Reccomend me a graphics card.

[Gman5852]

Hello telltale peoples.
I am currently in need of a new graphics card for plenty of reasons, such as better performance on my online games.

And like always, Im asking you for technical help.
I have a PC Toshiba Laptop, if that means anything.
Thanks for all that can help me

[figmentPez]

It's not usually possible to upgrade the graphics on a laptop.

[MusicallyInspired]

Don't game on a laptop.

[Gman5852]

That makes me feel stupid.

I have a desktop that I game on as well, any reccomendations for that?

[Chyron8472]

You can upgrade a laptop video card, but it's a real pain in the neck.

As for desktop video cards, I've had good experiences with ATI Radeon cards.
For specific suggestions, it might help if we knew your desired price range.


Otherwise, if price isn't as big a factor, I would recommend going for getting one that can play Poker Night at a good quality without cursor lag. Not sure what specs that would require, though.

[Ribs]

Okay, 99% sure you need to buy a good power supply first as 90% of computers come with terribad Power Supplies.

From there, just anything that can run Crysis at 30+ FPS is usually a good sign.

[Chyron8472]

Originally Posted by Ribs

Okay, 99% sure you need to buy a good power supply first as 90% of computers come with terribad Power Supplies.

define bad.

[figmentPez]

Originally Posted by Gman5852

I have a desktop that I game on as well, any reccomendations for that?

What are the rest of your system specs and what is your budget? No sense spending more on a card than your processor can handle.

Originally Posted by Chyron8472

You can upgrade a laptop video card, but it's a real pain in the neck.

Maybe with some laptops, but certainly not all. Most laptops I know of have the graphics built-in to the motherboard, with no change possible (short of some frankenstein hacking that would require a lot more than just soldering)

[Gman5852]

All right, well I would say around $75 on a graphics card.
Actually, I have been doing research myself(for once) and how good of a card is this one.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product...800_gt_us.html

[Ribs]

Originally Posted by gman5852

all right, well i would say around $75 on a graphics card.
Actually, i have been doing research myself(for once) and how good of a card is this one.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product...800_gt_us.html

you need to get a better power supply glargh no one listens to me

[The Gentleman]

I bought a graphics card capable of playing every game for £45.

ATI Radeon HD 4650.

[Gman5852]

Originally Posted by Ribs

you need to get a better power supply glargh no one listens to me

How do you know I need a better power supply?

Originally Posted by The Gentleman

I bought a graphics card capable of playing every game for £45.

ATI Radeon HD 4650.

What games have you been able to play with that?

[Remolay]

I'm actually reading this because it is relevant to my interests. A friend is giving me most of the parts I need to build a new computer, but I still need a graphics card, ram, a hard drive, and a monitor, Which I pretty much have on the monitor side.

[Rather Dashing]

We should probably know more about your system. The desktop, that is. If you don't know, download this. It's a tool that will quickly and easily detect your hardware, unless it's an obscure piece of really generic hardware. Then we might have trouble.

Tell is the name of your CPU, the model of your mainboard, type and size of your RAM, and the name of your current graphics card.

[Ribs]

And Power Supply!

I ask repeatedly because no one seems to ever have a good power supply without buying one individually in my experience.

[GeorgeC]

It annoys me how this should have been a 1 to 3 answer thread tops, but it's escallated massively into something else

[Rather Dashing]

Originally Posted by Ribs

And Power Supply!

I ask repeatedly because no one seems to ever have a good power supply without buying one individually in my experience.

Most importantly, we want the wattage. It's usually on the side of the power supply itself.

Originally Posted by GeorgeC

It annoys me how this should have been a 1 to 3 answer thread tops, but it's escallated massively into something else

Wait, why should it have been 1 to 3 responses?

[GeorgeC]

Originally Posted by Rather Dashing

Most importantly, we want the wattage. It's usually on the side of the power supply itself.


Wait, why should it have been 1 to 3 responses?

