What graphics card would my PC be able to handle?

[Kenny Amormino]

Hello! Thank you in advance for reading this post! Now, I am a little new to building PC's but I am wondering what is the best and least expensive graphics card my PC can handle.

I have Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 2
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E7200 @ 2.53GHz
No clue what my PSU is.
4gb's of RAM
Cuurent Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT

Please, can anyone help me out? My max budget is 100 US dollars. I need a new hard drive while I am at it.

 

[cliffordcooley]

No clue what my PSU is.

Thats a problem because without knowing what PSU you have there is no way for us to advise.

Look inside the PC at the side of the PSU and give us some of the details. In fact it would be easier if you took a readable picture of the label and posted it.

Would your budget be for both GPU and HDD or just the GPU?

 

[Kenny Amormino]

Lightning fast response! Thank you! Ok, I disassembled my PC and it is 430W and for GPU what would you recommend?

 

[cliffordcooley]

With a 430W PSU and a $100 budget, you can't expect to get anything great as far as gaming. I was mainly curious to know if you had a bette PSU than 300W before suggesting anything. With a $100 budget the 430W PSU should be fine for any graphics card of the last 2 or 3 generations.

Newegg Search for the best cards (from the last few generations) under $100, that also require less than 430W of power.

 

[Kenny Amormino]

Ok, well then what would I be able to get for 200 US dollars? I don't really need a new hard drive.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Actually with the 430W PSU, you would be best to stay within the $100 range. Anything greater than $130 will likely need more power from a PSU.

The easiest way would be to post what you planning on doing with the graphics card. Then you could get advice on which card you would likely need.

Be fore warned that if you are planning on gaming, it is very likely you will need to upgrade PSU's as well. For gaming which game titles and what resolutions are you planning on playing?

 

[Kenny Amormino]

Well, the games that I am trying to currently run right now are not running as good as they should be. For example. Fallout New Vegas. Around 40 frames. It annoys me to no end. I have it set to lowest settings as well. Just want to really amp up my FPS on some of my games is all.

 

[slh28]

Something like a 7750 will give you a huge improvement over what you've got currently.

 

[Kenny Amormino]

So the AMD Radeon HD right? Would it be able to improve my overall experience in Fallout or Battlefield 2? No way I would ever be able to run Battlefield 3 hahaha

 

[nismo91]

With 7750 I believe you are able to play battlefield 3 in fairly high detail in low-med resolution. and yes it will be a hell of improvement from the previous card - nvidia 7300GT.

 

[Kenny Amormino]

And just to clarify, my PC can handle it. Correct? If this is true then what would the average cost be at a retail price?

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

Yes should be okay.

 

[Kenny Amormino]

Welp, thank you all for the help! Called my local tech guy, he is putting that graphics card in and 4 more gigabytes of ram for only 200 dollars. Thanks again

 

[slh28]

Welp, thank you all for the help! Called my local tech guy, he is putting that graphics card in and 4 more gigabytes of ram for only 200 dollars. Thanks again

Considering the GPU costs $100 and 4GB of DDR2 RAM is $50 (DDR3 is even cheaper at $20 or so) that's not a great quote. Especially considering the GPU and RAM are two of the easiest parts to change, I'd recommend you buy the parts and install them yourself.

 

[Kenny Amormino]

Considering the GPU costs $100 and 4GB of DDR2 RAM is $50 (DDR3 is even cheaper at $20 or so) that's not a great quote. Especially considering the GPU and RAM are two of the easiest parts to change, I'd recommend you buy the parts and install them yourself.

I probably should have also added in I am also getting a new hard drive along with all of that stuff.