Geforce 9800 GT

[som99]

Nope sorry, some old cards use same PCB for 512MB and 1GB versions and you could solder new vram chips on there but that requires you to reflash the rom also.

But in your case and the 9800GT it is not possible sorry

[som99]

Don't be fooled by vRAM amount, it's common for the OEM manufacturers to use slow crap cards with loads of vRAM to trick te consumer that it's a fast card, most low end cards with a lot of vRam today is not even fast enough to use 512MB vRAM.

For example, you can buy a GeForce GT 610 with 2GB vRAM but the card is slow as heck and can't use near that amount of memory for big texures in high resolutions, so it's just marketing and you wont get more speed per auto because you get more vRAM.

On the other hand if you got a fast card then more vRAM can be used but in the low/mid segment loads of vRAM is pointless.

So give me a price range you would like to spend on a new GFX card and I can show the best for the buck.

Going to high end won't do you no good because the CPU will be the bottleneck anyways.

[som99]

Go for a Radeon HD 7770 or 6850 and you will be set, I would look at how much you can overclock the CPU with your cooler.

Using that and you can atleast run every game out there, and using that hardware and you will run Borderlands 2 in mixed mid/high settings

[som99]

Many thanks mate There is a a very big cooler in it, the man i purchased it  from, has build it himself with the best things he could get at the time. with blue led light, and 4 Air cooler. He told me he has use around 2000 Dollars on it, but Hardware goes down fast in price.

Your welcome, yes new x86 hardware do go down fast ^^

I just put together a PC by old parts lying around to get as near as possible to your specs to test it out.
I used a Intel Core 2 E6300 1,87GHz, 4GB DDR2 ram and a Geforce GTX 260 GTX (about same speed as a Radeon hd 4870).

Overclocked it to 2,3GHz and teh GFX to 700MHz GPU and 1100MHz vRAM and it ran Borderlands 2 in mid/high settings @1280x1024 so a new card and some overclocking will get you far

[som99]

Its all good saying you will get a new card but you need to check that your psu can handle it, make sure you have enough amps on the +12v rail(s), does the case have good airflow etc.....? The last thing you want are heat problems.

Yes the PSU is important, first thing to check is if he even got 6(6+2) pin connectors for PCI-E cards.
Judging from what he is saying that he got a big CPU cooler and a chassi with LEDS ill guess it's a "gaming" chassi with decent airflow.

Tho from experience both the 6850 and 7770 can run in nearly any case if you are using ref coolers that blows out the air in the back brackets. Any midi-tower case with two fan places will be sufficient enough to keep them cool and since he have a big CPU cooler he will be fine, nothing to worry about.

Ive ran a Radeon HD 7970 in a case with one front 120mm fan and one back 120mm fan + PSU outtake without any troubles in stock while I was waiting for my Cooler Master Cosmos II case and that's AMD's fastest single GPU card, sure it ran a bit hot but well under the limit.

EDIT: Saw that Lassie posted before I was done

He has build it himself the man i purchased it from, with the biggest Air cooler he could get, there is 4 in it, and they are huge, he said i never had to worried about it will run hot. As for the power he said it could handle a lot. I am not a expert So how can i check amps on it?

Check the PSU, it has a sticker showing the amps on the rails, or just simply write the PSU name and model and ill check it for you Any decent 400-450W will have enough AMPs for both cards I wrote as long as they are not cheepo PSUs.

One of my Folding@home machines are running a GTX 670 at full load 24/7 on a 450W PSU that has 38A on the 12v rail, people tend to read the total W and it seems people allways buy a lot bigger PSUs then they need.

[som99]

Hi i can seen on the back the psu is called TX650W

Thas is a good Corsair PSU, low ripple and 52amps on the 12v rail, that PSU can run any single GPU card on the market (I would bet even most SLI/Crossfire setups).

So you got a good solid PSU so go for it

[som99]

That is good to know The person i bought it from, seems like a man there will not save money on cheaper stuff. So i think it is true that he bought the best he could get at the time

Do you know how i can see how much RAM it can take maximum?

Well since you have a socket AM2 CPU you most likly have the 6xx chipset and then depending on motherboard manufacturer and model (printed in white text on the middelish part of the mobo PCB) you will guaranteed have support for 8GB but odds are you can have 16GBs of RAM (if you only plan to game 8GB will be enough in dual channel, 4x 2GB sticks)

Tell me what motherboard you have, cant you find it on the motherboard download and run CPU-Z and it will tell you under the motherboard tab

[som99]

Hi again it is

M4A77 ASUS Motherboard

Even better, congratulations you got a 770 chipset board, you can use 16GB ram and the best part is that you can use Phenom 2 CPUs!

The board do not have the best voltage regulators so I would stay away from overclocking past 4GHz, but if you feel like it you can boost the machine with a Phenom II x6 1090T in the future

You did a good deal, and you can without trouble expand the machine to be future proof

[som99]

That is good to hear it is a very good looking machine, i could see that it was build with good stuff when i saw it with blue led on the side and front, and dvd burner etc, i got wireless keyboard and mouse and fujitsu flatscreen with it. and it cost 300 Dollars, is it a fair price? i know it is not new but still.

For a complete system that is a fair price indeed
I myself do not like LED fans and such, i prefeer low noise fans like FD and Noctuna and  cases with good space for water cooling and alot of space to work with but that's my taste

I am happy for you, hope it works great and you can decide what GFX card you want

[som99]

Hi
I have had a look at DDR2 RAM to get 8 GB RAM with 1024 mhz will be around 200 Dollars and 16 GB RAM is around 500 Dollars. Can it be true that they cost so most?

NO NO NO, take a look at komplett.dk, there you can buy 4x 2GB sticks for 800DK
http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=451110

Also 4x4GB DDR2 for 1600 DK
http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=346195

I do not know where you are looking for parts but you need to know the good stores
Komplett is a good store and is avaliable in Sweden, Norway and denmark

DDR2 is getting old so prices are going up.

Second hand market is a lot cheeper.

[som99]

Do you know if it will work if i buy 4 GB RAM and put it in with the 4 GB that i have? I know that there are different versions of RAM

What cofig of ram do you have now? 2x 2GB sticks? If so buy 2x 2GB sticks and it should work You are not in need of more then 8GB ram anyways

[som99]

How do i see what cofig the RAM has, i have tried under System but cannot find it

You know you have a total of 4GB ram, open the case and look at the ram sticks. do you have two or four sticks in it

[som99]

How do i see what cofig the RAM has, i have tried under System but cannot find it

You know you have a total of 4GB ram, open the case and look at the ram sticks. do you have two or four ram sticks in it.

[som99]

Yes of course there is 4x 1 RAM

4x 1GB in now, you can remove 2x of them and replace with 2x2GB sticks and get 6GB ram as long as same size are in the same channel

[som99]

Hi guys i have a new laptop, and yesterday i upgraded to Windows 8, but now my internet on it is so slow on Windows 8, it was 4 times faster on Windows 7. Any thoughts what it can be?

Whar web browser do you use? If IE then "internet options" -> "Connections" -> "LAN Settings" -> uncheck Automaticly detect settings and see if the response time gets better.