Can I upgrade the graphics card in my PCV-RX301?

[MDH]

:smileyconfused:: I need to upgrade my card to GeForce 4Ti or Radeon 9200 if possible to play some games. At least GeForce 2/ Radeon 8500 is needed. Anyone know if I can upgrade or is it all stuck together on one board?

[paddy_uk]

You have a built-in SIS 740 graphics chip. Looking at your user manual it states that you have 4 PCI slots,. 1 of which is used for the modem. That leaves you 3 free PCI slots. It doesn't mention that you have any AGP slots, but it does for other models in the series so I would take it that you haven't gotten any AGP capabilities at all. That leaves you with one upgfrade choice via the PCI slots. A PCI graphics card is better than the built-in one that you have, so it looks like that's the way you will have to go if you wish to play games.

I would also seriously consider adding more memory as the 256MB that you have will have a job coping with many games should you upgrade your graphics. In all reality 512 MB is the bare min for gaming these days.

Hope this helps you out.

[paddy_uk]

Here's a link to a full review of your PC, which should help you out with other aspects of your rig:
http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/desktops/0,39023845,10000689,00.htm you need to copy & paste the link into your browser as clicking will lead you to an error.

[MDH]

:smileygrin: Thanks Paddy!

[kee-lo_]

Tom,

PCI cards are just not worth it these days, they just don't have the performance AGP has. Shame mobo companies insist on built in gfx (other than nforce).

[tellingd]

PCI? AGP? Can you give me a clue? :smileyrolling_eyes:

[kee-lo_]

PCI : Peripheral Component Interconnect is an interconnection system between the CPU and the cards, PCI cards include modems, LAN, Wireless and sound cards. Essential these days.

AGP: Accelerated Graphics Port. An interface specification from Intel that enables 3-D graphics to display quickly on personal computers. AGP is based on PCI, but is designed especially for the high throughput requirements of 3-D graphics. Rather than using the PCI bus for graphics data, AGP introduces a dedicated point-to-point channel so that the graphics controller can directly access main memory.

Thanks to Google for some of this definition and sites which it used.

[tellingd]

Ah yes, all is clear now

[kee-lo_]

Great

[paddy_uk]

All boards should have an AGP slot, even if they have an onboard GPU, but a lot skimp on that part. Personally I would have ditched the mobo & gone for a good one that had all that I needed.

The only choice or chance this guy has of playing games though is via a PCI GeForce or Radeon (if you can find one) even though it won't do the games justice because settings will have to be lowered somewhat to allow games to play at all. eBay would probably be the best bet for a cheap GeForce PCI card though.

You learnt something new there Dave! Not only do Sony allow you to buy their gear, but also allow you to learn new tech stuff from their forums! ... .... .. .& it's free!