Need help on new graphics card

[Seraphim]

I'm having trouble figuring out which graphics cards are compatible and better suited for my needs. I want to do light gaming (Counter strike source...any half life source mods really). I tried running source and I could tell right away the current graphics card was not doing well whatsoever. My old system used to run the game fine, it was obsolete in every area of my current system, except the video card.

Specs:
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600)
System Manufacturer: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD
System Model: MS-7529
Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU E3300 @ 2.50GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 3318MB RAM
Page File: 878MB used, 4328MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

Power Supply: 400w

Current graphics: Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset Family. 256mb



I do not know how to figure out the physical size of the ?ports? where you physically plug in the chip.

Any help would be greatly appreciated I am having the hardest time figuring this out.

Thanks in advance.

[stroyal]

Welcome to TechIMO!

Is this your board?
MS-7529-050 MSI Intel G31M3-L, 8CH Audio, LAN, VGA Intel GMA 3100 - 1333 FSB - 16X PCI-e, 2xPCI, 1xPCI-e 1x,...

You have a PCI-e Express slot, that should take, just about any PCI-e card.

However, your Dual core Celeron, will hold back, even midrange cards.

Power supply info, is critical, for a recommendation.

Brand
Model
Total 12v watts

12volt amps, are on the main label, and 12v watts, are usually below the main part of the label.

The reason we ask for watts, is multi rail power supplies, sometimes don't put our full amps, on both rails, at the same time.

BUDGET, is also a must,

[stroyal]

I'm not a gamer, so I have no idea, what you mean by source
Looking up game specs, is pretty easy.
There will be gamers later, but meantime .
half life, the game doesn't take much
Half-Life system requirements - System Requirements

[ShyguyXPC]

"Source" is the game engine used by most of Valve's games, from Half Life 2 onward.

Anything with "Source" in the title is based off HL2 or newer.

[Seraphim]

Sorry for late reply, my internet was out for a few hours for some reason.

The power supply is Imicro PS-IM400WH, +12v Max Load 400W


And yeah any Half-Life 2 game would be considered source, I've been playing Half-Life since the first came out...still have all the games I downloaded on Steam back when they were free (I see they all cost $ now)

The recommended graphics cards I see for playing the game are: Radeon X700 and Geforce 6800 128mb. I would like to get something better than that if my current specs allow for it though.

Thank you for all the prompt responses, looking to order one online tonight if possible.

[Seraphim]

Welcome to TechIMO!

Is this your board?
MS-7529-050 MSI Intel G31M3-L, 8CH Audio, LAN, VGA Intel GMA 3100 - 1333 FSB - 16X PCI-e, 2xPCI, 1xPCI-e 1x,...

You have a PCI-e Express slot, that should take, just about any PCI-e card.

However, your Dual core Celeron, will hold back, even midrange cards.

Power supply info, is critical, for a recommendation.

Brand
Model
Total 12v watts

12volt amps, are on the main label, and 12v watts, are usually below the main part of the label.

The reason we ask for watts, is multi rail power supplies, sometimes don't put our full amps, on both rails, at the same time.

BUDGET, is also a must,

That appears to be my board, but the rails are different colors.

The two bottom white are black, the top is blue. I can take a pic and upload it if it will help?

[stroyal]

Thanks, I learned something again.

You are in good hands now.
It would take me a while to research, and Shyguy, knows this stuff, cold.
I'll standby.

[Seraphim]

Sorry for extra posts, I don't think I clarified correctly on the power supply.

The side reads:

+12V Max load 26A

+5V+12V+3.3V Max load 400W

[Seraphim]

Thanks, I learned something again.

You are in good hands now.
It would take me a while to research, and Shyguy, knows this stuff, cold.
I'll standby.

Awesome, again thanks for the prompt and friendly replies. To be honest I have never encountered a forum as nice and productive as this one. I will definitely be frequenting this forum for any tech support in the future. You guys are awesome!

