Help, my son is asking me for a graphics card!

superscaper

This is about as good a graphics card you're going to get http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=246192&sourceid=2459&CAWELAID=84123474

and that's really quite poor and you're not going to get any modern games to play well on it if at all. There's no PCI Express or AGP slots on the motherboard. If you want significantly better graphics I'm afraid it's going to require a significant upgrade (motherboard, processory etc) and if you're not able or willing to basically build the pc yourself it will have to be a new one.

amonra

Dont let your son con you into buying a new state-of-the-art computer, it's never going to be big enough, fast enough, for the game players. Tell him to save his pocket money or go and get a part time job to fund the new setup. Let him learn the hard way.

superscaper

amonra wrote: »

Dont let your son con you into buying a new state-of-the-art computer, it's never going to be big enough, fast enough, for the game players. Tell him to save his pocket money or go and get a part time job to fund the new setup. Let him learn the hard way.

As far as I can tell the son only asked for a graphics card. It was me that suggested a new computer. Not sure how this turned into a parenting thread.

weegie.geek

Conor wrote: »

What are you on about? I have a 7800GT and it runs everything I own at 1440x900 at high detail.

First off, everything you own. I'm guessing you don't own Crysis, for example. Crysis is of course one of the more extreme examples since it's a very demanding game.

This chart shows the difference between your card which costs ~£60 now, and the 8800GTS, which will give similar performance to an 8800GT. There's an 8800GT on the list, but it's the overclocked version so it wouldn't be fair to compare.

Now, given the that tomshardware list shows performance at a lower resolution than you run things at, at high detail, do you really play games at 18fps?

TES4 is a few years old now as well, albeit it was the Crysis of its day in regard to demands for power.

So while you might play YOUR games at high detail at that (relatively low) resolution, it doesn't mean that it'll play new games at those settings, which is what I said in my post.

As it turns out though, the OP's system isn't going to be any use for modern games unless the motherboard is replaced. Ideally the processor and ram along with it.

BritBrat

BE WARNED !!!!

If you install a very powerful graphics card you may also need to update the power supply.

Sounds like he will be getting a new computer for Christmas.

BillScarab

superscaper wrote: »

This is about as good a graphics card you're going to get http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=246192&sourceid=2459&CAWELAID=84123474

and that's really quite poor and you're not going to get any modern games to play well on it if at all. There's no PCI Express or AGP slots on the motherboard. If you want significantly better graphics I'm afraid it's going to require a significant upgrade (motherboard, processory etc) and if you're not able or willing to basically build the pc yourself it will have to be a new one.

Are you sure? There's two motherboards with a part number of MS-6714 on the MSI site. One of which has a 4x AGP slot. If the OP has that one they could look for an AGP card.

No AGP

With AGP

Might be worth taking the side panel off to check what it looks like.

weegie.geek

BillScarab wrote: »

Are you sure? There's two motherboards with a part number of MS-6714 on the MSI site. One of which has a 4x AGP slot. If the OP has that one they could look for an AGP card.

No AGP

With AGP

Might be worth taking the side panel off to check what it looks like.

Good spot.

angel

Thanks again for all of the replies. You lot really are clever!

I've just told him that it's not as simple as say adding ram and we've read all of the posts here and he's reluctantly agreed.

As we're moving to Canada in the summer he'll be buying himself a new pc anyway. He's been saving up and expects that by christmas he'll have enough for a pretty good one. He's looking forward to getting a little job then too as he'll be old enough.

Thanks again!

Itsuru

superscaper wrote: »

I don't understand this. If referring to the interface, PCI, AGP and PCI Express are not compatible with each other.

I meant PCI 2.0 cards are backwards compatiable with earlier PCI interfaces.

superscaper

Itsuru wrote: »

I meant PCI 2.0 cards are backwards compatiable with earlier PCI interfaces.

My understanding was that PCI 2 was the first version of the slot standard, PCI 1 was merely a standardisation of the components and not the slot interconnect. Unless the OP's PC is over 15 years old I don't think they have to worry about pre PCI 2. I'm not sure how ancient revisions of PCI (a legacy technology) are relevant to what weegie.geek said.