Well ideally, it would have had the first poster show everyone his current system spec, then the next guy would identify a good card, the first poster would probably ask another question, then you'd get someone else be like blah blah decent card should last a while, I'm just surprised theres this many replies to the thread and no progress has been really made, case in point, no one listening to Ribs that he needs a better powersupply before upgrading his card

[Gman5852]

Originally Posted by GeorgeC

Well ideally, it would have had the first poster show everyone his current system spec, then the next guy would identify a good card, the first poster would probably ask another question, then you'd get someone else be like blah blah decent card should last a while, I'm just surprised theres this many replies to the thread and no progress has been really made, case in point, no one listening to Ribs that he needs a better powersupply before upgrading his card

Sorry, Im not the worlds greatest computer guy.
Heres what I got from that download Dashing.


CPU-Z Readme file
------------------

Version 1.56
October 2010
Contact : cpuz@cpuid.com
Web page: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
Validation page : http://valid.canardpc.com
Hall of Fame : http://valid.canardpc.com/records.php
Forum : http://forum.canardpc.com/forumdisplay.php?f=74
CPUID SDK : http://www.cpuid-pro.com/devkits.php


Configuration file (cpuz.ini)
------------------------------

The configuration file must be named cpuz.ini and be present at the same directory level
as cpuz.exe. It contains the following :

[CPU-Z]
TextFontName=Verdana
TextFontSize=13
TextFontColor=000060
LabelFontName=Verdana
LabelFontSize=13
PCI=1
MaxPCIBus=256
DMI=1
Sensor=1
SMBus=1
Display=1
ShowDutyCycles=0
UseDisplayAPI=1

- TextFontName : Font used for the information boxes.
- TextFontSize : Size of the font used for the information boxes.
- TextFontColor : Color of the font used for the information boxes. Value is expressed in hexadecimal, and consists in a classic Red/Green/Blue color code : RRGGBB
- LabelFontName : Font used for the label boxes.
- LabelFontSize : Size of the font used for the label boxes.
- Sensor : Set to OFF (or 0) disables sensor chip detection and voltages measurement. 1 to enable.
- PCI : Set to OFF (or 0) disables the PCI information. This disables chipset, SPD and, depending on the hardware, sensoring information. 1 to enable.
- MaxPCIBus : Sets the maximum PCI bus to scan. Default value is 256.
- DMI : Set to OFF (or 0) disables the DMI (Desktop Management Interface) information. This concerns BIOS vendor and version, motherboard vendor and revision. 1 to enable.
- SMBus : Set to OFF (or 0) disables SMBus information : SPD, and, depending on the hardware, sensoring information. 1 to enable.
- Display : Set to OFF (or 0) disables the video card information reported in the validator. 1 to enable.
- ShowDutyCycles : Set to 1, switches the alternate clock computation method based on duty cycles. 0 to disable.
- UseDisplayAPI : Set to 1, uses the display driver to read the display adapters information.

Parameters
----------

-txt=filename : Launch CPU-Z in ghost mode (no interface appears) and generates the register dump file (.txt)
in the same directory as the exe file.

-html=filename : Same as "-txt" except it generates the html report.

-core=id : Displays clock speed of core #id (id can be set from 0 to Number of cores minus one).


Keys
----

F5 : save the current tab in a bmp file
F6 : save the current tab in the clipboard
F7 : save cvf file in the current directory


Cache Latency Tool
------------------

The cache latency tool can be downloaded at that address : http://www.cpuid.com/download/latency.zip


History
-------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.56 - October 2010
- Intel Core i3/i5/i7 "2000" serie processors (Sandy Bridge) with new logos.
- Intel Core i7 970 "Gulftown".
- Intel P67 chipset.
- AMD Phenom II, Athlon II and Sempron II "Caspian" processors.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.55 - July 2010
- VIA VX900/VX900M and VN1000/VN1000M chipsets.
- Intel Core i5-760, Core i7-875K and Core i5-655K processors.
- Intel Core i7-940XM, 840QM, 740QM mobile processors.
- Intel Core i5-450M, 540UM, 430UM, Core i3-370M mobile processors.
- Intel Pentium P6000 processor.
- New parameter in cpuz.ini : UseDisplayAPI