[stroyal]

Awesome, again thanks for the prompt and friendly replies. To be honest I have never encountered a forum as nice and productive as this one. I will definitely be frequenting this forum for any tech support in the future. You guys are awesome!

There is not as many of us,on the tech support side, like some of the other forums, I think that makes us different.
We are mostly regulars, so we take pride, in our support.

[stroyal]

How bout this one.

MSI USA – Mainboard - G31TM-P21
Power supply, will have to be replaced, it isn't really a 400watt, even though 28 amps should be about what a 400 watt should have, tests say it only puts out 280watts.

iMicro PS-IM400WH Power Supply Review | Hardware Secrets

If it is not a brand name, you can almost guarantee, the label is an outright lie.

You still haven't said, how much you want to spend.
A brand name 400watt, will cost about $40
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Elite Power RS-400-PSAR-J3 400W ATX12V v2.31 Power Supply

That will run up to about a $120
Edit
$120 video card

[stroyal]

Shyguy must be giving me a head start.


If you are going to get a new 400watt power supply, and you want to get the best card it will run, I think it is the Nvidai 550Ti
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-N550D5-1GI GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Slightly lower ATI HD6770
Newegg.com - HIS H677FN1GD Radeon HD 6770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

The 6770 can run 3 screens, the 550ti, only 2, if that matters.

Waiting for Shyguy, is advised.


Edit
The new HD 7750 is in there also, and low power

Newegg.com - HIS H775F1GD Radeon HD 7750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

Only 2 screens though.

[Seraphim]

Wow, links and everything? Thank you sooo much, my head was spinning when I first dove into this. I'm not on too much of a budget, had about $100-$150 in mind to spend total. As for the screens, I only use one monitor if that is what you're reffering to, or running multiple pc's on one monitor?

Also, I have installed video cards before, but never a power supply. Is this simple enough to do on my own? I can take apart and rebuild a car engine, even wire/tune an ecu, but the computer still intimdates me for some reason.

Again, thanks so much for the best support I've ever gotten on a forum, hell anywhere for that matter.

[stroyal]

You are welcome.

Yes I meant monitors.
Most of mine have 2, I could never go back to 1.
My non tech wife, insisted, she didn't need 2, so while she was out, I added one.
I couldn't take it away, now.

If you are a mechanical, it is really simple.

4 screws, on the back, and the plugs.
The plugs are pretty much self explanatory.
Take a picture, if you are worried.

We will still be here.

[stroyal]

Wait for Shyguy, or one of the other gamers.

Going back to my original statement about a dual core Celeron.

I'm not sure, it wouldn't bottleneck, the GPUs I recommended.

Bottleneck won't hurt, the card, just won't perform at it's full potential.

That board, takes up to a core 2 quad 2.83
MSI USA – Mainboard - G31TM-P21

[ShyguyXPC]

Sorry, was sleeping, other wise I would of chimed in on suggestions by now.

Yeah, that Celly Dual core is nice, its 100Mhz faster than the one I have in a spare PC in the basement.

Plus they are NICE Overclocking CPU's if you ever get into that, have yet to torture mine. Assuming your Motherboard has any OCing options in its Bios.

The old G31 chipset Mobo I had a year ago, had some basic options in it. the newer P45 chipset board my Celly E3200 is in, has quite a few though.

for that you'd want to pair it with some nice OCing minded RAM, and a Stable PSU, as well as decent aftermarket cooling other than the stock heatsink, since those Celly's don't come with much other than a Low profile version of the stock intel coolers.

But agreed on the video cards,

GTX 550 Ti, Radeon 6770, or Radeon HD 7750, the latter is the latest, and runs as well as the 6770, but at nearly half the power consumption.

and should handle Source games quite nicely. Especially since Source games have always been more ATI/AMD Biased in performance.

But for the PSU, I'd opt for this one, as it has just a tad more power:

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Elite 460 RS-460-PSAR-J3 460W ATX12V V2.31 Power Supply

the +12V rail puts out more wattage than the one Stroyal linked to.

