Graphics Card Upgrade Advice

[dbinoj]

I have a Lenovo Machine (Similar to this) with Intel G41 Express Chipset.
I need to connect 1 HDMI projector, 1 HDMI TV and 1 monitor.
I will be using triple monitor setup.

 

I previously posted on a wrong section of LTT Forums (New Builds) and still got useful advice that I do not need a card with 2 HDMI outs and that I can use a DVI to HDMI adapter.

 

If I can convert DVI to HDMI, what GPU will suite best for me? I need 3 1080p outs, No fancy gaming. Just HD video playback, presentations, demonstrations, etc.

 

I'm adding a picture of the motherboard:

[MegaDave91]

My good sir, you should really clean out your PC.

[Swegly]

EWWWWW

[Grape Guild]

Well, I'd invest in a duster first.  I bought a great one from best buy.  Benchmarks on the way. (okay that's getting old now, I'll shut up)

[dbinoj]

I agree, will do. But I just opened it after a looong time just to get a picture of the board since I was not able to find any online.
Planing to clean while installing the new card 

[D3MON]

What power supply does it have? most people on here (im guessing here) dont run 3 monitors for slideshows/presentations, its usually either 1 big screen gamign or 3 smaller screens gaming so you're likely to get responces like a nvidia gt610/amd 6450 which is super low end and others saying 7750ish which is entry level gaming...
im not 100% how demanding something like this will be but I dont think youll go far wrong with something like a 7750, it should have ample power for what you need and amds eyefinity is said to be really well sorted. and it doesnt require additional power so as long as you have a reliable 400ish watt power supply you should be sorted.
id look for one with a good cooler regardless, if your in india (wild stab in the dark) the cooler you keep the card the longer it should last.

[dbinoj]

What power supply does it have? most people on here (im guessing here) dont run 3 monitors for slideshows/presentations, its usually either 1 big screen gamign or 3 smaller screens gaming so you're likely to get responces like a nvidia gt610/amd 6450 which is super low end and others saying 7750ish which is entry level gaming...

im not 100% how demanding something like this will be but I dont think youll go far wrong with something like a 7750, it should have ample power for what you need and amds eyefinity is said to be really well sorted. and it doesnt require additional power so as long as you have a reliable 400ish watt power supply you should be sorted.

id look for one with a good cooler regardless, if your in india (wild stab in the dark) the cooler you keep the card the longer it should last.

Thanks. The computer lives in an air conditioned room. And I wont be using it 24x7. So I guess cooling is not an issue?

I'm thinking about this http://www.flipkart.com/xfx-r7750-core-2-gb-ddr3-graphics-card/p/itmdruhvpsjhecnk?pid=GRCDNCC9YZGMGE2F&otracker=from-search&srno=t_8&query=7750&ref=b98ebeeb-fb1b-4d36-8c0d-3bdea50fdc57

The card's product page says it is PCI 3.0 x16. I am not sure if it will work in my system. I can find an 450w PSU, btw.

[D3MON]

pcie1, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 etc are all interchangable, the maximum bandwidth changes but it wont be a problem (you can run a 7970 in a pcie1 board and you might only lose 5%)
that card should be fine (i had a look on that site too, a 7770 is around 25% more expensive..)

bear in mind i have not tried this so I could be wrong, I would wait for a few more replys or google around and see what others have done, always make sure your PSU is by a good well regarded brand regardless of power, not just some grey tin can with cables coming out of it....if it goes it could take the whole pc with it!

might be worth checking the "monitors, projectors" part of the forum (use google) and seeing what others have done, good luck and report back when you find out for sure in case someone in the future has the same problem. B)

[legend8887]

I have a Lenovo Machine (Similar to this) with Intel G41 Express Chipset.

I need to connect 1 HDMI projector, 1 HDMI TV and 1 monitor.

I will be using triple monitor setup.

 

I previously posted on a wrong section of LTT Forums (New Builds) and still got useful advice that I do not need a card with 2 HDMI outs and that I can use a DVI to HDMI adapter.

 

If I can convert DVI to HDMI, what GPU will suite best for me? I need 3 1080p outs, No fancy gaming. Just HD video playback, presentations, demonstrations, etc.

 

I'm adding a picture of the motherboard:

Disgusting.

[xox]

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-evga-gt-620-40nm-1200mhz-gddr3-gpu-700mhz-shader-1400mhz-96-cores-d-sub-dl-dvi-hdmi-lp-plus-free

 

And grab a copy od DisplayFusion on Steam when it's on sale.

[Ja Krispie]

Based on what I can see, you might need a new PSU anyways to so you will have some PCIE power connectors. Most prebuilt computers don't have them, they just use basic PSU's

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130840

 

This card should work for what you're needing, don't really know your budget though

[7850OC]

i will say a R9 270 with 2x DVI and 1x HDMI (and 1x DP)

[martinrox1568]

What power supply does it have? most people on here (im guessing here) dont run 3 monitors for slideshows/presentations, its usually either 1 big screen gamign or 3 smaller screens gaming so you're likely to get responces like a nvidia gt610/amd 6450 which is super low end and others saying 7750ish which is entry level gaming...

im not 100% how demanding something like this will be but I dont think youll go far wrong with something like a 7750, it should have ample power for what you need and amds eyefinity is said to be really well sorted. and it doesnt require additional power so as long as you have a reliable 400ish watt power supply you should be sorted.

id look for one with a good cooler regardless, if your in india (wild stab in the dark) the cooler you keep the card the longer it should last.

