Graphics cards and compatibility

Just a little more information, CPU, system memory,  type of graphics card (AGP, PCI)?  How old is the system?  How big of HDD and space available.

Removing or changing out anything in a computer should be done carefully, and never in a hurray.  Silly to say this but, power off and make sure of no static discharge.  Forget the rule about using a 'bigger hammer' (if you are  a male you know what I mean)

Once the card is changed out and computer is hooked up the OS will take over, recognize a new piece of hardware and run the the install wizard.  In some cases you may need to put in the CD you get with the card to install drivers.

1) I can't think of any. What you should be more concerned about is to make sure that whatever graphics card you get is compatible with your Motherboard. This goes for everything, by the way. Don't throw hundreds of dollars down the drain just because you 'expected' 4 1GB RAM-sticks to work, just because 512MB-sticks of the exact same kind does, and the board works for other 1GB sticks. Yes, I've been there.

2) I want to say "Slim to none", but it depends a lot on wheter or not you have any idea what you're doing. I've burnt a number of graphics cards (and various other pieces of hardware) and I've built a fair number of computers from scratch. I've never, ever, managed to ruin my computer when switching something out. Just be careful, don't touch anything that doesn't need touching, follow the directions, and you should be fine.

3) Everything. Almost anything could potentially be a bottleneck, depending on the game and how big the 'gap' is between the pieces of hardware. Just because you've got 3x RADEON 9800 running in SLi doesn't mean you can run Crysis, if you've only got 256 MB of RAM.

Edit: As Philly0381 said while I was writing this, don't be in a hurry. I'm sure there are people that can put together or work on a computer at very high speeds, putting in things and tearing others out like it's childsplay, but I can take several hours or a whole day to put together a computer, even more if it's entirely from scratch, with installing everything after putting the computer together. So just take your time, don't be a hurry and don't let some idiot stress you up. Even if it means letting everything just lie for the night and pick it up the next morning, it's far better than realizing that something is broken and you need to get a new piece of it, at 11pm. Yeah, I've done that too.

With xp you might not want to go higher than nvidia 7 series.  I have a 7600gt, 512meg and it works fine.  Use the latest driver and not the one on the disk.  Compatability depends on what kind of slot you have.  PCI express if best if it's on your motherboard.  Otherwise AGP.  Make sure you have the latest 9c directx.

Uninstall the old driver first.  Then use driver sweeper in safe mode to get the remnants.

Switching isn't difficult.  Make sure the plug is disconnected.  And I like to keep one hand on the frame to stay grounded.  When you reconnect everything, boot up and click off the auto driver thing.  And install the driver yourself.  Hope this helps.

1) Think everything should work with XP, but you would get no DirectX 10 support. Not many games use DirectX10, only Halo 2 and Shadowrun need it, and that's just Microsoft being prats, not that anyone cares about those games on PC.

2) Chances of damaging your PC are low. Turn off the power at the mains, but leave your PC plugged in so that the case is Earthed. You can then touch the case to Earth yourself, or use an anti-static wrist band.

3) Graphics card (best you can afford), then memory capacity (get 4GB), then cpu (get a dual core or better, 2.4Ghz or better).  Also hard drive speed and memory speed may play a minor role, but not enough to be worth spending extra money on them unless you've got the best of everything else first.

There's a number of other games that are using DirectX 10, such as Bioshock and Crysis (just from the top of my head). I'd like to stress that DirectX 10 is highly overrated though (which I believe was your point, regardless).

In short; "Care, lol".

When I say only Halo 2 and Shadowrun need DX 10, I mean that they're the only games that don't support DX 9 at all and so won't officially run on XP (although I hear there is a crack to make them do so now). Sorry for any confusion there.

I disagree with Rich; you could certainly go to an 8000 series card under XP as long as your hardware (primarily the power supply) can handle the load.

The other big thing that will help is getting more system memory if you have less than 2Gb. Anything over 3 won't be addressable unless you have a 64-bit OS (and you probably don't), but going from 1Gb to 2Gb makes a big difference.

EDIT: Sorry, got my numbers wrong; anything over 4gb won't be addressable.

As others have said, the main thing you need to be careful about when tinkering in your box is static electricity. Get a grounded wrist strap or touch the metal part of your case before handling any components to dissipate any buildup. Try to avoid working on a carpeted surface.

In review, make sure that your existing power supply can handle the load of your new card (the min/peak wattage used by a card can sometimes be tricky information to get from vendors - check website reviews or contact the card manufacturer) and make sure that the card you want will fit the slot you have (AGP/PCI/PCI-e).

My Windows XP box is using closer to 3 1/2 Gig. of RAM.  I like it a lot better just upgrading to 4 and letting the 1/2 Gig. go to waste.

ummm... are you sure about this?  the only reason you need to ground something is when there is an electrical charge being circulated, unplug it and there is no need to ground...  of course you need to relieve the static charge by discharging it and that is as simple as rubbing the case while you are grounded.  Leaving it plugged in is not only dangerous to the machine but to you as well if there happens to be a short in the power supply and you get a nice little jolt.

