# Upgrading from OEM card GeForce 7500 LE



## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

Core2Duo 6400 (2 x 2.13GHz)
2GB RAM
200GB HDD

I have a Compaq Presario PC (spec above), which come stocked with the OEM graphics card – Nvidia GeForce 7500 LE. As it’s an OEM card ive not been able to find any real detailed specs on it, other than its PCI express, is based on the Geforce 7300 core and has 512MB of memory, however im not sure if that’s the true figure of its shared memory or whatnot… I’m trying to budget between £100 and £150… ish! 

Anyway, the time has come to upgrade it and I have to be honest im not exactly an expert on video cards (the last one I bought was a Voodoo 3…!:grin: ) so im looking for a bit of advice. 

Since I’ve an Nvidia card at the moment and I know my way more or less around the control panels and functions, they were the first place I looked. I looked at the 7300 series, which my current card is apparently based on, particularly the 7300GT. This is also 512MB but surely any standalone card is going to be better than an OEM card for numerous other reasons??


Just wondered if im at all in the right direction since the last GPU I bought was a 64MB “behemoth”…!


ANY advice would be great! :smile:

Thanks
Adam


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Hi Adam, :wave:

I would look at either a 7600GT or 7900GS. These cards are power efficient and and can be run on an Antec Earthwatts 500w although if you got a Trio 550w you would have more room to upgrade.


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

hi matt, thanks for replying,

thats something i forgot to check actually, the PSU.
Is the Antec 500w a standard issue in the Compaq PC's or is that an upgrade too??

I'll try find out which PSU's they put in there and let you know, or ill just take the case off and have a look....!

cheers again
Adam


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

hi again,

just looking at the nvidia site, both the 7600GT and 7900GS are 256MB cards, whereas the 7500 i run at the moment i detected as a 512MB.

I know there are loads of other factors to consider, and as i mentioned before im not sure if the 7500 is shared memory or something, but am i to take it that generally a standalone purchased card will outperform the OEM 7500LE, despite the lower memory figures??

thanks
Adam


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

I doubt it has 512 MB dedicated. If it does, it can't use all the memory efficiently because the memory bandwidth is too low.

Both the 7600GT and the 7900GS will outperform the 7500.

Also, what Antec do you have?


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

bump..!


hi all, sorry to bump this thread a while after it was originally posted, but ive been away for quite a while!

anyway, ive now checked out the PSU in my pc, and its not looking good!

its a stock issue (compaq pcs... :4-dontkno) HiPro PSU, which is labeled as max output 300W.

im not massively up on PSU's but from what ive read thats pretty much nothing to power a decent graphics card?

if i was looking at an nVidia 7600, 7900, or even an 8 series, id need to upgrade to at least an Antec 550W or something, right?


thanks again to all! ray:
Adam


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Yeah. The Antec Trio 550W would be a good choice.

I was able to find detailed specs on the 7500. It was in fact an OEM card made for HP and Packard Bell. It has only 2 rendering pipelines and shader processors with only 128MB of dedicated GDDR2. Even a 7300GS would be more powerful. 

I would look at a 7600GT or a 7900GS since they are very power efficient.


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

blimey!

so basically the 512MB label that they've stuck on the 7500LE is a nice big number to attract buyers (like me!) when in reality the card can't even use all that memory? ouch...!

welllllll anyway, thanks a lot for the help, im going to start looking at some shootouts between the 7600 and 7900 ranges. and ill definitely be upgrading my PSU too, i would imagine that even currently the 300W HiPro is struggling from what i've read!

by the way, could you possible give me the link to where you found the detailed spec on the 7500LE??

thanks again
Adam


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## Zenithic4k (Oct 26, 2007)

Yeah the 512mb is more of an attraction to less tech-litterate people. You said you had a Compaq Presario, are you sure its a PCI-e slot? I thought most of those were standard PCI.

Either way I highly suggest the 7900 series, I'm using the GS and I have yet to play a game that didnt run smooth and looked absolutley amazing. You can get them for pretty cheap now.


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

Everything but crysis....lol


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

hi zenith,

yeah i did check that out, turns out that my model of presario has 4 PCI expansion bays, but only one of them is PCI-e. i found this out when i tried to move my sound card around into a different bay, and when i took the graphics card out noticed it was the only one that had the extra little clip on the side...

time to start shopping for the PSU and cards then! ill look at some prices on the GS. i basically figured it was time to upgrade when i bought half-life2 Episode One from steam and enabled High Dynamic Range and all the trimmings - no go area with the combination I have right now! it seemed to run Half Life 2 just fine at full settings but im currently playing Episode one with everything "low", shader detail, texture detail, anti aliasing, the lot.... humph! havent tried Doom 3 yet......


Cheers!
Adam


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

lol! i wonder what would happen if i installred Crysis with my current setup.......


any advance on "explosion" ??

;-)
Adam


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

More like a screen of blue....lol 

Anyway what part have you got to in half life i was playing it alittle (on max lol)


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

in episode 1?? im just about at the part where you first go underground, where you use the flashlight and first encounter the combine zombie ("zombines"!!) only had it a few days.

what about you??

