I have a Compaq Presario S3100NX
o/s XP
1 G RAM
a S3 Graphics ProSavage DDR supported AGP 4X 66 MHZ PCI video card
wondering how I know which video card I could upgrade to? It's very confusing. Not a heavy gamer but would like better quality etc....but soooooo many choices. Help!
SW
How-To Geek Forums » Build Your Own PC
wondering how i know what video card is correct for my pc
(12 posts)
so what exactly do you want to do that you need a better video card for movies, games or what. or just want to for no real reason. but if you just want a normal quality one i would go with one with like 64 to 128 or even 256 mb but you shouldn't need to go any higher than that. and make sure to get an agp card and not a pci or pci-e i made that mistake once.
Here's a chart of the fastest graphics chips for 3D gaming:
http://www.tomshardware.com/ch.....e,538.html
However, you need to figure out what open slots your computer has, because you can't buy a pci-express card if your motherboard doesn't have an open slot for it, etc.
I'd look at the system manual, or check the manufacturer's website for a manual.
I found the HP Product Specifications for your computer.
You can use a PCI or AGP 4X graphics card.
AGP is better then PCI but outdated.
The current standard that recent computers use is PCI Express.
You can still get an AGP graphics card and it will be better then your current one though.
You just can't get the latest cards to run the newest games and such.
Reading this thread and your other thread I realize that you might be stretching it - Upgrading your system might not be worth it. If you add up the cost of a decent graphics card and for Vista you have half of the money for a new computer including Vista. And with your system you are always stuck with 1GB which is really insufficient for Vista other than Basic.
whs makes a good point, new computers are really, really cheap these days. There's a number of sites that track deals on computers... I personally like this one:
For instance:
Dell Inspiron 530N, Intel®Pentium® dual-core processor E2160, 1.80GHz, 2GB RAM, 320GB, 20 inch E207WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel, nVidia GeForce 8300GS 128MB, 16X DVD+/-RW Drive, IEEE 1394a Adapter, Ubuntu Linux version 7.10 with DVD Playback, 1yr At-Home Warranty, Free 3GB DataSafe Online Backup for 1Year » for $559 at Dell.com
http://www.deals2buy.com/show/17008073/deals.htm
[edit] Just noticed, you'd probably want a video card upgrade in that for gaming, but there are other deals on the site that are cheaper too.
For great, short term deals on PCs and all kinds of hardware.
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