Looking to upgrade my graphics card, But I need some help

[AboveAndBeyoncé]

Hi everyone, I want to upgrade my graphics cards to run GTA San Andreas for PC

I have an Acer Aspire X1430G w/ AMD Radeon HD 6300 Series graphics.

(Here's a link to the specs http://www.cnet.com/products/acer-x1430g-uw30p/specs/)

 

I found a XFX AMD Radeon HD 6870 graphics card. The thing is, would it be compatible with my computer? if so, what amount of power supply would I need?

[Andreaz1]

Spontaneously I'd say buy something newer like a 750 or 750 Ti and you'll be safer when it comes to PSU and space.

 

Your link doesn't work by the way.

Edited June 10, 2016 by Andreaz1

[RedDagger]

Your link doesn't work by the way.

This should work:

http://www.cnet.com/products/acer-x1430g-uw30p/specs/

 

the closed bracket got tacked onto the end

[AboveAndBeyoncé]

Spontaneously I'd say buy something newer like a 750 or 750 Ti and you'll be safer when it comes to PSU and space.

 

Your link doesn't work by the way.

Ok that's good would my PSU is 220 watts so am I still safe?

[Andreaz1]

 

Your link doesn't work by the way.

This should work:

http://www.cnet.com/products/acer-x1430g-uw30p/specs/

 

the closed bracket got tacked onto the end

 

Thanks, didn't even realize.

 

 

Spontaneously I'd say buy something newer like a 750 or 750 Ti and you'll be safer when it comes to PSU and space.

 

Your link doesn't work by the way.

Ok that's good would my PSU is 220 watts so am I still safe?

 

The power itself isn't the problem. It's that most PSU's that come with pre built computers - especially such low power ones - are of really shoddy quality. IF it can actually deliver 220W you should be fine but my guess is that it can't. If you ask for too much from it there's really no way to know what will happen.

[K^2]

HD 6320 is perfectly capable of running GTA San Andreas. If you can't run it, you have some other problem.

 

 

[AboveAndBeyoncé]

HD 6320 is perfectly capable of running GTA San Andreas. If you can't run it, you have some other problem.

 

I just realized that.. I have enough RAM, and a good graphics card so... That would mean I need a better CPU then the AMD E-450 1.65GHz I have? It's also a Dual Core if you need to know. Because the problem is sometimes if I spawn a high quality texture car mod or driving around in Downtown LS the game will just randomly crash. Could my CPU be the cause of this?

 

But they say if you replace the CPU then you probably want to replace the motherboard too, is that true? And any cpu recommendations that will work with my computer?

Edited June 11, 2016 by AboveAndBeyoncé

[Andreaz1]

The person in that video has the same CPU as you as well though so that can't be the issue either.

 

Even if it was, yes, replacing CPU in 99% of cases means you have to replace motherboard as well.

Edited June 11, 2016 by Andreaz1

[AboveAndBeyoncé]

The person in that video has the same CPU as you as well though so that can't be the issue either.

 

Even if it was, yes, replacing CPU in 99% of cases means you have to replace motherboard as well.

the problem is sometimes if I spawn a high quality texture car mod or driving around in Downtown LS the game will just randomly crash. So what could be the problem?

[K^2]

the problem is sometimes if I spawn a high quality texture car mod or driving around in Downtown LS the game will just randomly crash. So what could be the problem?

This could be software issue (bad driver, corruption in system files, etc.) or a hardware issue. If it's hardware, my first guess would be memory, as this could easily be RAM or VRAM issue. In later case, changing graphics card would help, but it's not the likeliest by a long shot. So first order of business is figuring out what's actually going wrong.

 

Do you have problems with any other games/software? Bad RAM will often result in crashes in things like WinRAR, video players, etc. Not just games. In contrast, a bad gfx driver could be responsible for crashes only in certain games.

 

I would start with getting latest drivers for your graphics card. Second low-hanging fruit is memory test. MemTest86 is a good thing to try. There are also some bench-marking programs for RAM and gfx that you might want to put your system through.

 

If none of that reveals problems, I'd start getting suspicious, but if you have nothing better to do, reinstalling Windows might work.

[AboveAndBeyoncé]

 

the problem is sometimes if I spawn a high quality texture car mod or driving around in Downtown LS the game will just randomly crash. So what could be the problem?

This could be software issue (bad driver, corruption in system files, etc.) or a hardware issue. If it's hardware, my first guess would be memory, as this could easily be RAM or VRAM issue. In later case, changing graphics card would help, but it's not the likeliest by a long shot. So first order of business is figuring out what's actually going wrong.

 

Do you have problems with any other games/software? Bad RAM will often result in crashes in things like WinRAR, video players, etc. Not just games. In contrast, a bad gfx driver could be responsible for crashes only in certain games.

 

I would start with getting latest drivers for your graphics card. Second low-hanging fruit is memory test. MemTest86 is a good thing to try. There are also some bench-marking programs for RAM and gfx that you might want to put your system through.

 

If none of that reveals problems, I'd start getting suspicious, but if you have nothing better to do, reinstalling Windows might work.

Ok thanks so much... So far I changed my PC Power saving settings from "Balanced" to "Maximum Performance" so that reduced the crashing some.... I'm analyzing my C drive to see if it needs defragmenting... I never checked to see if my drivers needed to be updated so I'll check that right now... Thanks for helping me

[Kingbing]

Do you have the memory fix mod? Because I had nearly every car modded, and it would make the game's textures not come in fully, and they would flash. But when I got the memory fix mod, I have not had that happen at all.

[Vikki_Suicide]

When you're loading in higher and higher quality mods then the original requirements are null and void from R*. Chances are you've not got enough VRAM to keep everything loaded simultaneously. Start by performing a clean install of Windows, then only install San Andreas vanilla, test it for a while and see if you've got any artifacts on screen. If all is well you can start loading mods one by one and testing in between to establish if it's a bad mod or indeed if your hardware's running out of grunt.

Edited August 24, 2016 by Vikki_Suicide