Video Card Upgrade Help

[filg68]

I am playing Company of Heroes and Neverwinter Nights 2 on the following system, graphics settings set to low for both:

ASUS P5LP-LE motherboard
NVidia 7300 LE graphics card
2 GB Ram
Pentium D, 3.2 GHz CPU
350 Watt power supply, not sure of amps or make
a 19 in LCD monitor, supports up to 1280x1024 resolution

I would like to know if the system will support an NVidia 7950 card or ATI card of like power to enhance the graphics performance of the machine.

Games play well but graphics detail is low and I hate that.

Anyone that could offer advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Fil

 

[mailpup]

You will need at least a 400W power supply with 27A on the +12V rail(s) for the Nvidia 7950 graphics card.

 

[JimShady23]

Agreed

Other than that your sytem should handle a 7950 with no problems......

You will just need a better Power Supply. You can get a quality PSU with the wattage you need for right around $60 usd.

This is a very nice model for the price. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817189005

Is your computer a HP product by any chance ? Not that it makes any difference, just curious, the specs sound like an HP.

 

[filg68]

Thanks for the help, now to get out that screwdiver....and yes the system is an HP Pavillion Media Center PC m7940n model. A really good machine for the money (I don't work for HP....:haha: )

 

[F1N3ST]

A PSU wit 450W and 25A is suitable for a 8800GTS, just get something like that

 

[tweakboy]

Youll need better PSU , and youll be set. That 7300 is as budget board,

 

[filg68]

Update on Card Saga

So I took the advice and went out and bought a 600W OCZ Powerstream (for future growth if I ever want to go to an SLI configuration) and bought the nVidia 7950 the EVGA KO overclocked version. Took the boxes home waited till the kids went to bed and got down to some serious fun. 3 hours later I had everything hooked up (unbelievably cramped chassis, I had to move drives, swap cards around etc..) but in the end it got done. I hit the power button and I get......zero....zilch....nada......the fan kind of spun limply like a wet noodle in the wind for a second and gave up the ghost.

Now I am panicking did I fry the mobo, is there some proprietary gotcha from HP I don't know about? Who knows....I fiddled around till 3:00 AM and gave up, my computer looking like a patient from CSI with all its guts hanging out. Sad pathetic thing.

Got to the OZC support board the next day and they told me how to test the psu for power without a full hookup...I did that and nada, zilch, zero. The psu is busted.

Now I had a choice take the card out? put in the old one or try it on the old psu. I took a chance and re=hooked up the psu (350 W, 18A on 12v rail). I used the handy dandy joiner that comes with the card (takes two mobex inputs and turns them into a pci express power plug). Hooked everything back up and powered up. Everything worked like a charm, the sweet sound of my old power supply was running (Very quiet actually except for at start up).

Anyhow I figured its workind and I left the card in. Went into COH and at the highest quality settings and a couple of ultra's I got a max frame rate of 136 from the in game tester. That's good enough for me. The graphics are phenomenal.

Not sure if I am gonna go through the trouble of upgrading the psu or not, now that it seems to work. I'll try it out for a couple of days and see how it goes. I've got the card temperature log going so I can keep an eye on that.

So I don't get this thing with the psu needed for the card, its working ok with the 350W? How come? The hard drives are running on SATA connectors could that reduce the load requirements?

And thanks to everyone who posted their replies, it was a fun adventure in the end and got to learn a lot.

If anything changes I'll post again.

 

[JimShady23]

Well

Basically your PSU will strain, it will heat up and will eventually die from being strained. Depending on the quality of the unit it may take out several componants or the whole system out with it. (cheap PSU's have bad power protection) OEM manufatures such as Dell, E-machine, HP and Gateway to name a few are not in the habbit of putting quality PSU's in their machines. Basically just enough juice to make the thing run is their philosophy.

I would really suggest going through the trouble of changing it again...Its a good precaution....

Its kinda like putting a 4 cylinder engine in a Monster Truck....

The last PSU you had was a good unit, just DOA LoL...And you get that a lot. (welcome to the world of computer componants) I myself get DOA products from otherwise trustworthy manufactures 1-3 times it seems latley. I just today finished replacing the 3 day old motherboard in my new system that took a poop....Its a great brand (Asus) but once and a while you get a bad egg.

 

[SNeaKY_BuGGeR]

Yup!

Which isn't down to the manufacturer most times it is down to the transportation or storage.. people must realise that electronic components are fragile and need to be handled with care.

Oh and a silly question but did you turn the power supply unit on? It has a power switc at the back of it! he he

 

[filg68]

DOH! forgot to turn it on.....no I did that several times but thanks sometimes the obvious things are the ones that get you. I ended up buying an Ultra power supply with customizable cables. I found the other one while very cool looking with the blue led fan lights et al was a little big for the space and the cables where bent at all sorts of awkward angles. The component cables made it more manageable and it was tight but it fit. I had to move everything around disk drives, cd rom drives and pci cards to get everything to fit properly. I am now getting problems with my audio card which sits next to the graphics cards, the sound will play fine for about 1/2 hour and then it goes all wonky I am wondering if the fan from the vid card might be sending a little too much heat its way...its the only thing I can think of. Anybody ever have that happened. And thanks for all the replies and support much appreciated.