Video card

C

cvkiwi

New member
Hi all My computer told me that I have to replace my video card
I am running TRS 2012
and my computer is running on
Intell core i7cpu
8.00gb ram
64 bit system
computer is around 3-4 years old
and needs updating
please advise a GOOD vid card replacement
I am wanting to create a good route that is as clear as some of those good routes
that are out there at the moment
Thank you all for your help
chris sullivan
NEW ZEALAND
 
We would need to know a bit more to help more, how big is your power supply, what is your budget, and how much space is there in your computer for the graphics card.
 
ryanstrains said:
We would need to know a bit more to help more, how big is your power supply, what is your budget, and how much space is there in your computer for the graphics card.
Click to expand...

Budget is $1,000
Ram is 8.00gb
and as for the mother board I have no idea where to find that out sorry
chris
 
The latest video cards may be incompatible with your motherboard so if you don't want to change that then that will restrict your choice. I'm in the same boat. I'd like to upgrade my video card but I'd probably need a new motherboard, CPU and maybe RAM as well.

How did your computer tell you to replace your video card?
 
Some of these video cards are very large due to fans etc and can take up a lot of space. If you can open your computer case then you should be able to see the motherboard brand and model. Then do a web search for the manual which will tell you what video card slots it has. Prepackaged computers tend to come with small power supplies to reduce cost and video cards can suck up a lot of power. I've had to replace a power supply for that reason.

If you are not comfortable with doing the replacement yourself then it would be easier to take the specs to a computer repair shop and ask them what modern video cards they can supply for your machine. The other thing to consider is the video cable from the video card to your monitor. i.e. can your monitor accept an HDMI cable for example.
 
Thanks mate I am wondering what other people are using and I could rebuild my computer to suit
chris
 
You need to find out how powerful you power supply is, this can be a critical factor. Work out your existing power consumption (minus your existing video card consumption) and subtract this from the power supply output and you will know how much 'spare power' is available for the new video card. This could well be the determining factor.

It sounds complicated but it's just common sense - if you overload a domestic mains socket something is going to go bang !
 
I'm currently using a nVidia GT-S 450 o/c edition. The card is a few years old now so by no means cutting edge but it handles pretty much everything I can throw at it in TS12.

The important thing to remember is that even though you may have a good GPU, a crap CPU can cause a bottle neck. I learned this from experience, having recently upgraded my whole system (while retaining the original GPU) and performance was dramatically increased with the new GPU (AMD FX 4100).
 
If it has a 300watt power supply, your choices will be limited to a 300watt rated video card.

A power supply can be replaced, with a higher wattage power supply, in a desktop PC
 
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Vicki and I have been talking and we are going to REBUILD my computer just for trainz so I need a verygood grafics/video card and we well build around
so what do I get???
chris
 
I put in a Galaxy GT430 which is rated for my 300w cheepo power supply

You can get a higher wattage power supply for @ $50, and installed by a tech for @ another $50 ... that would be your first step, if you have a low wattage power supply.

Then you could put in a higher wattage video card that is a bit more expensive. Some video cards have 1Gb, and better ones have 2-3Gb of memory

I think that 4Gb RAM is sufficient ... and a 500Gb hard drive is sufficient, or put in a 1TB HD
 
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Are you re-building from the ground up or keeping any of your existing components?

I finished a rebuild a few weeks ago using the following kit and get excellent performance.

New components.
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ AMD 979 £70.68
RAM - Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz Vengeance Black £44.98
CPU cooling - Antec Kuhler H2O 620 Water Cooler £43.99
PSU - Corsair CX750 Builder Series 750W Bronze PSU £68.28
CPU - AMD FX-4100 AM3+ 4 Core Processor 3.6GHz £77.01
Case - Zalman Z12 plus (gift)

Existing components.
GPU - Nvidia GTS 450 1GB overclocked edition (2nd hand on eBay)
2 x HDD, 1 x external HDD
Running Windows 7 64bit
 
cvkiwi said:
Budget is $1,000
Ram is 8.00gb
and as for the mother board I have no idea where to find that out sorry
chris
Click to expand...

With that budget you could go for a new video card and a new power supply to match.

If you don't know how to identify the space and slots available on the motherboard then you might be better not doing it for yourself. The local computer shop will upgrade you for retail cost of the items - not as good as Internet prices, but not bad, and he takes all the risk of making sure everything works together.
 
Hi cvkiwi,
Couple of suggestions for you to consider...
1. Check out the Ascent Technology website here in NZ at http://www.ascent.co.nz/category.aspx?majorcatID=64 (that will take you to their Video Cards page) for NZ $ prices on any of the cards you are interested in checking out.
I have always enjoyed excellent customer service experience from them and their prices are always competitive. Their home page is at www.ascent.co.nz.

2. Do some homework first on Tom's Hardware's monthly "Best Graphics Cards for Your Money" http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html and pay attention to the "Graphics Card Hierarchy" on the second to last page of that article.
Prices shown there are in US$ so expect to pay more in NZ dollars (even allowing for currency exchange rates and including the "Down-Under" premium charged to Australasian customers by our overseas cousins!)
PC
 
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go for gtx 780 and buy a strong psu for it its easily posible in your budget
but i have lil more recomendation for you
as you told you are using i7 cpu which is 3 to 4 years old so it seems u are on first genration of intel i series no doubt i7 is beast processor but the version u are using is outdated now but still it can handle all the heavy gpu till date so wht i gonna recommend you is
sale ur current i7 and motherboard and get money from here and add it to you 1000$ budget for graphics card

now buy a new 4th gen i7 4770 or i7 4770k cpu and compatible motherboard .instead of buying gtx 780 buy 760 or 770 and a good psu so in this way with small change ur whole pc will become upto date for atleast one year as both i7 4xxx and gtx 7xx series are new in market
 
Just bear in mind that you can have a top rated GPU which will mean nothing if your CPU is a bottleneck. Given a thousand buck budget though, I reckon you should be able to buy a pretty good system easily capable of handling Trainz.
 
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