Can someone please explain graphics/video cards to me, & make a suggestion??

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Ok- I consider myself quite computer savvy.

However, I've never messed with upgrading graphics cards before, and I'm a bit lost.
Though I'm a proud Apple fan, the 'family" desktop is currently my wife's Windows Vista machine (yuck. :Angry-Tongue: )

And while I'd eventually like to convince her to make the switch to a nice iMac or the like, currently I'm looking at trying to upgrade the graphics card in the PC for better gaming for my kids & other applications.

According to HP tech support, this model has a 128MB PCI-E card. It's "low profile."
Now, I get that if I want to upgrade it, I simply need to go online and buy a PCI-E "low profile" card with more graphics memory.

However, it seems that some of these graphics cards I'm looking at online are "upgradable," meaning that they'll support more memory than they come with stock.

So is that as simple as changing out a RAM card in the actual video card? And if so, can I just do that with the current one I have, how would I find out?

Like I said, I was totally unaware that certain graphics cards could support more video memory, which made me think it may be as simple as like when you add RAM to your computer.

Can someone clarify this for me?
And also, I'd love to hear suggestions on how much memory I should upgrade to. I have small children, so they aren't heavy gamers. Mostly learning games and a few online games. Also, I notice that machine moves a little sluggish when I set my screen resolution to 1400X900, which is what our 17" LCD supports.
So I'm assuming that with a better graphics card, I can keep the higher resolution without suffering from performance issues.

Thanks for the tips!
 
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So is that as simple as changing out a RAM card in the actual video card? And if so, can I just do that with the current one I have, how would I find out?

No, you probably dont have a dedicated video card right now, if its an hp or whatever. I am assuming that it is onboard shared with the motherboard.

either way, it also sounds like you have a small form factor PC

I would check new egg and others sites and just buy a really cheap one that also requires no extra power from your power supply.

There is no way you will need over 128mb of memory on it, in addition to over a low end speed video card if you are not doing any gaming or intensive intensive video/photo editing.

hope that helps.

you can probably get away with spending under 50 easy.

maybe even like 20 bucks.
 
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No, you probably dont have a dedicated video card right now, if its an hp or whatever. I am assuming that it is onboard shared with the motherboard.

either way, it also sounds like you have a small form factor PC

I would check new egg and others sites and just buy a really cheap one that also requires no extra power from your power supply.

There is no way you will need over 128mb of memory on it, in addition to over a low end speed video card if you are not doing any gaming or intensive intensive video/photo editing.

hope that helps.

you can probably get away with spending under 50 easy.

maybe even like 20 bucks.

The HP tech told him he already has a 128mb PCI-E low profile card.

And memory doesn't = speed. A newer card with a faster GPU will process information faster and not need as much memory as an older card. That being said, 256mb cards are cheap now.

And if you read his original post you'll see that one of the reasons he is upgrading is because of his kids playing games.

A fairly good option: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162016

You'd have to find out how big your power supply is and how much that card requires.
 
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The HP tech told him he already has a 128mb PCI-E low profile card.

And memory doesn't = speed. A newer card with a faster GPU will process information faster and not need as much memory as an older card. That being said, 256mb cards are cheap now.

And if you read his original post you'll see that one of the reasons he is upgrading is because of his kids playing games.

A fairly good option: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162016

You'd have to find out how big your power supply is and how much that card requires.

excuse me for misreading I thought that was the card recommended to him, i mention memory not equaling speed actually if you read my post although speed is an issue do you want me to sit and find clock speeds, that is ridiculous hes not doing anything intensive at all.... thanks

if you read his original post ". Mostly learning games and a few online games." those are the games. even frikkin WoW isnt graphic intensive and any cheap card would do. I doubt HP's ship with a decent card so i bet just about anything would be an upgrade.

shag off.

oh and LMAO, you want him to buy THAT card for not doing anything at all that warrants that.

ell oh ell, what a waste of money that would be
 
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Half the problem up front is Windows Vista. I've not used it extensively myself, I must concede, but everything I've read says that the OS itself is graphically intensive and a huge drain on your resources by itself. Assuming your HP is relatively new then (since it's running Vista), I'm highly disinclined to believe you can get away with spending "under 50 easy". You'd likely be getting a card comparable to what you have now. Without knowing more precisely what it is you have, it's hard to make a recommendation, although VI's suggestion probably will work out for ya.
 
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103047

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814139006

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162011 ** note here they are playing pretty BIG games, oh, and its about 49 dollars 39 after rebate ***

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133237

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125095

im sure any of those will be fantastic. 65 dollars and down.
plenty of computers run vista shared fine. not great, but fine.

any of these cards im sure will be more than enough, for your "vista experience" :p
 
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The HP tech told him he already has a 128mb PCI-E low profile card.

And memory doesn't = speed. A newer card with a faster GPU will process information faster and not need as much memory as an older card. That being said, 256mb cards are cheap now.

And if you read his original post you'll see that one of the reasons he is upgrading is because of his kids playing games.

A fairly good option: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162016

You'd have to find out how big your power supply is and how much that card requires.

