Card upgrade ? ?

[brizee4242]

I recently purchased a mid price PC with the following spec:

2.7 GHz AMD Sempron140
ECS MCP61M-M3 Motherboard
500GB SATA Hard Drive
4GB DDR3 Ram
GeForce 6150 SE graphics card
450W PSU

I’m having problems playing some recently purchased games. The screens tend to run slow & "jerky" I wondered if this was caused by the card not being man enough for gaming? Would a card upgrade solve the problem? Advice & recommendations greatly appreciated please

 

[skylineboy]

entirely dependent on the games, settings and resolution... can you give more detail.
Which games?

Personally I wouldn't expect to play too recent a game that well. What make PSU have you got? Have you got a budget in mind?

 

[Madmac]

I would say you would be upgrading 3 things

CPU
GPU
PSU

There are some 9800 Nvidia cards sub £50
Also a AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) on special under £50

 

[decto]

To be honest to PC you have isn't capable of playing modern games at the moment. The processor is single core .. 2-4 cores is the standard these days and the GPU is actually built into the mainboard and has been around for 5-6 years.

The good news is you have a AM3 CPU socket so can choose from a number of compatible CPU's and graphics cards.

You will need to update both the CPU and the Graphics though.

CPU £50 - 120 depends what you need but limited to 95watts
GPU £60- 150 depends on what game, how much you can spend. More than that would not show a benefit with your CPU options.

As above, do you have a budget in mind?
What games do you play?
What is the resolution of the monitor?

AD


Edit

Mainboard specifications can be found on ECS site, you'd need to check the version of your boards but all versions seem to support most AM3 CPU's.


As a starter, this CPU Athlon X3 3.3Ghz £60
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-283-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1945

Graphics ideally no less than AMD HD6670 £60
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-258-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1983

or spending a little more
HD6770 @ £80
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-047-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1982

or
Nvidia GTX550Ti @£95
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-154-OK&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1576

If you're spending more that this, you've be better of starting a fresh build.
You can save some cash with second hand parts if you shop around.

Another edit.....

Read somewhere the Sempron 140 is actually dual core with one core locked.
Your mainboard is supposed to support unlocking.
Might be worth trying this then you'd only need a new GPU

 

[brizee4242]

To be honest to PC you have isn't capable of playing modern games at the moment. The processor is single core .. 2-4 cores is the standard these days and the GPU is actually built into the mainboard and has been around for 5-6 years.

The good news is you have a AM3 CPU socket so can choose from a number of compatible CPU's and graphics cards.

You will need to update both the CPU and the Graphics though.

CPU £50 - 120 depends what you need but limited to 95watts
GPU £60- 150 depends on what game, how much you can spend. More than that would not show a benefit with your CPU options.

As above, do you have a budget in mind?
What games do you play?
What is the resolution of the monitor?

AD


Edit

Mainboard specifications can be found on ECS site, you'd need to check the version of your boards but all versions seem to support most AM3 CPU's.


As a starter, this CPU Athlon X3 3.3Ghz £60
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-283-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1945

Graphics ideally no less than AMD HD6670 £60
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-258-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1983

or spending a little more
HD6770 @ £80
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-047-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1982

or
Nvidia GTX550Ti @£95
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-154-OK&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1576

If you're spending more that this, you've be better of starting a fresh build.
You can save some cash with second hand parts if you shop around.

Another edit.....

Read somewhere the Sempron 140 is actually dual core with one core locked.
Your mainboard is supposed to support unlocking.
Might be worth trying this then you'd only need a new GPU

Thanks for your help but being a bit of a PC numbskull your last edit has passed straight over me without pausing!! I'm now totally bamboozled as to the next step to take.................
“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”

 

[decto]

The ECS website below says your mainboard can unlock or activate hidden cores in the CPU. AMD don't actually make any single core chips now, they make dual cores and lock one core to get a single core chip. Usually the single core is fine but some locked cores may not meet all of the tolerances.

A look on google suggest this might only be the version 7 board. You'd need to identify which version you have and then have a look in the BIOS for the feature. Unfortunately the manual doesn't cover this function.

Normally the version is written on the board itself in small print. e.g. v1.1 ver 1.1 etc

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Pr...goryID=1&DetailName=Feature&MenuID=19&LanID=9

 

[brizee4242]

The Tech sticker on the box has the following: MCP61M-M3 V1.0A
I presume 1.0A refers to the board version

 

[decto]

It looks like it. Your board probably won't be able to unlock the hidden core.

Back to the X3 and GPU plan !

AD

 

[brizee4242]

OK I figuered as much, thanks for all the advice though very much appreciated