I disagree, vista does not out perform xp regarding video performance, vista will not gain you frame rate.  Vista only gains you the use of DX10 which still needs more improvement, though I do recommend you make an effort to upgrade but wait till windows 7...  Don’t waste money on vista!  Though vista is better then xp but the W7 release will be in a couple/few years, no sense on spending the money unless you are buying a new PC anytime soon.

agreed, and i would even say you can go into the GTX 280 models, you will always get a gain with a better card the question is the ratio of gain versus the operating system.  I do not thing the ratio is that big of a deal to worry about.  I would think that the 8800 (especially the 8800GT would be the biggest bang for the buck in any sense)

absolutely, 3 to 3 1/2 is optimal with XP

I will just say that when changing out components in your computer, never ever wear a fleece shirt.  I recommend you wear a normal cotton t-shirt.  The reason for this is that certain kinds of shirts, especially fleece ones, have a tendency to build up static charges which can easily destroy a computer component the instant you touch it.  I've destroyed several computer components simply by not paying attention to what I was wearing.

absoutely, some clothing is very difficult to discharge, even rubbing your hands on the case chassis will completely dissipate from certain clothing.

Having built several computers from the ground up, I would suggest putting it together somewhere that you are not walking across carpeting and that you wear shoes while working.  Stocking feet and synthetic fibers tend to accumulate static electricity.  Personally, I always unplug the computer from any power supply just in case... 

You might check your motherboard manual to see what types of graphic cards it will support before you purchase a new card.  If your board has been around since 2005 as you say your OS is, you might want to look into getting a new one as well.  Also check your power supply as you may need different connections for a PCI/PCIe card that are not available on the older power supply models.

I am currently running Windows XP (32 bit) SP3 with an AMD Athlon 64 dual core processor with a GeForce 8800 GT video card using only 2 gigs of ram and am able to play most any game without problems.  I can play Bioshock without DX 10, but tried Lost Planet and no go. 

Best of luck with your project, just be sure to do a little research before purchasing anything.

Shouldn't PCI Express support all PCI Express?

I just got burned installing a GeForce 9800.  The computer didn't even recognize it was there.  I installed a much lower-end card and it worked fine.   I think it's cause the card is rated at 400W, and my power supply is only 300W.  Good gollee, computers are starting to push on a kilowatt these days.  That's nuts.

...

Please tell me you're joking.

For what it's worth, yes, PCI-E 2.0 cards are backwards compatible to work in PCI-E (1.0) slots.  But, obviously, a PCI-only system or an AGP system is an entirely different ballgame.

Yep, that's the problem; that 9800 isn't going to work in your system unless you upgrade your power supply. This is one of the reasons video card upgrades can be tricky; if you don't have recent-generation hardware and you try to plug in a relatively-new card, you might be in for a rude surprise (and possibly a ruined computer).

That's why I recommended checking these numbers versus your computer's PSU above. Don't forget that other components draw some power too (I don't know what proportion is used by what components--you'd have to check with one of the real experts here for that kind of info. . . ).

Am I correct in believing that an SLI-compatible motherboard is not a requirement if I only care to run one video card?   It said on the box that it needs an SLI-compatible motherboard, but I think that's only if you want to run SLI.

You are correct in believing that it is bullshitting you, yes.  For single card operation, it's irrelevant-you could run it in a CF motherboard and it wouldn't care.

Out of curiosity, is this a 9800GT, a 9800GTX, a 9800GTX+, or a 9800GX2?

It's a GT, 1 Gig..  It looks like a kick-butt card, too, and for only $160; but not so great of a deal when you pour a $100 power supply on top of that.  Sad thing is, this was originally all supposed to be to play Supreme Commander, which costs a whopping $10. 

But why use a nvidia card? 

9800GT is not quite the top of the line from nVidia at the moment, and I doubt you need something quite that powerful to play Supreme Commander; in fact, I strongly suspect an 8500 or 8600 series would play it just fine.

Kaltes said:

But why use a nvidia card?

Some people are comfortable with nVidia, some with ATI. Personally, I've used a ton of nVidia cards through the years, and I've been satisfied with the performance of every one.

Why the helll not? I'm running an 8800GT on my XP rig with no issues, and there are plenty of people running a GTX 260 and 280 on their XP rigs.

I know, but it was on the shelf for $160, and it came with a $20 rebate and a complimentary copy of Front Lines.  I figured I could keep using it on my next computer.  Only problem is, I may be already looking at getting a "next computer" now, because of the power supply.  That or, get a lower-end video card that won't still be useful after the ugprade (and not as good a deal).   I've already invested $80 to upgrade to 4gig RAM.   I was kinda hoping to wait till DDR3 motherboards started coming out in force before upgrading the computer.

I'm not religious toward either ATI or Nvidia.  I lean toward Nvidia, though, because of the corporate culture.  ATI's going through a lot of stuff right now with AMD.

Tetley, how do you have a 300W PSU anyway?  Are you running a prebuilt?

What low end card do you have in it at the moment?

Yeah, it's a prebuilt.  I've always found those cheaper, because they get the OEM versions of Windows.  I'm also worried about cooling if I upgrade the PSU.  There's a PSU fan, a case fan, a CPU fan, and the video card fan.   I'm sure it will cool just fine all winter long....

I'm running onboard video Nvidia 6150SE. Ancient, but that and 4gig DDR2 run Galciv2 just fine.

If a 300W came with your PC, you most likely have quite outdated hardware. I just upgraded from five year old hardware and even then the old PSU was 450W(now 1000W ) Basically a Gfx card may not solve many problems if your going to have bottlenecks everywhere else.