what video card does my pc have and what can i upgrade to?

[marcuso9]

no idea whats in this beast i happen to use at the minute, but i would like to know just what can be done to it to make it run games better than it does at present. i ran a program to help me find out if i can run civ5, it said the RAM and graphics card need upgrading. i am getting 3gb of RAM already and i ran speccy and this is what it tells me about the graphics..

monitor
name JT178x4 on VIA Chrome9 HC IGP Family WDDM
current resolution 1024x768 pixels
work resolution 1024x768 pixels
state enabled, primary
monitor width 1024
monitor width 768
monitor BPP 32 bits per pixel
monitor frequency 75 hz
device \\.\DISPLAY1\monitor0

heres other info i dont know if you need to know....

operating system MS Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit SP1
CPU Intel Pentium D 820
Smithfield 90nm Technology
RAM 1.00 gb single-channel DDR2 @ 338mhz (5-5-5-15)
graphics JT178x4 (1024x768@75hz)
VIA Chrome9 HC IGP Family WDDM
hard drives 39.1GB Seagate ST340015A ATA Device (PATA)
78GB Hitachi hitachi HDS721680PLA380 ATA Device (SATA)
optical drives HUAWEI Mass storage USB Device
ATAPI DVD A DH20A4P ATA Device
audio high definition audio device

what graphics card does my pc support? what slot does it have? what do i need to know when buying a graphics card? what graphics card can it run? is it wrth upgrading the graphics card and RAM in the first place? please help!!!!

[GroundZero3]

Is this a prebuilt machine from a company like Dell or a custom built machine? If its a prebuilt machine can you please post the model number

I cant believe you have been running windows 7 on 1 Gb of ram, that must be seriously painful.

Get this tool: GPU-Z Video card GPU Information Utility It will tell you what video card you have. We would also need to know what motherboard you have and your powersupply

[ShyguyXPC]

Its not worth upgrading, your CPU is old and outdated as well, I'm surprised it didn't pick that up with what ever you used to scan for running the game. The Pentium D's are weaker than Core 2 Duo's and even those are old by now.

your Running DDR2 which isn't as cheap as it used to be, and 3GB of it would be pointless at what it costs.

You'd be able to get 8GB of DDR3 for what it costs for DDR2 now days.

Your running 32-bit Windows, which will limit you to 4GB Total System Memory (Which includes RAM, Video card Memory and Cache memory on the CPU and Drives).

again 3GB would be pointless, since you'd lose at last a gig if using a dedicated 1GB Video card.

Your running Windows 7, which I'm surprised even runs decently on that CPU, 1GB RAM and crap onboard graphics.

Your Hard drives are abnormally small in size, 40GB and 80GB drives? One is PATA, the other SATA, guessing their slower 1st Gen SATA, and the other is even slower yet PATA.

Honestly, you'd be better off saving for a new system build.

Besides the video card, any decent card mentioned would be bottlenecked by the CPU. Plus more than likely your Power supply will need to be replaced for the Video card upgrade.

depending on what your looking for in Video card, could mean $40-50 for the PSU, could be more.

So, 3GB DDR2, New PSU, New Video card....

Another thing, not sure why, but your RAM is running abnormally slow or fast, its at an odd speed. 338x2 (DDR2) = 676MHz... Most DDR2 is 533, 667, 800 or 1066. Though some 675MHz is available, but its rare.

Newegg.com - CORSAIR XMS2 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400) Desktop Memory Model CM2X1024-5400C4

For that much, you can get a single 4GB Stick of DDR3 running at 1333MHz.

for 3x that, you could easily get an 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz memory kit.

and based on the info provided, we still can't determine what kind of slot you have, with out any Motherboard info, we can only guess.

It'll be either PCI Express (early PCIe) or AGP.


Also we don't have any info on, what size case all this is in, whether its full height cards, or low profile cards that will fit, or even regular ATX power supply size or a small form factor PSU.


so your looking at around $150-200 total for the upgrades needed, and then your CPU will still be holding you back for the video card. I know Civ games aren't that graphic intensive, but they are CPU, and the CPU is not all that fast. to put it in perspective, Core 2 Duo's running at 1.8GHz were at least as powerful if not more so than Pentium D's running at 2.8-3.2GHz. Now we're on to Intel's 3rd Generation Core i3, i5 and i7 CPU's.

for a mere 50% more in costs of what you'd need to upgrade, and entirely new system from the ground up, minus the Operating System (if your current PC is a custom Build, its OS might be transferable, if its prebuilt, it won't be, which means another $100 for a new OS)

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA Model SH-222BB/BEBE - CD / DVD Burners

Newegg.com - Rosewill Blackbone Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card (11192-22-20G)

Newegg.com - Antec VP-450 450W ATX 12V v2.3 Power Supply

Newegg.com - Pareema 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model MD313C81609L1

Newegg.com - BIOSTAR H61MGC LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Newegg.com - Intel Celeron G530 Sandy Bridge 2.4GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80623G530

Saved some costs on HDD, Refurbished isn't as bad, and plenty of storage, and faster performing drive: Newegg.com - Refurbished: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAKX 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

about $328 total before shipping.

a system like this, which is Really budget gaming by todays standards, would run circles around your old system.... by run circles around it I mean at Warp 9.9.

you could play almost any game out today on this, even most of the higher end games at lower to moderate settings.