Neither unit is truly a 400W unit, or even 460W. Why its listed as such is beyond me, as most Coolermaster Units are marketed as they really are.

but that "460W" one would be more suitable if you popped in a GTX 550 Ti, otherwise the one Stroyal linked would be fine for the Radeon 7750.

but for the GPU options, these are what I would look at.

same as above: Newegg.com - HIS H775F1GD Radeon HD 7750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

Or this Refurb (90 day Warranty): Newegg.com - Refurbished: EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1557-RX GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

the latter would perform a bit better than the former, but does consume almost twice as much power, but still a low powered gaming card by any means. Considering was 2 years ago, cards of this range consumed 200 or More Watts of power.

The Celeron Dual Core might bottleneck both a tad, but it shouldn't be too noticeable, since the cards are leaps and bounds over what you have now.

Hell, just about any card, even the $50 range cards today are leaps and bounds better than Intel Onboard Graphics.

But with those 2 above, you would be able to run games like BF Bad Company 2 on decent settings, Elder Scrolls Skyrim on decent settings (might lag a little in city areas where interacting with AI, due to CPU limitations), but even BF3 would run on that, though now too high of settings due to CPU, but it would run.

TF2, Portal, Portal 2, L4D2, etc, should all run pretty good on that.


I tested some games on a build with my E3200, 2GB DDR2 800MHz and a 192W Geforce GTX 260 video card, and was actually shocked at how well it ran on some Game benchmarks I ran.

not as good as my main Core i7 Gaming PC, but still quite well. Also tested my 1GB Radeon 4870, which is probably closer to that GTX 550 Ti in performance, or somewhere between it and the barely trailing 6770.

The Games I tested were ones like X3: Terran Conflict, using its Non Playable Rolling Demo.

You can watch the Rolling Demo video in HD here: X3: Terran Conflict - Rolling Demo HD - YouTube

the demo, a Wing Commander/FreeLancer/Privateer/Elite like space sim, as the Slogan for it goes, "Trade, Fight, Build", actually renders the graphics for benchmarking, as you could expect in the full game, assuming you weren't in a heavy action area at the time, as this demo doesn't demonstrate that game in extreme situations...

but its enough to test with.

its one of those games you really need to have a lot of dedicated time to play, myself, I start it, and then play for a bit, and then its weeks, months later I get back and forget what I was doing, how to play it, etc LOL.



But those GPU's are ones you could easily migrate to a newer System if you built one in the next year or so.

[Seraphim]

Hey everyone, thank you so much again for all your help. My apologies for lack of response, I had to replace the axles on my daily driver. Somehow BOTH snapped at same time...they did not like 350whp at all. My cv joint bearings were scattered across the street lol.

Again thank you so much for all the help, this is the fastest/best forum I have ever seen for advice!

I'm sure I will be back again as I have horrible luck with electronics.

[Seraphim]

Sorry, was sleeping, other wise I would of chimed in on suggestions by now.

Yeah, that Celly Dual core is nice, its 100Mhz faster than the one I have in a spare PC in the basement.

Plus they are NICE Overclocking CPU's if you ever get into that, have yet to torture mine. Assuming your Motherboard has any OCing options in its Bios.

The old G31 chipset Mobo I had a year ago, had some basic options in it. the newer P45 chipset board my Celly E3200 is in, has quite a few though.

for that you'd want to pair it with some nice OCing minded RAM, and a Stable PSU, as well as decent aftermarket cooling other than the stock heatsink, since those Celly's don't come with much other than a Low profile version of the stock intel coolers.

But agreed on the video cards,

GTX 550 Ti, Radeon 6770, or Radeon HD 7750, the latter is the latest, and runs as well as the 6770, but at nearly half the power consumption.

and should handle Source games quite nicely. Especially since Source games have always been more ATI/AMD Biased in performance.

