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I want to buy a new Graphics card for my HP Pavilion a6700y Desktop PC. It is currently running with onboard Graphics. It is well but not as good as you think. There is a confusion between PCI-E x16 and PCI-E x16 2.0. Can anyone tell me what cards are compatible with this computer? Also I am looking into decent a power supply to support any video card. I have chosen Ultra LSP650 650-Watt Power Supply - ATX, SATA-Ready, SLI-Ready, 135mm Fan.
Depending on the computer specification and power, you can choose any compatible card which supports on the motherboard PCI-E lanes. But you have to make sure that the BIOS is updated to run most newest Graphics cards. However the 650W PSU is not enough to boost up your computer. So better replace it with a better quality one
As far as I know that you can install any PCI-E graphics card on this computer. The Graphic card you choose is completely depending on how you spend and for that purpose you use this computer. If it is for general use, then a cheap card will be good enough and that can be powered up by your existing 550W PSU. But if you want it for high-end gaming on a large monitor with extreme graphics settings, in that case you will need an expensive Graphics card and a stronger PSU as well as a faster CPU. It could be SLI enabled Graphics card, 1000w PSU and Core i series processors.
By looking at your system specs I came to know that your motherboard supports both older PCIE 1.0 and the newer PCIE 2.0. So in that case you can install any PCIE card and work with it. So it is little bit hard to recommend a particular card. If you mentioned your requirements, then I could have suggested a particular one.
So far I have found the following card which might be compatible with your system:
- Gigabyte GeForce GT430 1gb 128-bit DDR3 low profile - $70
- PNY GeForce 9800GT 1gb 256-bit DDR3 - $90
- Galaxy GeForce GTS450 SuperOC 1gb 128-bit DDR5 - $100
- EVGA GeForce GTX460 1gb 256-bit DDR5 - $140
As far as I think that the above are the good option for your computer because there is no reason for still using a low-profile video card. If you can find a good and latest one which is compatible with your system, then you certainly won’t worry to buy one. Finding a video card that will work with your system configuration is a tedious task. Incompatible one may not get a desired boost in performance. Few of the cards that will work will only have DDR2 video memory. But this is slower than DDR3. So I highly recommend got for top manufacturers like XFX, EVGA and BFG.
I have heard that this case doesn't use a low profile PCI bracket so it will fit EVGA GeForce 9400 GT 512MB Graphics card. The minimum requirement of this card is 300 Watt PSU with +12 Volt current rating of 18 Amps. I also like the XFX GeForce 9400 GT Video Card.
In my opinion both XFX and EVGA are very good manufacturers and providing good range Graphics card for all kinds of systems currently in use. Even the top-of-the-line products are also available from these 2 manufacturers. Personally I have experience with the XFX cards because I have two of them; GeForce 7900GTX 512MB and ATI 4870 XXX 1GB. Both works great with my systems. XFX provide good warranty on their products and also a good Tech Support. The XFX 9400 GT certainly require a 350W PSU but no idea bout the EVGA card yet.