Adam


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

not really sure lol preatty far though killed alot of things for like 13 hours lol


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

13 hours....! you must mean the original half life 2... i read that hl2 Episode One is only 7 hours long....


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

hey again all,

i went for the Antec Truepower Trio 550W PSU today to power my potential graphics card upgrade... no trouble installing it, everything seems to be running fine. a few cables hanging around unused but the more the merrier i guess..!

ive started looking at the nvidia 7 series graphics cards, and decided the 7900GT seems the be the best balance of budget to performance for me. it seems to get decent reviews, and perform pretty much as well as the 7900GTX with a little overclocking.

the only snag ive read about is the cooling system isnt very big. i know since the cards are very power efficient the heat generation isnt too high but lots of reviews are saying the small fan funning at high RPM could be a lot better. does anyone have any experience or thoughts on this?? would this only apply if im planning on overlcocking the card quite a bit??

theres a local computer store selling an XFX model for £141.00 (about $280.00 at todays rates) link below:

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=14357&category_id=528

obviously ill need to ask them why its down as a "clearance item" but if all is ok should i go for it???

thanks to all again!
Adam


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

this maybe http://www.cclonline.com/product-in...egory_id=100&manufacturer_id=0&tid=ak-vc02-rd ?


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

ahh, well spotted!

so with a different cooler attached, performance wise the 7900GT is pretty good for the money??


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

The 7900 and 7950 series haven't really had too many cooling issues. The main cooling issues were with ATi's X1950 series, although some manufacturer's, namely HIS, made dual slotted versions that helped reduce the overheating problems. The X1950XT especially ran hot because it was on 90nm instead of 80nm like the X1950Pro.

EDIT: I would personally choose this:
http://www.cclonline.com/product-in...d=257&manufacturer_id=0&tid=rx1950pro-t2d256e


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

hmm, ive not had much experience with ATi, i run a cheap sapphire model on the other PC but that was only £40 or so....

just noticed something on the same page from that store, theyre selling an end of the line Inno3D 8600GT for just under £100. are there major differences between this and the 7900GT, except for the directX 10 support??

cheers
Adam


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

You know i noticed that the 8800 gt is only like £20 more then the 7900 gt


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

a little confused....!

nvidia 8 series - on the whole much better than the high end 7 series?

8800GT -worth the extra £20 compared to the 7900GT?


im starting to think of future upgrades to Vista and DirextX 10 usage......


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

That would be nice, although the Trio 550W would be a little light for the 8800GT. It would work though because you are running a power efficient Core 2 Duo. The 8600GT will be less powerful than the 7950GT, the X1950Pro, and 8800GT.


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

the 8800 gt should be around 2 times faster then my 7900 gtx (only 8800's are better then the high end 7xxx)


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

The 8800GT will beat any single 7900, 7950, and X1950 card. The X1950Pro and XT cards beat the 7900 and 7950 cards by a small to moderate margin though depending on the games you play.


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

eeeeeesh! now im tempted! if the 8800GT will run pretty will on my new PSU im starting to sway i think.....

is an 8 series a worthy investment for the DX10 compatibility?

thanks guys, youre helping a lot here! ray: ray:
Adam


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

I would say yes since i can only play crysis on a mix of med and high


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

ok, thanks a LOT to you guys!! im going to go sleep on it... and see how much is in my bank account....!!

ill let you know what im looking at tomorrow.

cheers!
Adam


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

hi again all,

ive pretty much decided on the 8800GT, for the extra 20-30 £ compared to the 7900GT its worth it in my opinion looking at their tech specs.

i started reading about the 8800GT, and come across a lot of talk about inadequet (sp?!) cooling?? i would assume the 8800 gets a lot hotter than the 7900??

my has 1 large CPU fan, 1 case fan, and one 120mm fan from the Antec PSU blowing down on the whole setup. 

would it be worth getting one of those slot fans to sit in the next PCI slot and blow onto the whole card? or would i be better replacing the cooling system on the card itself? ive read about them running into 80-90 degrees with the stock cooler installed, even with the speed increased by rivatuner.

i hope im not being over cautious, but i dont want to melt my brand new card (or anything else inside my case for that matter!!)

cheers!
Adam


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

You can always put a house fan blowing on it.


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

The 8800GT should have run much cooler, but nvidia decided to use a single slot cooler on the reference design and I think this contributed to the fact that it runs hot. You could always get an aftermarket VGA cooler. Some of the sub-manufacturers may sell cards with better coolers.


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

i just did a quick nTune test on my current 7500LE with factory shipped clock settings, it was already running at about 65 degrees in windows, and during the test it rose to about 86...... but that was also with the tiny fan on the 7500 running at factory speed too. still, isnt that a little high already?


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

Yes thta is high.... anyway i do believe i would get the 8800gt if i were you.


