Graphics Card Help

[Olaf Dennison1]

Hey all,
I have a Packard Bell iMedia s1800 running 3GB RAM. The graphics card is really poor and doesn't really work with some of the games I've gotten into now I'm running win 10. Anyway it's an Intel g41 express chipset, pretty poor I see from google, so I've found a good deal on a couple of cards ATI Radeon HD2600 512mb card, ATI Radeon X1650 XT 512mb or Nvidia GeForce 7900GC 256mb. I know they're all old, but are they decent? will they do better than what's in there already? Also are they simple enough to install? Seems to me they should just slot into the socket but do they need external powering as well?
Anyone any opinions on which is best?
I only do light gaming on the pc, got a ps3 for bigger gaming.
Thanks for any help

 

[ven07]

What kind of games are we talking about here?

 

[RumoredNow]

Given the age of what you are looking at...

Obviously more RAM will be better so I'd look at the Radeons. Of the two you ask about, the HD2600 gets better reviews and looks more robust to me in the cooling set up.

Question is compatibility. I'm having a hard time tracking down spec on your rig. Got links for general specifications? Does it in fact have a PCI-e slot free?

Also my research showed a similar model Packard Bell having issue with PCI graphics cards. His PB box would not recognize the card initially and entering BIOS was only possible by removing the card which borked the dedicated display port on the motherboard. Without the card inserted in the PCI slot, the option to switch from built in to graphics card for display was greyed out and unselectable in BIOS.

Run a sanity check. Make sure your BIOS is updated. Enter BIOS and see if you can select between onboard and card in display. If not, it may be a moot point.