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Help Make My PC Shiny Again

susansusan Registered User regular
edited July 2010 in Help / Advice Forum
Not sure if I should be posting this here or in the Gaming and Technology forum, but I've had good success here in the past so I figured I'd give it a shot.

The situation: My PC is a couple years old, and is starting to have serious problems handling games even on really low settings. My initial thought is that I need a new graphics card. My second thought was that I don't know anything about graphics cards, or computers in general, and will probably electrocute myself good and dead if I try any self-repair, but then again there are worse ways to die than preparing for Starcraft 2. My third thought is that someone here can probably take a look at my system snapshot and immediately tell me what to do:

Component Details Subscore Base score
Processor AMD Phenom(tm) 9650 Quad-Core Processor 5.9
4.0
Determined by lowest subscore
Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB 5.9
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics 4.2
Gaming graphics 3323 MB Total available graphics memory 4.0
Primary hard disk 101GB Free (685GB Total) 5.9
Windows Vista (TM) Home Premium

System
Manufacturer HP-Pavilion
Model NC684AA-ABA a6750y
Total amount of system memory 8.00 GB RAM
System type 64-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 4
Storage
Total size of hard disk(s) 698 GB
Disk partition (C:) 101 GB Free (685 GB Total)
Disk partition (D:) 2 GB Free (13 GB Total)
Media drive (E:) CD/DVD
Media drive (J:) CD/DVDCD/DVD
Graphics
Display adapter type ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics
Total available graphics memory 3323 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 256 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 3067 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.540.0.0
Primary monitor resolution 1440x900
DirectX version DirectX 10
Network
Network Adapter Realtek RTL8168C(P)/8111C(P) Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.0)
Network Adapter USB Wireless 802.11 b/g Adaptor
Network Adapter Microsoft Tun Miniport Adapter

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susan on

Posts

  • NathrakNathrak Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Your initial thought is correct, that video card is definitely holding you back and even a pretty cheap upgrade would be a world of difference. Something like a Geforce GT 240 DDR5(~$90 in US) should work great for not too much money and shouldn't even require a power supply upgrade like going for a faster card would.

    Nathrak on
  • ScorchedScorched Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Yep, your system is more than enough to handle even the most modern games on high quality.... if you upgrade the video card. Unlike the above poster, though, I'd suggest a AMD HD5750 (it's 20 bucks more expensive than the GTS240, but it's much more modern and can use DX11 features.)


    Before settling on a card though, why don't you visit this thread in the tech subforum and have them advice you. Just tell them how much you're willing to spend on a video card, and give them the processor / ram and they'll double check for you.

    Scorched on
  • ScosglenScosglen Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    This machine is getting a little long in the tooth and probably not worth throwing money at a significant replacement of components. Dropping in a new GPU would be both the easiest and most noticeable performance boost for you.

    I agree with putting a budget card in, at the ~$90-120 range. Neither of the cards mentioned will run demanding, new games at very high resolutions with maximum settings, but you should be able to coax reasonable medium performance out of most new games, and high settings for less demanding fare like Starcraft.

    Scosglen on
  • 1ddqd1ddqd Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    The GTX460 has a MSRP of $200 and is getting fantastic reviews (and overclocks!)

    A much better buy than the 5750 and competitively priced!

    1ddqd on
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