nVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 Upgrade

[Knightmare]

I'm looking to upgrade my video card because mine is rather old. The only problem is I don't know which video card I can buy that would be compatible with my motherboard, which is MSI G41M-P26 (MS-7592). Do I have to buy a nVIDIA from the same series or can I upgrade to a higher series?

[MasterFaster]

It's not your motherboard that you should worry, but rather the following:

1. What cpu do you have? Slow/weak cpu will cause bottleneck to a high end gpu.

2. What PSU do you have? Which brand, model, watt? How much wattage/power can give at +12V rail? (or does it have single or two or more +12V rails?)

High end graphics cards need more of watts.

3. Do you have enough free space in your tower case? Most high end cards are longer than the middle range cards.

Also you need good air flow inside your tower case, if you plan to buy a good middle range card, or a high end card.

For example: GTX 760 based cards are a good start, if you want to play games. But you have to check if your PSU can support it, and if it can fit in your tower case.

[iih1]

try you go to your MSI web site probably here check there for support etc http://www.msi.com/product/mb/G41MP26.html

[iih1]

my thought, when i see your MOBO MSI will support but make sure to check and recheck!

Edited April 19, 2014 by iih1

[iih1]

check More Nvidia GEforce GTS 450 here http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gts-450

[Knightmare]

What am I looking for at these sites though? You would think there would have to be something newer that is the same size, same plugs, etc.

[iih1]

Simply buy the new ones as your need. ha ha. ha...have a nice weekend :D

[Zigen]

I'm looking to upgrade my video card because mine is rather old. The only problem is I don't know which video card I can buy that would be compatible with my motherboard, which is MSI G41M-P26 (MS-7592). Do I have to buy a nVIDIA from the same series or can I upgrade to a higher series?

What is your current graphics card? Your board is a G41 socket 775 motherboard which is quite old, but it can still take the Quad Core CPU chips, so it's not too bad. Are you changing just for a simple upgrade or to play games?

[R0H1T]

I'm looking to upgrade my video card because mine is rather old. The only problem is I don't know which video card I can buy that would be compatible with my motherboard, which is MSI G41M-P26 (MS-7592). Do I have to buy a nVIDIA from the same series or can I upgrade to a higher series?

You're fine with any PCIe 2.0 compatible GPU & nearly all modern GPU's will fit your board, the real problem will be your CPU so if you've got a Core 2 Quad then go for something like a 750Ti or 650Ti boost cause anything higher & you'll be bottlenecked by your CPU. So go for any of these 2 or a Radeon 7790, in case you'd like to go with AMD, & you'll get roughly twice (or more in certain cases) the performance of that 450 & a heck of a lot more power savings. I've suggested the 3 most power efficient GPU's curently available that are relatively cheap but if you don't have a Quad core, or don't plan on getting one, then settle for something like a GTX 750 (non Ti version) :lol:

[Knightmare]

I'm looking to upgrade my video card because mine is rather old. The only problem is I don't know which video card I can buy that would be compatible with my motherboard, which is MSI G41M-P26 (MS-7592). Do I have to buy a nVIDIA from the same series or can I upgrade to a higher series?

What is your current graphics card? Your board is a G41 socket 775 motherboard which is quite old, but it can still take the Quad Core CPU chips, so it's not too bad. Are you changing just for a simple upgrade or to play games?

I would like it for gaming.

[mara-]

The only good post here is by @MasterFaster. Read what he wrote. Your board has PCI-Express slot, which means you can buy any card, since all PCI-Express slots are backward compatible. Using it's full potential is another thing.

Cheers ;)

Edited April 20, 2014 by mara-

[Zigen]

I would like it for gaming.

The only good post here is by @MasterFaster. Read what he wrote. Your board has PCI-Express slot, which means you can buy any card, since all PCI-Express slots are backward compatible. Using it's full potential is another thing.

Cheers ;)

What Mara said is incomplete. So what if the board has a PCIE slot? Almost all the boards today have PCIE slots, save those from the Pentium 3/4 and older era which had AGP slots.

Knightmare, you still have not told us what is your current card model (Download GPU-Z and tell us). When upgrading a card, there's several things to consider. You said to play games... what games? Your G41 board (assuming you're running a 775 Quad Core chip) is quite ill equipped to take on the latest games like Battlefield 4 or Far Cry 3. Or are you going to just run some older games like GTA 4 etc? It really depends what you want, and of course how many you willing to spend, and whether new or second hand.

I would think these are things to consider when getting another graphics cards......

- What motherboard and CPU chip are you running?

- What is the purpose of the new graphics card?

