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Rozel wrote on 2011-05-20 00:23
Soo, I have annoying lag and apparently it's because of my graphics card. I have an old one, one that's just terrible. It's good enough to play games but even when I speed things up and make sure to shut down other programs while I play games, I still lag. On Mabinogi it's fine, but on a game called s4 League it's bothersome when it's all about speed and timing. Sometimes I lag for a second or two and I'm dead (sometimes I lag for 10 seconds or more, but more rarely.) - Also I can't run Vindictus, not because I lag, but because it just can't even look at those graphics. So basically I need a new Graphics Card...
One problem, I don't know a lot about computers. I don't know where to get one, though I could probably easily find that, I don't know which one I should get. I don't want something expensive, just newer and better then my terrible card. Something that doesn't make me lag even on the lowest graphic settings of my games.
All I know is that my computer is Windows XP, xD; Any help on leading me towards finding what's right for me would be much appreciated.
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Narc wrote on 2011-05-20 01:15
You'd have to know what your motherboard is and what it supports, either ATI or NVIDIA. You should also post your specs here (:
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bidoof wrote on 2011-05-20 01:19
Quote from Narc;449974:
You'd have to know what your motherboard is and what it supports, either ATI or NVIDIA. You should also post your specs here (:
It'd support both regardless, the only determining factor is if it has a PCIe slot or an AGP slot.
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Yoorah wrote on 2011-05-20 01:25
I assume your computer is a desktop tower type, and not a laptop? Because you can't upgrade graphics cards in laptops.
Going from there, we need to know whether it has a PCIe or AGP slot on the motherboard. AGP is really old, so chances are you have PCIe, but you need to make sure.
Another thing we need to know is the rated power (in Watts) of your power supply. The low-end cards should be power-friendly, but it's still good to be sure.
One way to find out these specs is to look up your computer's model number on the manufacturer's website.
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Rozel wrote on 2011-05-20 01:35
It's a desktop, yes. I don't know how to get that info however there is something called "Can you run it?" and it shows me what my computer has so I'll see what it gives me...
Well, what I got about my current card is this;
100% DirectX 9.0 compatible with latest drivers (NVIDIA GeForce3+ / ATI Radeon 8500+)
You Have: Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller
You Have
Video RAM 96.0 MB
3D Yes
Hardware T&L No
Pixel Shader version 0.0
Vertex Shader version 1.1 0.0
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Yoorah wrote on 2011-05-20 03:40
Ouch.. the 82865G is a chipset for Pentium4-era processors. :S It appears you may have an AGP slot in your computer. The thing is ancient and I hate to say it, but I'm not sure if it's worth upgrading. D:
If you still want to go ahead with your plan to get a graphics card for it, though, we need more more info than what you have provided. Look at the sticker at the back of your computer, find the manufacturer's name and the model number. Using that, you can find the detailed specs for the computer.. to confirm whether it has an AGP expansion slot you can use, and what power supply it has. Or post the name + model here and someone can look it up for you.
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Rozel wrote on 2011-05-20 04:03
If it's not worth upgrading then what else can I do to make it faster? I don't want to get something if it barely helps x3;
My manufacturer is HP, and there are a lot of different numbers so I don't know why is the model number x.x; It might be X10-23534 but I'm just guessing xD
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Cucurbita wrote on 2011-05-20 04:34
Clean up your computer a bit. Its pretty old so it probably has room to delete some worthless registry entries, lots of used files, etc.
To be honest, you're really better off buying yourself a new computer at this point. Your motherboard won't be compatible with most of the newer hardware they sell nowadays.
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Yoorah wrote on 2011-05-20 05:16
Quote from Rozel;450111:
If it's not worth upgrading then what else can I do to make it faster? I don't want to get something if it barely helps x3;
My manufacturer is HP, and there are a lot of different numbers so I don't know why is the model number x.x; It might be X10-23534 but I'm just guessing xD
Not the right number. :( It should be something like Pavilion 2300, for example.
As for what you should do, it depends on your budget and circumstances. Are you willing to throw away $40 on a
cheap graphics card that would help you barely play some games on your old computer? D: I mean, it would be a big improvement over what you have now for older games, but the computer will still suck with newer games simply because the rest of it is too slow to keep up. I doubt you'd be able to play Vindictus half-decently. You should save that money towards a new computer.
If a new computer is not an option and you see yourself being stuck with your current one for a while, then I suppose you can try getting that graphics card and hope for the best. But first, we need the correct model number so we can find the spec sheet and make sure it can support that video card.
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Osayidan wrote on 2011-05-20 11:17
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Rozel wrote on 2011-05-20 14:53
Yoorah, I can't find anything like that for the Model Number. >< Also, I'm fine if I don't play Vindictus, but I was curious if I could try it out. But really it's for another game I play that I think came out a few years ago. If it helps take away my random spots of 5 seconds lag every few minutes then I want it, if not, I don't think I'll spend money on that and I'll survive someway else. :P My computer runs fairly fast, it's just when it comes to that game mostly when it starts to slow down. You can see the ping of other players in that game, and the ping shows if you have lag or not and people think I'm lying when I say I lag because I have such low ping xD
And for Cpuz when I try to run it, it says "Is not a valid Win32 application." O.o;
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Osayidan wrote on 2011-05-20 22:58
Make sure you didn't download the 64 bit one. You need 32 bit:
http://www.cpuid.com/downloads/cpu-z/1.57-32bits-en.zip
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Yoorah wrote on 2011-05-20 23:19
Quote from Rozel;450475:
Yoorah, I can't find anything like that for the Model Number. >< Also, I'm fine if I don't play Vindictus, but I was curious if I could try it out. But really it's for another game I play that I think came out a few years ago. If it helps take away my random spots of 5 seconds lag every few minutes then I want it, if not, I don't think I'll spend money on that and I'll survive someway else. :P My computer runs fairly fast, it's just when it comes to that game mostly when it starts to slow down. You can see the ping of other players in that game, and the ping shows if you have lag or not and people think I'm lying when I say I lag because I have such low ping xD
And for Cpuz when I try to run it, it says "Is not a valid Win32 application." O.o;
[Image: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf-JAVA/Doc/images/c00907153.jpg]
[Image: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf-JAVA/Doc/images/c00181268.jpg]
You can also try pressing Ctrl + Alt + S and this should pop up:
[Image: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf-JAVA/Doc/images/c02229677.jpg]
That said.. I can't tell you for certain if upgrading the graphics card will in fact take away those lag spikes. The graphics card would make everything smoother overall. It would free up some RAM too, which could, in theory, help with the lag spikes.. but this is only an educated guess. x(
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Rozel wrote on 2011-05-20 23:46
hp Compaq d530 CMT? xD; The only other things is a bunch of long numbers. Also I'll try it again, Osay :P Will update with edit in a sec.
Edit: It's working, but where do I find my watts? :o
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Osayidan wrote on 2011-05-21 00:08
I don't think it'll show the power supply info.
Just post screencaps of the CPU, Mainboard, Memory and Graphics tabs.