't want to bother you with questions you might not be able to answer, but power supply capacity and expansion slots can be helpful. (Modern video cards can suck up a lot of power, and if you have to upgrade that it will affect your budget.)

I can't find any power supply information easily, so if you can't provide that then someone with more knowledge of your computer might have to answer.

I *think *(I'm at work) that looks exactly like my system. Bought the whole package at WallyMarticus for $700.00. I know you geeks could build 3 times the machine for half the price, but I takes what I can talk the wife into. (this is quite a step up from the middle of the road Dell that was 6 years old...)

i am pretty happy with it. I will be ecstatic with it if I can get a card onto it that will run Ultra and do so well for a couple years.

Thx to everyone helping me muddle through this. I just spent half hour on the HP website. How can you refine a 1,100 results search and get 80.000+ results? Argh...

Anyways, (again, at work) I think this is the thing I got, though less sure than the link posted above (which I'm like 99.9% sure is my PC)

But I found this on HP, and if so it says 250W.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...en&lc=en#N1106

As I said in one of your many threads Blue, my recommended upgrade path is an Antec EA-430D coupled with a GTX 550Ti. I'm assuming you are on a budget.

The Antec if physically the same size as the PSU that comes in HP Pavilions plus it provides a lot of 12 volt power (384 watts), which is what both the CPU and a real video card.

The GTX 550Ti is listed as using 116 watts.
The GTX 560 is listed as using 150 watts.
The GTX 560Ti is listed as using 170 watts.

The AMD Athlon II X4 650 is listed as using up to 95 watts.

Thx Father Xmas (and everyone). Looks like my budget for this is around $300.00 for the power upgrade and card.

My last question is should I take it down to a comp tech I know, or try to do it myself? I have never worked on comps much. To give you an idea of my technical level I recently had to put a new battery on my KORG A1 effects processor. I got it out of the rack, cracked the box, found the battery. Played around with it for about 1/2 hour (desperately trying to figure it out and not apply to much force and break it). I gave up, took it to my friend who is an electrical engineer (and always busy). He asks me 1) is it here (yes) 2) is it already open? (yes!) He walk over to it, touches the battery with his finger, pops it out, puts the new one in. I know a local comp tech I trust, but he has a 'real business'. Prob charge me $50.00 or so to do this.

If you have absolutely no confidence in your ability to do this then I would take it to the tech so long as he only charges you around $50. It's really easy to swap a power supply and even easier to swap a video card... provided you know what you are doing or can figure it out. But if you do it wrong then you could wind up with various plugs not going to where they need to be and maybe a broken clip or two.

For $300 I would still go with the Antec EA-430D and pair it with a GTX 560.

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Now whatever video card you get, before you do any of this, go to either AMD or nVidia, depending on the GPU brand, and download the latest driver or in the case of AMD, the last driver that works with this game. Remember where you saved this so when your bring the system back up after the PSU swap and video card installation, you can run this.

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Well it uses the same case layout and motherboard as my parent's HP they got earlier this year.

My only concern for a novice is knocking loose one or more somewhat undocumented case cables to the motherboard. This is where a digital camera and a bright light can come in handy, photograph the motherboard and document what goes where before you start to yank things out. Digital cameras are a godsend.

This is the motherboard. There are only two cables you need to concern yourself with, the large 24 pin cable whose connector (2 by 12) you see midway on the lower edge and the 4 pin cable (2 by 2, two black and two yellow wires) whose connector is rotated 45 degrees and is located in the photo between the CPU socket and the connectors that stick out of the back of the computer. It's next to a silver heatsink.

The only other two power connectors are to the hard drive and the optical drive. I believe they both use the standard SATA power connector. I'm pretty sure that no 4-pin old style Molex power connectors are used (the optical drive's power may be via an adapter Molex to SATA power. Hyper's previous post shows what the connectors look like.

Also before rummaging around inside the case do the following, turn off the computer, unplug the power cable, turn the computer back on. This discharges any power that's built up in capacitors on the motherboard. Best not to have any power hanging around.

