PC Upgraded

[NiGHTM4RE]

Okay so I installed a Graphics Card, Geforce 210 1024MB DDR3, on my PC but I get only an average of 23 fps on GTA EFLC. The graphics card requires a 300 watt Power Supply or greater. And no, I did not download GTA EFLC from some torrent, I bought it as discs.

These are my PC Specs:
Operating System: Windows 7
Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 620 Processor  2.60 GHz
PC RAM: 6 GB
Power Supply: 300 Watts

Now the Graphics Card has 1GB of RAM, that's pretty good but I get low fps, so if I upgrade the Power Supply, is it possible that I would get a higher frame rate? Or what else do I need to upgrade in order to get a higher frame rate?

Thanks in advance.

[Swanson]

I've found this info about this card, it's a budgetcard which isn't made for gaming, although it can run most (new) games on low settings. I'm not sure if your powersupply has anything to do with it, the game runs and it doesn't crash so doesn't look like powerproblems to me. Be sure to find out some more info about this card if you can, how does it run GTA4 with other people? On youtube should be enough examples or look for benchmarks.

Btw, size of memory doesn't say a lot about performance, your card can have a lot of memory but if it runs on a low clockspeed it's 'useless'.

[NiGHTM4RE]

Okay so these are it's Clock speeds:

# 520Mhz GPU Clock Speed
# 1200Mhz Memory Clock Speed

Not sure if it's good or bad?

[Swanson]

I'm not sure if it's good or bad, but my GPU has lower clocksettings and less memory than yours, but it still runs GTA4 good on low settings. So in theory yours should run it good as well (depending on gamesettings). Just try to find out other people's experiences with this same card, I'm sure you'll find some usefull information about this card, but still it's a budgetcard (like mine) so don't expect too much of it.

[Fuse]

Try to lower the resolution if it's high..

[NiGHTM4RE]

I ment to say i get an average of 23fps with the lowest settings...it just doesnt seem right...i seached on youtube and they can play it smoothly and can also play battlefield bad company 2 decently

[[NAB]DarkZomb]

Your power supply doesn't have a thing to do with your GPU problem, if it was your power supply, your PC would just not turn on or keep rebooting in a cicle.

Obviously, there is a reason why there is so many "models" and series on Graphic Cards, and that is because the graphics main processor unit between them is different, maybe it has more SPU's, more frequency, etc. But not just because it has 1GB DDR3 it means it's powerful. For example, I can put 1GB RAM to my PIII processor, doesn't mean it will beat a C2D with 256MB of RAM ^.^

You could try to turn the graphics in the game a little down (resolution or details), so it doesn't make you have low FPS.

PS:  the hard disk can also make trouble if it's fragmented.

Peace out.

Or you can just buy a more powerful GPU lol

[[V]ACE]

GTA:IV is a resource hog.

Well two things when I researched stand out.
(a) your CPU has no l3 cache none, which may result in low fps (as this helps cpu multi-threading, apparently)
(b) The GFX card was built as a inexpensive solution to ATI cards - performance tests show that it only gets a max of 21.3 FPS on "Fallout 3" (which is the highest FPS they get in a game, some are as low a 3-5 - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gf-210-gt220_12.html)

strangely i could not find a "factory" Geforce 210 with 1gb so i looked up the 220 (nearly same specs as you have given - http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1121/6/)

Gives low fps as it is still a "budget" card, designed to boost integrated graphics.

However, 23 FPS on GTA:IV aint bad - i would take it any day, considering I have a geforce 240GTX and i get about 20-23 FPS (depending where i am) on the lowest settings. (Though i need a new CPU - mine was created as a budget cpu...)

PSU would do nothing, if you have the correct psu its fine. As stated is PSU was wrong either your computer would not switch on or something would switch off.

So either play on 23fps or get a new gfx card (and possible cpu).

Also, I hope you are running win 7 64x otherwise that extra ram is not doing nothing...

[NiGHTM4RE]

Thing is that sometimes it runs fine outside the safehouse then it lags at the same place and I get 15fps. Like today I just turned it on(maybe because it was just used and they turned it off) and it started running at 15fps then it went up to 25 for a few hours and now its back to 15. This is why I think it's the power supply. Maybe it cannot handle the Graphics Card at it's best and it just doesn't let the Graphics Card work at it's best?

And yes, I've tried it when it's day or night in the game and it does not matter, closed all applications and with the lowest settings possible.

The GFX extended requirement for a PSU:
300 Watt or greater power supply with a minimum of 18 amps on the +12 volt rail.

Mine is a 300 Watt with a maximum of 19 amps on the +12 volt rail.

The GFX requires a minimum of 18amps so if you ask me, I can go higher for it's maximum performance but my PSU has a maximum of 19amps, so in my opinion the PSU is not letting the GFX give it's best performance seeing as the highest it can go is 19amps.

[[V]ACE]

The GFX requires a minimum of 18amps so if you ask me, I can go higher for it's maximum performance but my PSU has a maximum of 19amps, so in my opinion the PSU is not letting the GFX give it's best performance seeing as the highest it can go is 19amps.

You could have a 1000W power supply - it wont make a difference. You graphic card requires 300w which is what your giving it. If you installed a 1000W PSU it would still only use 300W.

A game requires several things to run - good CPU + good RAM + good gfx card. As an idea there are several fixes on the interwebs about this (gta:iv specific) which might help

My game runs slow then after 30-60mins runs faster fps. But remember after a few hours your gfx card and computer are getting HOT! so your computer runs harder to cool it self down which lowers resources to the game, as your fans are running harder via motherboard to lower its temp.

If you are insistent that it is the PSU then by all means go and buy one (400w should be cheapish) and re-try - but i wouldn't expect any miracles.

Talking from experience:
I got a new gfx card thinking "Yeah this will make my games run great!" - computers do not work like that. Computers need everything to be good to work.

I got a new gfx card and a 1000W PSU. Due to the design of the case and PSU, the PSU gets hot (ofc) and that heat is blowed DIRECTLY on to my CPU. So it lowers my CPU performance due to the heat, which makes the computer run harder to displace the heat.

Going back I should have got a good 500W PSU and a new case (or at least another fan).

Did you build you pc? and why did you get that gfx card?

[[NAB]DarkZomb]

Believe me Nightmare, your PSU is not the problem

[NiGHTM4RE]

Did you build you pc? and why did you get that gfx card?

No, I didn't build my PC and...

Talking from experience:
I got a new gfx card thinking "Yeah this will make my games run great!"

Same reason.




So what Graphics Card would you suggest for me? Before I make another dumb mistake :S

Here's my PC:
http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/hp-pavilion-p6210y/4507-3118_7-33777301.html?tag=psum

I wouldn't mind if I have to upgrade the Power Supply if the Graphics Card requires it.

[M0n3Y]

Im not sure if this would help, but make sure that your mobo supports DDR3.

[NiGHTM4RE]

The Graphics Card I have now is 1GB DDR3 so yes, it does support it.

[BikeDriver]

your CPU and GPU are both pretty weak. but your graphics card is the main problem i guess.

i recommend the ati radeon 5770 or 5750.

im using 5770 and im getting 50-60 fps on 1920x1200 with everything except shadows on high - very high.