Essential Tips For Graphic Card Updates
Well before you start looking for the right Graphics Cards to compliment your existing system you need to understand what these cards are and what they do.
What Do You Use Your Computer For
One of the first things that you’ll need to do is a take a close look at what you use your computer for and at the collection of games that you’ve got. Are you a casual games player that perhaps prefers to save money and buy older or second hand games, or do you want the latest and greatest?
If most are older games then it could be a waste of money buying a mid to expensive card for a variety of reasons. Remember that the CPU speed is the variable that you’ll need to consider the most. Exercise caution before making a purchase. Buying a powerful new card may be in vain if your processor is simply not up to the task.
Not All Cards Are The Same
You may not be aware but people are often caught out by the different card slot types available, simply put if you get the wrong one it will not fit in your system.
There are number of different card configurations you need to be aware of; AGP – Pci, and Pci-e
Do You Have Enough Computer Memory?
Most of the time doing a graphic card upgrade will also require a computer memory upgrade too!
Graphics cards have different amounts of memory and the better (in most cases) the card the greater the memory, and if your Pc only has a small amount of system ram then you will run into problems as there will be insufficient memory to allocate to your system hardware and your computer may become vey unstable and crash or your pc will become vary slow.
Do You Have Enough Power Supply Connectors?
The larger the card the more power they will generally draw from your power supply so you so you’ll need to make plans for this as well, older power supplies may only be around 300w give or take, so depending on if you have already added additional hardware to your system, this may lead to excessive power drain which can make your computer very unstable indeed. Also don’t forget thatmany a majority of the newer cards may need an extra direct power connection so you need to check to see if you have a spare connector (that will reach the card) available.
Is There Enough Space In My Case?
Even some PC tech’s forget about this one as case design does vary from manufacturer to manufacturer or the motherboard configuration may be such that a newer card will simply not fit!
The new generation of cards often have multiple GPU’s or large amount of memory so the tend to be a lot longer than previous cards. With newer cards working a lot harder they tend to generate a lot more heat so onboard cooling has been increase. This tends to lead to a thicker card as well so you may need to move other Pci cards to accommodate a larger graphics card.
A graphics card upgrade is worth the effort but you do need to take account of the above considerations, but if you are after the ultimate gaming experience and your computer is over 3-4 years old you may be better off just buying a new one.
For IT Support visit the Dorchester Laptop Repairs website.