But for the PSU, I'd opt for this one, as it has just a tad more power:

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Elite 460 RS-460-PSAR-J3 460W ATX12V V2.31 Power Supply

the +12V rail puts out more wattage than the one Stroyal linked to.

Neither unit is truly a 400W unit, or even 460W. Why its listed as such is beyond me, as most Coolermaster Units are marketed as they really are.

but that "460W" one would be more suitable if you popped in a GTX 550 Ti, otherwise the one Stroyal linked would be fine for the Radeon 7750.

but for the GPU options, these are what I would look at.

same as above: Newegg.com - HIS H775F1GD Radeon HD 7750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

Or this Refurb (90 day Warranty): Newegg.com - Refurbished: EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1557-RX GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

the latter would perform a bit better than the former, but does consume almost twice as much power, but still a low powered gaming card by any means. Considering was 2 years ago, cards of this range consumed 200 or More Watts of power.

The Celeron Dual Core might bottleneck both a tad, but it shouldn't be too noticeable, since the cards are leaps and bounds over what you have now.

Hell, just about any card, even the $50 range cards today are leaps and bounds better than Intel Onboard Graphics.

But with those 2 above, you would be able to run games like BF Bad Company 2 on decent settings, Elder Scrolls Skyrim on decent settings (might lag a little in city areas where interacting with AI, due to CPU limitations), but even BF3 would run on that, though now too high of settings due to CPU, but it would run.

TF2, Portal, Portal 2, L4D2, etc, should all run pretty good on that.


I tested some games on a build with my E3200, 2GB DDR2 800MHz and a 192W Geforce GTX 260 video card, and was actually shocked at how well it ran on some Game benchmarks I ran.

not as good as my main Core i7 Gaming PC, but still quite well. Also tested my 1GB Radeon 4870, which is probably closer to that GTX 550 Ti in performance, or somewhere between it and the barely trailing 6770.

The Games I tested were ones like X3: Terran Conflict, using its Non Playable Rolling Demo.

You can watch the Rolling Demo video in HD here: X3: Terran Conflict - Rolling Demo HD - YouTube

the demo, a Wing Commander/FreeLancer/Privateer/Elite like space sim, as the Slogan for it goes, "Trade, Fight, Build", actually renders the graphics for benchmarking, as you could expect in the full game, assuming you weren't in a heavy action area at the time, as this demo doesn't demonstrate that game in extreme situations...

but its enough to test with.

its one of those games you really need to have a lot of dedicated time to play, myself, I start it, and then play for a bit, and then its weeks, months later I get back and forget what I was doing, how to play it, etc LOL.



But those GPU's are ones you could easily migrate to a newer System if you built one in the next year or so.

Thank you for your insight, deffinetely put me in the right direction, hoping to order everything tonight...although. Do you think a place like Frye's or Ginstar (If you have those in your area) would carry these same products? I'd much rather pick them up then to wait for s/h.

And yeah, I actually beta tested the first Counter Strike back in...2001? or so, I picked up an Xbox 360 console a few years back to satisfy my gaming urges without spending too much $ to upgrade pc.

After a few years on the box I realized how much I missed simple pc gaming (source mods and the like), I had gotten a new pc and when I tried to jump on source realized it couldn't support it >. I still have my old graphics card which ran source, its a Nvidia Geforce 6200 lol. It ran the game fine, but it only took one glance to realize it wouldn't fit my board.

Thank you x100 for setting me in the right direction, my head was spinning with all options/sizes/power supply needs.

[stroyal]

you are welcome

Broken axial?
Last time that happened to me was 1971, Land Rover, middle of a busy intersection, down town Boston. The front axial got us home though,

[ShyguyXPC]

Fry's should have some of these parts, if not comparable options.

never heard of the other store, but if you have a Micro Center near you, that's another one to visit for parts and deals as well.

MC and Fry's are great stores, but their few and far between scattered across the US, so bit inconvenient for those of us not near major cities and metro areas.