This is the service manual (PDF file) for that PC (assuming you got the p7-1003w, it fits your description). It will go over the steps on how to open your case (note, you just need to open the side, no need to remove the front), add a card and describe how to swap out the hard drive and optical drive. I know you swaping them but it will tell you about the power cables and show you where the drives are located in the case. What the manual won't tell you about is how to swap out the power supply.

Once you've shut down the computer, unplug the wall cable from the back of the computer, discharge any remaining power by trying to turn it on unplugged, take off the side and lay the case over onto it's side do the following.

Unplug the two power cables from the motherboard and carefully move them out of the way, making sure to not dislodge any other cables plugged into the motherboard. You may have to thread them through and between other cables until they are clear.

Then unplug the power cable from the hard drive and again carefully move it out of the way, making sure to not dislodge any other cable plugged into the motherboard. Again you may have to thread it through other cables.

As you move these cables out of the way, the only one that should be left is the one connecting to the optical drive. Unplug that now. This cable should be in the clear.

The power supply is held in by four screws. Simply unscrew them and you should be able to remove the power supply.

Now just do everything in reverse with the new power supply. Note that you are going to have a lot more and a lot longer cables with the new power supply than the old one. You may want to estimate how long of each cable you need and bundle up the excess before you try to install it. If not certainly do it after word, there isn't a lot of space in that case and you don't want the excess cables hanging around all over, it interrupts the air flow.

Now install you video card according to the manual. It uses the two, six pin PCIe power connectors coming from the new power supply. Plug these into the video card so it will work.

Now if everything was done right you can close up the case, plug it in and power up.

Was there anything I overlooked Dr. Hyperstrike?

I have a similar machine to the original poster and also want to upgrade. Can you get an antec that would perhaps support larger wattage lets say 800 watts in the same case?

Also, is there a card that could still fit into 1 slot that would have enough power for ultra mode? I thought AMD had come out with something recently.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Father Xmas As I said in one of your many threads Blue, my recommended upgrade path is an Antec EA-430D coupled with a GTX 550Ti. I'm assuming you are on a budget. The Antec if physically the same size as the PSU that comes in HP Pavilions plus it provides a lot of 12 volt power (384 watts), which is what both the CPU and a real video card. The GTX 550Ti is listed as using 116 watts. The GTX 560 is listed as using 150 watts. The GTX 560Ti is listed as using 170 watts. The AMD Athlon II X4 650 is listed as using up to 95 watts.

All the cards I listed should be able to run ultra mode to some degree (at least minimum UM settings with the GTX 550Ti or HD 6770).

Why in Odin's name do you want to stick a 800 watt PSU into that tiny microATX case. Honestly, not a lot of room between the rear of a standard size, 140mm deep, ATX12V PSU and the optical drive once you include the tied up bundle of excess cables. Antec's EA-500 is also a standard size PSU.

Thx for the very good technical run downs folks. I will get the power suplly and card listed above nd either have my friend the engineer put it in (prob not, he a grump) or the guy I know that runs a comp business, or a very good friend who is 3 hours away who can build comps. But after all the above talk I'm not touching it myself. Now, if you need some math, accounting, research, decision making done, I'm your guy. Touching little fragile parts and not breaking things, no way. Even when I paint/draw its with big bold sweeping motions lol.

The 6770 (aka 5770 rebadged) can most certainly run ultra mode with the athlon II. It might be vulnerable to lag on trials and zone events but it should handle mid level UM just fine.

Edit: I would measure how much room you have for the Graphics card. I installed a 560Ti in my friend's HP and barely had a 1/2" an inch to spare. To think, I liked that card since it was short compared to the 6870 I had. :/

got a question, I just upgraded from a gtx 280 to gtx 480. I am running at 1920x1200 on lcd monitor, would i get anything from adding a second lower card to run physix(sp),and if so what is a cheap one to use?(the 280 is not avail).

my cpu is a i7-960 if that matters so i should have enough cpu horsepower.

Thank you