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.54 - March 2010
- Intel Core i7-880, Core i5-680, Core i3-550 processors.
- Intel Xeon 5600 line (32nm) processors.
- AMD Phenom II X6, Sempron II, Turion II, Turion II Ultra and Athlon II Mobile "Caspian" processors.
- NVIDIA GeForce 320M chipset.
- AMD 870/880G/890GX + SB800/SB850 chipset.
- Introduction of validation rooms.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.53 - December 2009
- Fix validation issue with AMD Phenom processors (1.53.1).
- Preliminary support for Intel Pinetrail platform (1.53.1).
- Intel Core i7 930 & 950, Core i7 980X "Gulftown", Xeon W3565.
- Intel Mobile Core i7/i5/i3 "Arrendale" (LV and ULV).
- Intel "Clarkdale" platform improved support.
- AMD Phenom FX-5000, Athlon II X2/X3/X4, Athlon L110.
- AMD AM3 socket detection improved.
- VIA VX800 and VX855 chipsets support.
- ATI Radeon 2100 and Radeon X1250 support.
- DirectX 11 detection fix.
- Hardware virtualization support now reported as instructions set.
- New HTML report with less information.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.52 - July 2009
- Fix Core i7 clock bug (1.52.2)
- New design with "Graphics" tab.
- NVIDIA nForce 980a chipset support.
- Intel Core i5 and Core i3 processors.
- Intel Atom Z530, Pentium DC E6300 (2.8GHz) and Core 2 Solo processors.
- Intel P55 and US15W chipsets preliminary support.
- AMD Phenom TWKR support.
- AMD Phenom X2 "Callisto" and Athlon X2 "Regor" processors.
- AMD Opteron 6-core "Istanbul" processor.
- Improved support for Windows 7.
- New Intel logos.

MD5 checksum : please refer to http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php#history


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.51 - April 2009
- New version with installer.
- NVIDIA ION platform.
- Intel "Clarkdale" processor preliminary support.

MD5 checksum : please refer to http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php#history

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.50 - February 2009
- Improved support for AMD Phenom II processor.
- Support for NVIDIA 740i chipset.
- Several bug fixes.

MD5 cpuz.exe (1.50) : E1C827C54F527404EDDA6D65DA0280D8

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.49 - December 2008
- AMD Phenom II processor.
- New Intel Core 2 models.
- Improved loading time.
- New online validation process.

MD5 cpuz.exe (1.49) : B836E86B40D7AFAF99D9C512E8CC9FEF

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.48 - October 2008
- Improved support for Intel Core i7 (Bloomfield & Gainestown).
- Intel Atom dual-core version support.
- AMD Athlon "Kuma" processor support.
- Alternate clock computation method based on "duty cycles" for Intel Core 2 processors (see ShowDutyCycles in cpuz.ini)

MD5 cpuz.exe (1.48) : DB78FBF1F99B7709240B495E59758CCE

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.47 - August 2008
- Intel Core i7 processor.
- Intel Core 2 Duo S Mobile processors.
- NVIDIA MCP79/7A chipset.
- AMD 790GX / SB750 chipset.

MD5 cpuz.exe (1.47) : A7484EFA3C32BC968C248CB1237FF493

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.46 - June 2008
- AMD Puma platform (Turion & Turion Ultra "Griffin");
- AMD Black Edition processors.
- Intel Xeon EX "Dunnington".

MD5 cpuz.exe (1.46) : C47432C41EC26156128F7B8E09E884CF

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.45 - May 2008
- Intel Atom Z500/Z510/Z520/Z530/Z540 processors.
- Intel Core 2 Duo E7x00 processor.
- AMD 45 nm Phenom (Dened & Shanghai) processors.
- Intel P45 chipset.

MD5 cpuz.exe (1.45) : DD4E540C04297CF93DC721166C13446E

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.44.2 - Mars 2008
- NVIDIA 650i, 680i, 750a/780a, 750i, 780i, 790i chipsets (1.44.2)
- Intel G35 chipset (1.44.2)
- Updated support for VIA chipsets (1.44.2)
- Support for the new validator (1.44.1)
- Preliminary support for VIA Isaiah processor.
- Support for all VIA Model D processors: VIA C7-M, VIA C7-D, VIA Eden, VIA Eden.
- Memory timings on Intel 5400A/B MCH (Skulltrail).
- Fix AMD Phenom detection issue on Windows Vista 64.