- What Power supply do you use? Please note some graphics cards are very power hungry and need 1 or 2 6-pin PCIE connectors from a good power supply. Some need an 8 pin!

- What is your budget?

- Nvidia or AMD preference? Or no preference? New or Used?

- How big is your computer casing if you're going to buy a big card that needs more space?

Answer these questions and maybe we can help you choose a card. Vague or no answers to questions only led to more confusion.

[Knightmare]

What Mara said is incomplete. So what if the board has a PCIE slot? Almost all the boards today have PCIE slots, save those from the Pentium 3/4 and older era which had AGP slots.

Knightmare, you still have not told us what is your current card model (Download GPU-Z and tell us). When upgrading a card, there's several things to consider. You said to play games... what games? Your G41 board (assuming you're running a 775 Quad Core chip) is quite ill equipped to take on the latest games like Battlefield 4 or Far Cry 3. Or are you going to just run some older games like GTA 4 etc? It really depends what you want, and of course how many you willing to spend, and whether new or second hand.

I would think these are things to consider when getting another graphics cards......

- What motherboard and CPU chip are you running?

- What is the purpose of the new graphics card?

- What Power supply do you use? Please note some graphics cards are very power hungry and need 1 or 2 6-pin PCIE connectors from a good power supply. Some need an 8 pin!

- What is your budget?

- Nvidia or AMD preference? Or no preference? New or Used?

- How big is your computer casing if you're going to buy a big card that needs more space?

Answer these questions and maybe we can help you choose a card. Vague or no answers to questions only led to more confusion.

I've attached a file with a report containing all of my hardware information. I guess the purpose would be for an upgrade and for better games. I know I won't be able to play newer games, but a lot of my older games struggle to work. I would like to try and save money, if possible, so if anyone knows any discount sites for computer parts, that would be good. I don't have a preference on the card, just as long as it works. Here is the case that I bought: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112397

Report.txt

Edited April 21, 2014 by Knightmare

[R0H1T]

What Mara said is incomplete. So what if the board has a PCIE slot? Almost all the boards today have PCIE slots, save those from the Pentium 3/4 and older era which had AGP slots.

Knightmare, you still have not told us what is your current card model (Download GPU-Z and tell us). When upgrading a card, there's several things to consider. You said to play games... what games? Your G41 board (assuming you're running a 775 Quad Core chip) is quite ill equipped to take on the latest games like Battlefield 4 or Far Cry 3. Or are you going to just run some older games like GTA 4 etc? It really depends what you want, and of course how many you willing to spend, and whether new or second hand.

I would think these are things to consider when getting another graphics cards......

- What motherboard and CPU chip are you running?

- What is the purpose of the new graphics card?

- What Power supply do you use? Please note some graphics cards are very power hungry and need 1 or 2 6-pin PCIE connectors from a good power supply. Some need an 8 pin!

- What is your budget?

- Nvidia or AMD preference? Or no preference? New or Used?

- How big is your computer casing if you're going to buy a big card that needs more space?

Answer these questions and maybe we can help you choose a card. Vague or no answers to questions only led to more confusion.

I've attached a file with a report containing all of my hardware information. I guess the purpose would be for an upgrade and for better games. I know I won't be able to play newer games, but a lot of my older games struggle to work. I would like to try and save money, if possible, so if anyone knows any discount sites for computer parts, that would be good. I don't have a preference on the card, just as long as it works. Here is the case that I bought: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112397

If you aren't looking to upgrade your CPU then you should get a GTX 750 or if you're on a tight budget then the R7 260 is another viable alternative you may look at. Whatever you do you'll be somewhat bottle necked, to put it mildly, by your CPU so my suggestion is to get a Quad core Intel alongside that GPU. The upgrade will cost you ~250$ if you're buying new items, for a used/refurbished CPU you're looking at a 50~100$ discount depending on it's condition, make/model et al.

You still haven't mentioned the PSU, which will decide whether you'll need another replacement part or not, plus it all depends on how much you're willing to spend (check Amazon for better prices) & what you're looking to achieve. For instance a GPU upgrade (to GTX 750) will give you about 1.5~2x your current gaming performance, the upgrade to a quad core + 750Ti or Radeon 7790 (will probably need a PSU upgrade) will give you another 1.5~2x performance jump over & above the single GPU upgrade (with GTX 750 or R7 260) I've advocated earlier.

Edited April 21, 2014 by R0H1T

[MasterFaster]

Unfortunately you've got a weak cpu.

Unless you find a used Quad Core (check manufacturer's site for cpu compatibility) in really good price, it doesn't worth the trouble.

My advise, stay the way you are now and do a full upgrade in the future (or when you'll got the needed money).

