I thinking of upgrading my graphics card for my ASRock Core Dual VSTA, I know one of the latest graphic cards will be too powerful for it and as it's only used as a second PC I just need something that's better than my current ATI 1650xt card. Can anyone suggest a card for it. Thanks
It does AGP & PCI-E. I've already got an AGP card in it but want to take it out and replace it with a PCI-E. The spec says it has 1 x PCI Express Graphics slot (@ x4 mode).
Hi there, I use to have that board! You have problems because it only works with the old PCI-E specification, anything PCI-E V2 and above doesnt work in the board, and besides its only a 4X PCI-E Slot as well.... Time to start saving for a MB swap buddy! BTW I use to run a 6600GT in there without problems, Maybe you could find a 6800GT cheap second hand and will be a big boost from what you have now.
Well I tried a 8800GT in it and that definitely didn't work. But I've read that if you flash the bios of the gfx card with a v1 bios which some manufacturers will email you if you ask nicely, then it will work, but do you really want to take the risk of doing that to a nice new gfx card? And once you do finally upgrade the MB, then you'll have to flash a new bios back on again...
ATi make some 3800-series AGP cards, but they're a bit naff, and very over-priced. With that PCI-E specification, a lot of cards will be crippled by the low bandwidth the slot provides. So, while you would have a nice card, you'd be paying over the odds for the performance you'd see. I'd go for the motherboard upgrade on the cheap (£30-£40), then whack in something like a Radeon 4670, or something.
I don't want to change the mobo, I did have it in my gaming machine and quickly realised it wasn't up to much so I upgraded it and used it on my second machine. I really only want to change the graphics card - the second machine is just used for surfing, office type stuff - I've been getting BSOD and thought it might be the graphics card. I'm memory testing at the moment and after 7 hours, no memory errors. So thought I might need a graphics card change.
this is a list of compatible graphics cards http://www.asrock.com/mb/vga.asp?Model=4CoreDual-VSTA&s=775 - not sure which ones are still available. Which would be the best
8800gtx is probably the best out that lot. but stay away from 8800/9800gt's, that definitely doesn't work.
Cheers just got to find where I can buy one now. Is it wise to move away from the suggested model. Leadtek PX8800GTX/768MB to another NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX
I've got that same motherboard in one of my old computers, The problem is it's the old via chipset I tried a Nvidia xfx 9600 and a gainward 8800gt both of which dont work with that chip I ended useing a 8600gt in it and that works fine I dont use it for much so it dont matter .
Nvidia GTS 250 is very nice card that will work on your board. So it happens that my sister has this board in her PC and GTS 250 was my choice of gift for her. Works brilliantly and it churns out about 60 FPS in Mass Effect fulldetails on 1920x1080, same setup in Grid about 55 FPS. GTS 250 is a great card with that's easy on your power usage as well. I'm not particular about any brand though.
Might be a bit pricy for my budget, I just want something that is pretty basic and new rather than looking through the second hand market.
This might sound daft, but try reformatting the machine first, and installing drivers, etc - it may be the clutter's slowing the machine down. If you really want to narrow it down, try using a different PCI-E card from your main rig - if you still get blue-screens, it's not the GPU.
I recently put windows 7 on the machine but I did have the same trouble under Vista. It's been happening more frequenlty under Win 7. I've just put in an old AGP card (today) and within 20 minutes had another BSOD. None since though. Not sure what else it could be.
