Choosing A Graphics Card For My PC?

woodbine · 14 Aug 2022

The original graphics card on my Acer Aspire M3910 desktop pc was fanless and part of the mother board. It stopped working so a friend slotted another card in which now has the output ports (VGA, HDMI, etc) coming out of the removable plate on the lower part of the rear of pc.

This replacement card has a fan which is noisy. I would like to source a fanless card to swap for the one that's been installed. How do I choose one that's suitable for my pc? What spec should I look for to make sure it's compatible with my pc? Will all cards fit into the connectors inside pc, or do I need to look for certain connectors? Which brands should I be looking for?

I need to state that I don't play games on mine or edit videos so don't need anything too rock 'n' roll. Most strenous thing my pc is used for is browsing, word processing and watching Youtube videos. As you can tell, my knowledge is minimal - so please be gentle with me.

MaloK · 14 Aug 2022

Hi,

For you humble needs you can go with:

GeForce GT7xx: Any brand Many are fanless.
Radeon 54xx: line all the same.

No need to pay 500$ a 125$ dedicated GPU will make you happy for your needs.

Helmut · 14 Aug 2022

Just a moment...

That has a passive chunky heatsink and the more modern outputs like HDMI and DisplayPort.

woodbine · 14 Aug 2022

MaloK said:

Hi,

For you humble needs you can go with:

GeForce GT7xx: Any brand Many are fanless.
Radeon 54xx: line all the same.

No need to pay 500$ a 125$ dedicated GPU will make you happy for your needs.

Hi MaloK

Thanks for your advice. Had a look around for your suggestions and they're quite affordable. Few more questions;

Some cards are 1 or 2 GB. What difference will the two specs make?

As the memory in my pc is DDR3, do I need a card that is DDR3 as well? I ask, because some cards say they are GDDR5, DDR5, GDDR3.

Some cards say they are low profile. Are these ok for my standard desktop?

Ghot · 14 Aug 2022

woodbine said:

Hi MaloK

Thanks for your advice. Had a look around for your suggestions and they're quite affordable. Few more questions;

Some cards are 1 or 2 GB. What difference will the two specs make?

As the memory in my pc is DDR3, do I need a card that is DDR3 as well? I ask, because some cards say they are GDDR5, DDR5, GDDR3.

Some cards say they are low profile. Are these ok for my standard desktop?

The PC memory (DRAM), and the vid card memory (VRAM), have nothing to do with each other.
The VRAM is always a higher version number than the DRAM.

The more VRAM the higher resolution the vid card can drive. High resolution monitors need more VRAM.

I would look at one of these...
Choose A Video Card - PCPartPicker

A GTX 1650 will blow a GTX 7xx out of the water, for about the same price.

woodbine · 15 Aug 2022

Ghot said:

The PC memory (DRAM), and the vid card memory (VRAM), have nothing to do with each other.
The VRAM is always a higher version number than the DRAM.

The more VRAM the higher resolution the vid card can drive. High resolution monitors need more VRAM.

I would look at one of these...
Choose A Video Card - PCPartPicker

A GTX 1650 will blow a GTX 7xx out of the water, for about the same price.

Thanks Ghot, really appreciated.

So bearing in mind I don't do gaming or video editing (mainly internet browser), which VRAM should/could I use in my desktop - bearing in mind it's 10 years old? Does it matter which?

The monitor is an old LG Flatron with 1280 x 1024 Resolution - so guessing not much VRAM needed?

- - - Updated - - -

Helmut said:

Just a moment...

That has a passive chunky heatsink and the more modern outputs like HDMI and DisplayPort.

Unfortunately my monitor is a 15 year old LG Flatron - so VGA outputs only. Thanks for the tip though.

Ghot · 15 Aug 2022

woodbine said:

Thanks Ghot, really appreciated.

So bearing in mind I don't do gaming or video editing (mainly internet browser), which VRAM should/could I use in my desktop - bearing in mind it's 10 years old? Does it matter which?

The monitor is an old LG Flatron with 1280 x 1024 Resolution - so guessing not much VRAM needed?

- - - Updated - - -

Unfortunately my monitor is a 15 year old LG Flatron - so VGA outputs only. Thanks for the tip though.

You should be fine with even 1GB VRAM, although I'd aim for 2GB or better, on any vid card.
Keep in mind that in the future... you may get a higher resolution monitor.
Choose A Monitor - PCPartPicker

Also, you can get adapters for anything these days. And they are cheap. Like...

HDMI to VGA, Benfei Gold-Plated HDMI to VGA 1.8M Cable (Male to Male) for Computer, Desktop, Laptop, PC, Monitor, Projector, HDTV, Chromebook, Raspberry Pi, Roku, Xbox and More - Black : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

DisplayPort to VGA Cable, BENFEI 1.8M Display Port of Computer/Laptop to VGA of Monitor/Projector Gold-Plated Adapter (Not Bidirectional,Not Compatible with HDMI or USB) : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Sometimes, a larger monitor is nice...

Choosing A Graphics Card For My PC?-image1.jpg

Helmut · 15 Aug 2022

VRAM is of no concern, even 2 GB is far too much for your needs, but that is the minimum for any Graphics Card these days.

The obsolete VGA analogue output is more a concern, forward looking would be at least HDMI as well.

Low profile no problem at all. You would need to check for space for the chunky heatsink protruding over the next PCI-E slot.

In that case these would do you:

Just a moment...

Just a moment...

MisterEd · 16 Aug 2022

What video card do you have? Some video card manufacturers have software that allows you to control the fan speeds. You can slow down the fans to be quieter but still cool the GPU.

woodbine · 16 Aug 2022

MisterEd said:

What video card do you have? Some video card manufacturers have software that allows you to control the fan speeds. You can slow down the fans to be quieter but still cool the GPU.

Hi MisterEd

Going by the driver my friend installed it's an Nvidia Geforce 210.