MD5 (1.44.2) : 81FB48A6EC7355E8D0DD71ADC2157CF6

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.43 - January 2008
- Intel Skulltrail platform support (Core 2 Extreme QX9775 + 5400B MCH).
- Intel X48 chipset detection.
- AMD Athlon 64-LE 1600 and 1620 support.
- Fix detection issues on unlocked Phenom (ES/BE).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.42 - November 2007
- Intel Wolfdale/Yorkfield/Penryn CPUs support.
- AMD Phenom and Opteron Barcelona support improved.
- Current core selection menu (right click on the CPU page).
- Loading progress.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.41 - September 2007
- New CPU voltage monitoring.
- Intel Xeon Tigerton support.
- Intel IA64 CPUs support (Itanium / Itanium2)(special thanks to Rami Radi and Ray Hinchliffe).
- AMD K10 Phenom preliminary support.
- NVIDIA MCP73 support.
- Intel XMP profiles support.
- Memory modules nominal voltage.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.40.5 - July 2007
- NVIDIA nForce 560 chipset support.
- Intel Dynamic FSB technology support.
- Athlon 64 X2 BE & Sempron LE (TDP 45W).
- SiS671/FX/DX/MX northbridge support.
- SiS968 southbridge support.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.40 - May 2007
- VIA P4M800CE chipset support.
- Preliminary support for Intel Penryn CPUs family (45 nm).
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6x20, Pentium E2140/2160 processors recognition.
- Intel P35, G33, G31, Q35, Q33, X38 chipsets support.
- Intel GL960/GM965/PM965 chipsets support.
- AMD Athlon 64 "Lima" processor support.
- AMD Geode LX processor support.
- NVIDIA nForce 520 chipset support.
- New parameter "-console" to generate output in a command prompt (Windows XP only).
- New icon.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.39 - February 2007
- Windows Vista 64 support.
- VIA CX700/VX700 chipset.
- Added Merom XE (X7900/X7800)
- Added "PCI" and "MaxPCIBus" in the ini file to configure PCI scanning.
- Added "-core" parameter to display the clock speed of the specified core.
- Lot of bug fixes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.38 - November 2006
- VIA P4M890 and P4M900 chipsets.
- NVIDIA 650i and 680i chipset.
- AMD Athlon 64 FX-7x processor.
- Core 2 Duo E6850, E6750, E6650 processors.
- socket 775 Xeon processor.
- New parameters "-txt" and "-html" (see above).
- Lot of bug fixes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.37 - October 2006
- Intel Core 2 Quad, Celeron 360, Mobile Core 2 Duo T5200 support.
- Changed SSE4 to SSSE3 (Supplemental SSE3).
- Added VIA VT8237A southbridge.
- New HTML report.
- Several bug fixes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.36 - August 2006
- New processor information display.
- Intel 5000X/P/Z/V SPD support.
- Intel Pentium D 925 & 945.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.35 - June 2006
- ATI RS350, RS400, RS480/RX480, RS482, RD580/RX580, RS600/RD600, RS690, RS700 chipsets support.
- ATI SB600 southbridge support.
- Intel P965 chipset support.
- Engineering samples Core based CPUs report.
- Windows Vista product line report.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.34.1 - May 2006
- AMD socket AM2/S1/F (rev F.) CPUs support.
- Enhanced Performance Profile (EPP) memory information report.
- Added Trc (bank cycle time) in DDR2 SPD report.
- Added Trc (bank cycle time) on i925, i945, i955, i975 chipsets.
- FB-DIMM DDR2 SPD information report.
- Core 2 Duo names and logos added.
- Turion 64 X2 logo added.
- Several bug fixed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.33.1 - April 2006
- Intel i965 chipset support added.
- Fix SPD detection problem on SiS 964/965/966 southbridges.
- ODC (Odd Divisor Correct) for Athlon64 rev E.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.33 - April 2006
- Memory Command Rate timing added.
- Improved support for Intel Conroe/Merom CPUs.
- Celeron M 420/430 Yonah.
- Xeon Dual core Dempsey.
- VIA C7-M CPU detection added.
- VIA PT880, PT880 Pro, K8T900 chipsets support.
- nVidia nForce 550/560/570 (MCP55) chipset support.
- VIA VT8251 southbridge support.
- Fixed HyperTransport information misreports (in dump file).
- Added K6-2 and K6-III logos.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.32.1 - March 2006
- New Intel logos.
- Added Pentium D 925, Pentium EE 965.
- Several bugs fixed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.32 - February 2006
- Athlon FX-60 detection added.
- Athlon64 new memory dividers.
- Celeron 35x Cedar Mill, Pentium D 805.
- Core Solo & Core Duo detection improved.
- VIA C7 CPU detection added.
- Intel i975X, i945GT chipsets support.
- ATI RD580 chipset support.
- ULi smbus support improved.
- Fix smbus conflict with ClockGen.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.31 - November 2005
- Improved support for ATI RS480/482 chipsets.
- GeForce 6100/6150 (nForce 410/430) chipsets support.
- Intel E7520 chipset support.
- New CPUs support : AMD Opteron socket 939, Intel Pentium 4 Cedar Mill and Presler,
Intel Xeon Paxville, Intel Pentium M Yonah SC & DC.
- Several bug fixed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.30 - August 2005
- Latest Sempron and Turion support improved.
- Intel Xeon Potomac, Pentium M 780 support.
- Improved Windows version report.
- Support for SMBus on latest SiS bridges (964, 965, 966) and ULi bridges.
- Increased clocks refresh rate.
- Several bug fixed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.29 - June 2005
- New PCI devices report.
- Switch for VCore report in .ini file.
- VCore report on some uGuru mainboards.
- Improved clocks computation.
- Improved support for latest AMD CPUs, Celeron D 3x1 (EM64T).
- Improved support for SiS 649, 650 and 656 chipsets, Intel 915PM chipset.
- Improved stability when several instances of CPU-Z are running in the same time.
- Restored html report in ghost mode (see "Parameters" chapter above).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.28.6 - March 2005
- Support for Athlon 64 X2 CPUs
- Support for i955X chipset
- Bunch of bugs

