Please help this newbie upgrade his gfx card

ak47kgb

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Hello everyone. I'm looking to upgrade the gfx card of this piece of crap:

HP Pavilion p6310y Desktop PC Product Specifications HP Pavilion p6310y Desktop PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

From the preinstalled integrated chip to a low-end dedicated one. My budget is around $50 bucks tops. I'm not really looking for some gaming card, just a slightly decent so I can utilize the full 6GB ram that this thing has to offer, rather than the integrated card hogging 2 gigs of it.

I've been looking around at Newegg and BestBuy, and here's what I came up with. Obviously suggestions are welcome. I'm mainly looking for the biggest bang for the buck here.

Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P3-1311-KR GeForce 210 512MB 32-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

Newegg.com - PNY VCG941024GXXB GeForce 9400 GT 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

PNY - NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card - VCG84DMS5R3SXPB

EVGA - GeForce 8400 GS 1GB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card - 01G-P3-1302-LR

EVGA - GeForce 210 1GB DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card - 01G-P3-1312-LR

MSI - ATI Radeon HD 4350 512MB DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card - R4350-MD512

Sapphire - ATI Radeon HD 4350 512MB DDR2 PCI Express Graphics Card - 100264hdmi

PNY Technologies - NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card - VCG84512R3SXPB

Thank you very, very much. You don't know how much your help means to me.

oh and btw...what does "low profile ready" mean? I'm sorry if that sounded like a noobish question but I really have no idea.
 
oh another by the way, I'm doing some video editing. Not high end, but modest-intermediate (Sony Vegas Pro)
 
In my opinion the power supply would probably be the first thing to upgrade. It's a pre-built you get garbage power supplies. You put any of those in there and more than likely the power supply won't handle it, it'll probably kill itself a week to 2 later and take out other parts since it's a cheapo. It looks like an ATX power supply, so i'd get a corsair 430Watt power supply so you can actually power the video cards.
Newegg.com - CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
You would probably be fine with the one you got, but i just don't trust generic power supplies, especially one's that don't even give details besides, "300 watts." That's good and all, but how do i know who's it even from? Could be made from area 51, a company that's not even around to make power supplies in the first place. :)

By the way, unless you got a 64-bit OS, you won't get more than 4 anyhow. Go into control panel, then system, and scroll down. It'll literally say, "32-bit Operating System" or "64-bit Operating System." If you don't have a 64, you'll be stuck with 4GB at most.

the other thing to consider is the fact your motherboard's pci-e 1.0... If you get a pci-e 2.0 card, it'll have to downclock to run as fast as the old slot. You won't get 100% of the performance, but would probably still be better off than a 1.0 card, since there's no many "good" ones around.

Oh, and it's best to buy from newegg in my opinion from the places you linked. Great support, fast shipping, and easy returns with good prices. It will save yourself a lot of headaches. I've never had to worry about problems when buying from them. And if you're still able to get a video card, here's the one I'd recommend on a tight budget. It all you'll do is offload the work from the integrated, and browse the web etc, it'll be fine. Doesn't sound like you need a big beast of a card. I just don't trust cheapo power supplies and aftermarket video cards, to many problems might occur. Call me paranoid, but if my power supply dies, i'll be sure it's the ONLY thing that dies, and the LAST thing to die. (Uhh, my text got stupid on me. It keeps hyperlinking a non hyperlink. Ignore this text.

Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P3-1311-KR GeForce 210 512MB 32-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Looks like we picked out the same card. I didn't even see that until i looked up again.

oh another by the way, I'm doing some video editing. Not high end, but modest-intermediate (Sony Vegas Pro)

I don't video edit ever, but i don't think it's gpu heavy as much as ram/cpu, like other applications. But that's just a guess.
 
You see, I would love to do all these upgrades. I realize that my PC is pretty shitty already to begin with. But as of now, I'm on a reeaaaalllly tight budget and can only afford around 50 dollars worth of upgrades.

I run a 64-bit OS, so there's no problem with that.

Maybe I should just add another RAM? I'm looking at the prices and they're a little cheaper than replacing the gfx card.

2GB DDR3 1066 - Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Memory, Desktop Memory, 2GB, DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500)

4GB DDR3 1066 - Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Memory, Desktop Memory, 4GB, DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500)

or does my motherboard not support those as well??
 
krone6 said:
the other thing to consider is the fact your motherboard's pci-e 1.0... If you get a pci-e 2.0 card, it'll have to downclock to run as fast as the old slot. You won't get 100% of the performance, but would probably still be better off than a 1.0 card, since there's no many "good" ones around.

This is a nonissue. Just like the AGP spec moving from 4x to 8x, it's more headroom than the interface uses even in the fastest video cards. I wouldn't worry about it right now.

Also, the linked GeForce 210 will work fine in the system without having to upgrade the power supply. If you're more worried about the RAM being hogged by onboard video, that card should suit you fine until you can afford to upgrade more of the system, but I agree, the power supply would be first and foremost on my upgrade list before anything else when you DO go ahead with the other upgrades.
 
So the GeForce 210 should work fine in my current system?

Also there's one available @ 1GB DDR3 (64bit)...vs. the 512 MB (32bit) that is a little cheaper...should I just go with the 512MB one?
 
Not sure I understand what you mean by 64 bit and 32 bit. The memory bus on most video cards today don't drop below 64 bit interfaces, so I'm not sure what you mean. Can you link?
 
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