Purchasing that card for learning games and basic online games seems like a gigantic waste of money. Especially since, in addition to buying the card, he would almost definitly have to upgrade his power supply. How well did you read his post? I'm sure his children really need Reader Rabbit and some online flash games running at 100+ fps. Granted Vista is a resource hog, the 9600 is still overkill considering all of the lower end cards that can run it just fine.

Check out: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102754. Not only will that more than meet his needs but it is still comparable to the card you suggested and is considerably cheaper.

Maybe if his kids are trying to run Crysis or something then yah then go with the 9600 but considering they are playing learning games I'm going to assume that they are still pretty young and aren't exactly hardcore gamers.
 
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I have a novel idea. Rather than making a bunch of suggestions based on what we ASSUME he needs, let's get more details on what exactly he has now. Like I said before... "if" he has a relatively new PC, then these cheap upgrade cards may be no better than what he has now, and telling him that he should be satisfied enough when he knows or feels differently is pretty arrogant.
 
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currently I'm looking at trying to upgrade the graphics card in the PC for better gaming for my kids & other applications.

I have small children, so they aren't heavy gamers. Mostly learning games and a few online games.

Also, I notice that machine moves a little sluggish when I set my screen resolution to 1400X900, which is what our 17" LCD supports.
So I'm assuming that with a better graphics card, I can keep the higher resolution without suffering from performance issues.

Thats kind of how I qualified what he wanted. looks like a computer for his little kids to use for the most part.

Any of those cards I recommended will go above and beyond the requirements the OP mentioned

I even gave him several choices so he could decide and figure exactly which he wanted for his needs from the reviews and etc....


I have a novel idea, how about you stop being so condescending lifeisabeach. I/We are helping the most we can going off the OP's info. if they think they need more or less they can tell us everything its being used for.
 
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I'm just going on what seems logical here, he said he had kids that play learning games, that is a pretty big indicator that they are younger kids (around 4-9). He then went on to say that they played online games and I don't know too many young kids that still play learning games that also like to break out some COD4 every once in a while, so I would think that it is a pretty safe assumtion that the online games they play are not very taxing on his computer. Even if he has a relatively new computer, the card I had suggested should go above and beyond what was already in there and maintain an affordable price and if it were already that good then he would have no reason to upgrade it anyway.
 
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If you are going to spend someone else's money, you need to be ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE that you aren't wasting their money. Until we know more precisely what it is he has now, any recommendation is a risk of wasting his time/money. 'Nuff said on that.

As for being "condescending".... LOL! You really need to take another look at the tone in your own replies here, imnothardcore, before criticizing mine.
 
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Which is exactly why I picked that particular budget card. He already knows he needs an upgrade so I picked the best option for him as far as affordability and performance goes. I definitly agree with you that we shouldn't be wasting his money which is exactly why I was so adamant about him not going with the 9600 that was suggested before. Even still, I'm only offering suggestions, I'm not forcing him to purchase anything.
 
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im sure OP will respond if he needs more. you havent posted anything of any help or specs. you made a comment about your thoughts on vista speeds for his original card. some of the cards i posted are playing HL2 as well as other games at max settings. given that and what was said he needed even that may be overkill, oh and the card is 40 dollars.

el oh el, you seem like one of those people that tells people they need a macbook pro to browse websites and use itunes at the same time so that it doesnt run too slow. my only beef with this place is the people like you that try to get people to buy and waste money on performance upgrades they wont even come close to using.
 
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Sorry it took so long to get back to this, as I've been out of town for a few days.
Using a program called "PC Wizard 2008," I was able to get this info about the video card in the machine-

General Information :
Manufacturer : Nvidia Corp (Hewlett-Packard Company)
Model : NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE
Bus Type : PCI
Total Memory : 128 MB
Texture Memory : 825 MB
Processor : GeForce 6150 LE
Converter : Integrated RAMDAC
Refresh Rate (min/max) : 50/75 Hz

So according to this, it's integrated to the motherboard, right? But why does it also say that the bus type is PCI? That makes it confusing to me.

When I chatted online with HP support, they were the ones that suggested getting a PCI-E Low profile card as an upgrade.
If I do this, does the computer automatically recognize the new video card and shut off the integrated one?
Or is that something I'd have to configure in the Windows "Device Manager?"

Thanks for the help, folks!
 
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Ok... so you basically have an nVidia 6-series GPU with the core clock speed on that sucker is 425 MHz. Further hobbled by it being an "integrated" chipset. It looks like most any of the cheap cards recommended earlier will work out for ya. I'd stick to an nVidia card. Any of the 8-series should be a pretty nice step up for you. Sorry for all the arguing earlier... but better safe than sorry. There was always the off-chance that your problem had little or nothing to do with the graphics card. Anywho....

As for your question over why it says the bus-type is PCI when it's integrated... the card still uses that type of bus. It shares the system's RAM and doesn't have an actual slot to pull it out from, but the data transfers all occur in that section of the hardware.

As for the system recognizing the new vs old GPU... you may have to set this in the BIOS.
 

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