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.28 - March 2005
- Support for SiS chipsets improved : 648FX, 649, 655FX, 655TX, 656
- Support for nVidia nForce4 SLI Intel Edition
- Support for Intel Pentium D, Pentium XE, AMD Turion, Opteron 252
- New F7 key to simplifiy the creation of the validation file

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.27 - February 2005
- Support for Intel Pentium 4 6xx CPUs.
- New validation system.
- Hundred of bug fixes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.26 - December 2004
- VCore display on Pentium M CPUs.
- New CPU clock computation.
- Improved support of Transmeta CPUs.
- Several bugs fixed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.25 - November 2004
- nVidia nForce4 chipset support
- Intel Pentium 4J support
- New button to refresh memory timings
- Several bugs fixed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.24 - September 2004
- AMD Sempron support
- New memory SPD page
- PCI-Express graphic interface support
- Configuration file
- External cache latency tool
- Restored html report
- Fix several bugs

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.23 - June 2004
- Intel i915P/G, i925X chipsets support
- Intel LGA775 CPUs support
- Intel's CPU number display
- New AMD Athlon 64 steppings
- New report in one file

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.22 - April 2004
- New CPUs : Xeon Nocona, Celeron Prescott
- DDR2 memory support
- Clock mode when iconized

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.21 - January 2004
- one file package
- Windows 64 support
- new chipsets support
- new CPU support : Celeron M, Pentium 4 "Prescott"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.20a - October 2003
- memory frequency and ratio on nForce2
- KT600 support
- W83627THF VRM mode
- SPD read improvement
- Fix some memory leaks (DMI)
- Fix memory size report
- Fix AGP side band status

[JedExodus]

That's the update log for the actual CPUZ software Gman, not your computer specs