Dude, what are you talking about? 2d graphics aren't demanding at all and your gpu won't ever get hotter than 40c on idle even in 30c ambient. To op, get the cheapest card you can find with 3 dvi/hdmi outputs and you'll be more than fine. for hd playback, I've seen a pentium 4 with built in graphics work perfectly. So even something like a gtx610 is more than adequate.

[D3MON]

Dude, what are you talking about? 2d graphics aren't demanding at all and your gpu won't ever get hotter than 40c on idle even in 30c ambient. To op, get the cheapest card you can find with 3 dvi/hdmi outputs and you'll be more than fine. for hd playback, I've seen a pentium 4 with built in graphics work perfectly. So even something like a gtx610 is more than adequate.

might be worth a mention to mr 650ti and 270x up there aswell then, i wasnt sure but atleast im not recommending a new powersupply for the sake of a 6pin pcie

fwiw my 7770 peaks 9and drops and peaks an drops) from 1%-15% watching a 1080p movie, i based my guesstimate on this, thanks by the way its good to know.

[martinrox1568]

might be worth a mention to mr 650ti and 270x up there aswell then, i wasnt sure but atleast im not recommending a new powersupply for the sake of a 6pin pcie

fwiw my 7770 peaks 9and drops and peaks an drops) from 1%-15% watching a 1080p movie, i based my guesstimate on this, thanks by the way its good to know.

Yeah, video barely loads the gpu at all. keep in mind that your 7770 also has to do other tasks besides the video, hence why its usage can go up to 15% at times. The cpu is much more important in playing back video because it has to decode the movie you are watching. Keep in mind that my 3 year old htc sensation has no difficulty playing 1080p movies.

[dbinoj]

I finally bought Corsair 450w PSU, XFX R7750 card.

The card did not output anything once connected. I configured bios to take onboard graphics as default and went to device manager, the card was not listed. 

I then tried the card with a Lenovo M72e http://shopap.lenovo.com/in/en/desktops/thinkcentre/m-series-towers/m72e/ PC.

 

Same issue, display did not work from BIOS. I forced default to Integrated Display. But this time unknown VGA was present in Device Manager. I installed drivers from included CD. Catalyst did not start up. Then, I installed latest drivers from AMD's site, card gets detected as AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series. But still it is not outputting anything & I can't detect other cards other than Onboard Video.

 

GPUz Screenshot:

 

Card DOA?

[ShadowofGhosts]

If you're not into gaming, but into Movie Play Back and stuff, I would suggest a Radeon 7750 or a R7 250. 

[dbinoj]

Yeah, I'm not into gaming & I'm only into Movie Play Back. I have bought Radeon 7750. Made by XFX. Model: XFX R7750. Its a 7700 series card. But I'm facing issues as described in post #16.

[dbinoj]

I finally bought Corsair 450w PSU, XFX R7750 card.

The card did not output anything once connected. I configured bios to take onboard graphics as default and went to device manager, the card was not listed. 

I then tried the card with a Lenovo M72e http://shopap.lenovo.com/in/en/desktops/thinkcentre/m-series-towers/m72e/ PC.

 

Same issue, display did not work from BIOS. I forced default to Integrated Display. But this time unknown VGA was present in Device Manager. I installed drivers from included CD. Catalyst did not start up. Then, I installed latest drivers from AMD's site, card gets detected as AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series. But still it is not outputting anything & I can't detect other cards other than Onboard Video.

 

GPUz Screenshot:

 

Card DOA?

 

 

Am I having an DOA card? How do I verify that? If its DOA, must replace it with vendor in 30 days. Already 5 days over

[mgsstar]

Am I having an DOA card? How do I verify that? If its DOA, must replace it with vendor in 30 days. Already 5 days over

Did you try a different display output? I think the card is messed up as it has 4294967295MB of Vram or your drivers are making this error...

I would try this card on another computer before RMAing to make sure that it is DOA but I think its pretty messed up with 0 gpu clock, 0 pixel/vertex shaders. Try to see if your card has a bios switch beside the crossfire fingers or power connector and try to switch the bios.

[dbinoj]

I tried HDMI and both DVIs. Tired in different PCs (Both are lenovos. But one is Core2Duo, other is i5) Tried installing new OS in the system with the card insalled (Win 7 installation took sooo long to complete with the card installed. Yet the card did not show up in device manager). 

[mgsstar]

I tried HDMI and both DVIs. Tired in different PCs (Both are lenovos. But one is Core2Duo, other is i5) Tried installing new OS in the system with the card insalled (Win 7 installation took sooo long to complete with the card installed. Yet the card did not show up in device manager). 

So the card worked when it was installing Windows 7? Tried installing AMD Catalyst drivers on it after you installed your OS (if it boots with it) to see if it detects it?

[dbinoj]

So the card worked when it was installing Windows 7? Tried installing AMD Catalyst drivers on it after you installed your OS (if it boots with it) to see if it detects it?

No. I had to use integrated graphics as default to install Windows 7. AMD Catalyst says that it could not find any compatible cards. However in the i5 machine, it detected the card. But I had these strange values in GPUz.

[mgsstar]

No. I had to use integrated graphics as default to install Windows 7. AMD Catalyst says that it could not find any compatible cards. However in the i5 machine, it detected the card. But I had these strange values in GPUz.

I would then recommend you to RMA it and you can your your igpu for now while your gpu is being RMAed.

[dbinoj]

I would then recommend you to RMA it and you can your your igpu for now while your gpu is being RMAed.

I have sent it back. Waiting for replacement.