Upgrading Graphics Card?

keegaan said:

Nowhere I can see but here's some pictures of it:
Attachment 81338Attachment 81339

Looks to me like what is called a Custom case, can be outfitted by the user as desired. The power supply appears to be 500W capacity.

The power supply is a nominal 500W one:

COOLER MASTER eXtreme RP-500-PCAR 500W ATX12V V2.01 Power Supply - Newegg.com

It has a single 6 pin PCI-E power connector. If you needed an 8 pin (like for some high-end eVGA 950 cards), the card may be bundled with an adapter. (Should be safe enough. The PCI-E slot can supply 75W, and a 6 pin PCI-E power connector another 75, so the 8 pin one is hardly necessary.)

Your case looks like a full width type (not SFF, small form factor), so a full-height graphics card should fit.

It's good that the "HP" in your system specs isn't correct. Appliance PCs (HP, Dell, etc.) sometimes have power supplies that are adequate to support the factory system, but not large enough to take upgrades. You should be good. If you need help swapping cards, don't be shy to ask for it.

My recommended ritual:

Have the latest drivers for the new card downloaded. (Visual Computing Leadership from NVIDIA).

With the old graphics card still in place, uninstall its drivers.

Power down. (Do not reboot; you might get some unwanted drivers back.)

Swap cards.

Power up.

Install the new drivers.

On rare occasions, I've had to clear the CMOS to get the new card recognized. (Not hard to do, but it may involve moving a jumper on the motherboard to a new position, then moving it back. Newer motherboards have push buttons or recessed buttons that you can push with a bent paper clip.)

Not sure what to recommend for an upgrade. The 950 is a better card, but it costs more.

bobkn said:

The power supply is a nominal 500W one:

COOLER MASTER eXtreme RP-500-PCAR 500W ATX12V V2.01 Power Supply - Newegg.com
It has a single 6 pin PCI-E power connector. If you needed an 8 pin (like for some high-end eVGA 950 cards), the card may be bundled with an adapter. (Should be safe enough. The PCI-E slot can supply 75W, and a 6 pin PCI-E power connector another 75, so the 8 pin one is hardly necessary.)

Your case looks like a full width type (not SFF, small form factor), so a full-height graphics card should fit.

It's good that the "HP" in your system specs isn't correct. Appliance PCs (HP, Dell, etc.) sometimes have power supplies that are adequate to support the factory system, but not large enough to take upgrades. You should be good. If you need help swapping cards, don't be shy to ask for it.

My recommended ritual:

Have the latest drivers for the new card downloaded. (Visual Computing Leadership from NVIDIA).

With the old graphics card still in place, uninstall its drivers.

Power down. (Do not reboot; you might get some unwanted drivers back.)

Swap cards.

Power up.

Install the new drivers.

On rare occasions, I've had to clear the CMOS to get the new card recognized. (Not hard to do, but it may involve moving a jumper on the motherboard to a new position, then moving it back. Newer motherboards have push buttons or recessed buttons that you can push with a bent paper clip.)

Not sure what to recommend for an upgrade. The 950 is a better card, but it costs more.

Thanks for the help.
I'm trying to play Planet Coaster, Guild Wars 2, and WoW with decent settings. Which would you recommend that's around $150 or less?

keegaan said:

I have no idea how to check the wattage of the PSU but I got a picture here:
Attachment 81302

edit: I have no idea why it's upside down

Well, there is a BIG 500 in red numbers... Does it count?

eLPuSHeR said:

Well, there is a BIG 500 in red numbers... Does it count?

You're a bit late to the party for adding snark.

keegaan said:

Thanks for the help.
I'm trying to play Planet Coaster, Guild Wars 2, and WoW with decent settings. Which would you recommend that's around $150 or less?

I'm not much into gaming, so I can't make recommendations based on familiarity.

A little quick Googling produced a recommendation for a GTX 470 for a WoW expansion pack. That would be roughly equivalent to a 750 ti.

If you're willing to part with $150, then I suggest the 950. I don't know how long you'd keep the upgraded system, but I suppose that a 900 series card will have better driver support in the future than a 700 series card.

(At newegg.com, there's an MSI 960 for $170, but with a $20 rebate. Just at your budget limit. It's a slightly better card than the 950.)

Maybe an AMD card would give better price/performance. I've used a few of those over the years, but I always find myself going back to nVidia. I'd try to sell you an old 7970, but it probably wouldn't be a good fit in your system. ;-)