crsutt Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 Apparently the stock video card that comes with my new HP Pavilion won't run CM and I am told I will need to install a card. Problem is that this thing only has a 300 watt PSU. Can someone recommend a decent video card that will work with 300 watt supply and not overheat my machine? I am not into high end gaming such as Call of Duty. More strategic games such as CM so really do not expect to need a very powerful card. Just decent to run a few movies and play CM Thanks, 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c3k Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 Move this over to the Tech support forum. You'll get more hits there. Most would probably give a better answer if you included the model number and the screen resolution you use. As well, what else is in your Pavilion drawing power from that 300w psu? Ken 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaos49 Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 Hi Take a look off this card http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt640 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanir Ausf B Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 Isn't the HP Pavilion a laptop? Good luck trying to add a video card to that... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pak40 Posted November 26, 2013 Share Posted November 26, 2013 Isn't the HP Pavilion a laptop? Good luck trying to add a video card to that... I think they're trying to be confusing as Dell is by making both a desktop and laptop version with the same name. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil stanbridge Posted November 26, 2013 Share Posted November 26, 2013 Do you have the desktop presumably? If so, get a basic(ish) Nvidia card. Preferably a low-end card, as these will require less power. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crsutt Posted November 26, 2013 Author Share Posted November 26, 2013 Isn't the HP Pavilion a laptop? Good luck trying to add a video card to that... No it a desktop. mid line model p7 1380-t. I really was surprised to fine out that it could not handle CM. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil stanbridge Posted November 26, 2013 Share Posted November 26, 2013 It uses onboard vga presumably - Intel 4000 or so? Just take into account if you do upgrade to a separate card (and if you go low end because of the power requirements) you are still going to struggle somewhat with the larger scenarios. There's no way round this unfortunately without upgrading the psu and the vga. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crsutt Posted November 26, 2013 Author Share Posted November 26, 2013 Hi Take a look off this card http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt640 Yeah, this one might do nicely. Not a bull, but I am pretty much done with high end video games so it won't matter. My last machine was a custom build. I should have researched this one a bit more, but otherwise it is a good desktop. It sort of pisses me that I can't play CM on my HP laptop either. That does not make much sense. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 26, 2013 Share Posted November 26, 2013 Have you tried updating the video card drivers on your desktop? Intel support for OpenGL appears very much to be a work in progress*, so using the latest may help. Unfortunately for laptops the laptop manufacturers tend to have a bit of a stranglehold on video card drivers, which slows things down considerably. With a desktop you may have better luck. https://communities.intel.com/thread/42697 Note the responses from Intel tech support - they point to driver download locations. * More pointedly, it's awful, pathetic, and otherwise poor, and they're slowly fixing the enormous pyramid of bugs they've got in their implementation. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted November 28, 2013 Share Posted November 28, 2013 Chances are that 300 W power supply won't do it for long anyway. These things are usually garbage and it's made in the time known as the age of bad caps. Is it standard format? In any case, the maximum power consumption is listed here, as TDP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
db_zero Posted November 28, 2013 Share Posted November 28, 2013 FWIW...HP desktops I'd avoid for gaming. The touchscreens are good for general use-but not gaming. A few years ago the M series laptops looked interesting for gaming-you just needed to be sure to get a quad core and a model with a dedicated video card and 1-2 gigs of video memory. I don't know what's currently available. Wait till after X-Mas when they discount things or you can research to see what you'd like and see if you can get a returned unit and bargain like hell to steal it. For me when it comes to desktops, liquid cooled is the way to to. They are quiet and reliable. 300 watts is far too wimpy. My liquid cooled PC is ancient and it has a 800 watt power supply. Its a quad core, 8 gigs of ram with a 2 gig 5800 series Radeon and it runs CM nicely maxed out at 1650x1080. The integrated CPU/Video is another thing I'd avoid if you want to do gaming. Get a decent dedicated video card. The one thing you have going for you is technology gets cheaper as time goes by. For less than a grand you can get something that a few years back would have cost you 2 grand. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Canadian Cat Posted November 28, 2013 Share Posted November 28, 2013 300 watts is far too wimpy. My liquid cooled PC is ancient and it has a 800 watt power supply. Its a quad core, 8 gigs of ram with a 2 gig 5800 series Radeon and it runs CM nicely maxed out at 1650x1080. We would all like to have a spiffy new faster machine. When I stared playing CM my old machine was pretty taxed but there was no $ for a new one. And there still isn't. I did manage to get a couple of hundred budget for a better graphics card and bought a Radeon HD 6770 which is happy in my 300W power supply HP. Upgrading my graphics card made a huge difference. Still working on betting the budget office to approve a new machine. I was close once but failed at the last minute. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crsutt Posted November 30, 2013 Author Share Posted November 30, 2013 Ok so say I upgrade to a 400-450 PSU. and a better video card. Will this model HP and case handle the heat? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 Ok so say I upgrade to a 400-450 PSU. and a better video card. Will this model HP and case handle the heat? Watts don't mean anything without brand and often model line. So your computer uses a standard ATX PSU? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellmann Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 I am not into high end gaming such as Call of Duty. High end?? If you were into that horribly dumbed-down brainwash device for zombies made year after year by 'Worst Company in America', then you would be the lowest-end person imaginable on Earth and I would probably never speak to you again. Sorry, couldn't resist. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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