Edited April 21, 2014 by MasterFaster

[DKT27]

I don't think a quad core CPU is required. I still don't see many games using more than one core. However, a new CPU is required.

[Knightmare]

How can I tell which parts are new and which are old? Whenever I look up processors, none of them have a year.

[Zigen]

How can I tell which parts are new and which are old? Whenever I look up processors, none of them have a year.

Unless you're concerned with warranty, you shouldn't worry about how old the parts are, unless you want to do upgrades due to the age.

Your MSI G41 motherboad is not too bad for a 775 socket mobo. Plus the 8gb of ddr3 rams is a bonus instead of having to use ddr2 which is mostly used on 775 boards.

My suggestion for your upgrades are :

CPU processor - Try getting a core 2 Quad Q8400 or Q9400 or better if possible.

Video card - A 550 GTX, 560 GTX Ti or better would be an upgrade over the 450 GTS. Or maybe a ATi 7770. Really depends what games you want to play. But these GFX are not bad.

Storage : Get a SSD drive & use Macrium Reflect Clone to clone your current hard drive to your SSD. Your windows 7 will be very much faster on boot up.

BIOS : Your bios is up to date, so that's good.

Many of these items can bought on ebay for cheap. Not sure which country you're from but i usually see them quite cheap on gumtree or craigslist. Good luck & let us know your upgrade decisions!

[Knightmare]

How can I tell which parts are new and which are old? Whenever I look up processors, none of them have a year.

Unless you're concerned with warranty, you shouldn't worry about how old the parts are, unless you want to do upgrades due to the age.

Your MSI G41 motherboad is not too bad for a 775 socket mobo. Plus the 8gb of ddr3 rams is a bonus instead of having to use ddr2 which is mostly used on 775 boards.

My suggestion for your upgrades are :

CPU processor - Try getting a core 2 Quad Q8400 or Q9400 or better if possible.

Video card - A 550 GTX, 560 GTX Ti or better would be an upgrade over the 450 GTS. Or maybe a ATi 7770. Really depends what games you want to play. But these GFX are not bad.

Storage : Get a SSD drive & use Macrium Reflect Clone to clone your current hard drive to your SSD. Your windows 7 will be very much faster on boot up.

BIOS : Your bios is up to date, so that's good.

Many of these items can bought on ebay for cheap. Not sure which country you're from but i usually see them quite cheap on gumtree or craigslist. Good luck & let us know your upgrade decisions!

So one of these?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600373033%20600364400%20600122953&IsNodeId=1

[Deunan]

One of those should do fine... I know a friend of mines who had a LGA 775 board with a Core 2 Quad, 8 GB of DDR3 1333, with a GTX 560 Ti powered by a 650 w PSU...

[Knightmare]

One of those should do fine... I know a friend of mines who had a LGA 775 board with a Core 2 Quad, 8 GB of DDR3 1333, with a GTX 560 Ti powered by a 650 w PSU...

What is the speed on the Core2 Quad? I can't seem to find anything higher than 2.8 ghz. Would I notice much of a change if I went from a Dual-Core 2.5 ghz to a Dual-Core 2.8 ghz? The quad core seems to be a little out of my price range.

[Deunan]

One of those should do fine... I know a friend of mines who had a LGA 775 board with a Core 2 Quad, 8 GB of DDR3 1333, with a GTX 560 Ti powered by a 650 w PSU...

What is the speed on the Core2 Quad? I can't seem to find anything higher than 2.8 ghz. Would I notice much of a change if I went from a Dual-Core 2.5 ghz to a Dual-Core 2.8 ghz? The quad core seems to be a little out of my price range.

It was a 2.8GHz Core 2 Quad... 2.8GHz is indeed faster than the 2.5GHz you would notice the difference... As I can remember my Athlon X2 7750 B.E 2.7Ghz which I overclocked to 3.3GHz... and it made a difference from the stock clock. It was a Dual-Core beast lol

Edited May 17, 2014 by Deunan

[Zigen]

So one of these?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600373033%20600364400%20600122953&IsNodeId=1

Before buying you must make sure your power supply is adequate. Many of those listed are power hungry and require a a real power good quality PSU, not those cheap lousy ones that quote high wattage but barely churn out half of it.

What brand is your power supply?

[Deunan]

A GTX 750 Ti should be able to do what you need for the next couple of years or until you are able to fully build a new system... It's a lower version to the GTX 760, but it requires less power... as a mere 350w PSU could run it. I wouldn't use a Generic PSU either... The GTX 760 requires a 500 w - 550 w PSU with a +12v rail of 30 Amps.