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

definitely, i ordered an XFX one today (seems to be a more trusted version than the Inno3D), pick it up next wednesday.

i guess ill see how it runs with the stock cooler at idle in windows, and if i get seriously high temps while playing ill look into aftermarket cooling.

fingers crossed!!
Adam


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

cool (i wonder how my gtx cooler would do on one lol)


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

ha, maybe ill use fanspeed or rivatuner to push the stock fan to 100%, and just play games through headphones......!


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

thats a good idea


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

The GTX cooler you have 0wn3d would work well. After reading some other reviews, I have come to the conclusion that nVidia should have used a double slotted design for the 8800GT. I don't know why they didn't, but it has led to some overheating problem. a 65nm process die shouldn't jump up to 75 degrees. I would look at the temps after turning up the fan speed and see if you need a VGA cooler.


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## tony24 (Jan 13, 2008)

hi

i have a Compaq Presario Media Center SR2029UK the same as you i think and i also wanted to upgrade my graphics card. would a 8600 GTS be good? maybe this one(how come its so cheap)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inno3D-Gefo...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1200241236&sr=1-1

also i know i need to upgrade my power supply, will a 420w be enough, this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermaltake...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1200241105&sr=1-1

any help would be appreciated


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

I would personally go with different brands of both those items, especially the power supply. Take a look at these:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-126-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=912
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-002-PP&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=928

OcUK has a really good price on that power supply and it is very high quality. You want your power supply to provide clean and stable power to your system so that all the components run smoothly.


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## tony24 (Jan 13, 2008)

do i really need 610 watts? and do you think the 8600GTS is any good?

do you think those parts you suggested would fit/work correctly in my computer (PSU size etc)

here is the computer i have: http://www.ciao.co.uk/Compaq_Presario_Media_Center_SR2029UK_Core_2_Duo_E6400_2_13_GHz__6688407

thanks for you help


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

You would do fine with a quality 550W power supply like the Antec Trio 550W, but it is the same price right now as the PC Power & Cooling unit because its on sale right now.

The 8600GTS will be very good for most current mildly intensive and almost all older games (> 1 - 2 years old). But if your budget allows and you want to play the latest games like Crysis and Bioshock on high settings bump up to the 8800GT which will handle those games better.


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## ad2326 (Sep 10, 2007)

thanks to everyone who helped me here!

after deliberation and trial and error, i did eventually go for the 8800GT. They were out of stock for a long long time but a store around the corner from where i work had the Zotac model in by chance, so i snapped it up!

ive been very impressed so far. ive done some case modding and added some extra fans to cool it and its seemed very stable under load. can get a bit noisy now and again but i was well aware of that before i bought it. i guess the most advanced game ive used with the new setup is Half life 2 Ep 2, and everything is perfectly safe on maxed out settings.

on the power supply front, i picked up the Truepower trio 550W from the same store when i bought the 8800, as they had that in stock too, and again, all seems fine, plus i like the two dedicated fan connectors, something the my stock PSU didnt have.

think im going to really put it to the test and buy Crysis soon, or COD 4, theres a whole list of stuff i couldnt even dream of installing with my old set up, so here goes i suppose

*holds breath*


thanks again all,
Adam


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## tony24 (Jan 13, 2008)

In that case i think i might go for this card:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-072-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1008

is this a good one too get?

Also i am not very good at replacing graphics cards have you got any quick tips?


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

I would go with this one since it is a reputable brand and has a better cooler.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-034-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1008


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## FreoHeaveho (Aug 22, 2006)

1 g0t 0wn3d said:


> Everything but crysis....lol


A bit late, but the 7900GS i had overclocked like all hell and ran Crysis on medium to high settings.

PS, the 8800GT i have doesn't overheat with the single slot cooler, on high - maximum settings with crysis. I get 30 - 40 FPS.

Enjoy your new gear mate!


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## tony24 (Jan 13, 2008)

Does this card need PCI-E x16:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-034-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1008


Here is what my computer has:

Expansion / connectivity
Expansion Bays Total (Free): 

2 ( 1 ) x front accessible - 5.25" x 1/2H 
1 ( 0 ) x internal - 3.5" x 1/3H 
2 ( 1 ) x front accessible - 3.5" x 1/3H 

Expansion Slots Total (Free): 

2 memory - DIMM 240-pin 
1 ( 0 ) x processor - LGA775 Socket 
3 ( 3 ) x PCI 
1 ( 0 ) x PCI Express x16 


I think the card requires PCI-E x16 and the computer has one of those slots but it is being used. Im assuming the graphics card already in there is using it.

am i right in saying that?


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

That will go in where the GeForce 7500 is now. Keep in mind you will need to upgrade your power supply to a good quality 600W+ unit if you have not done so already.


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## zaknafein72 (Jan 8, 2008)

I definitely agree with TheMatt on the PSU front. A good quality PSU is absolutely essential to support a modern video card. Also, before you decide on the specific model of 8800 gt, I would try to find noise reviews of the different model cooling solutions. I just bought an 8600gt from XFX (I know, low budget) and regretted it because of the high noise level, so I am now buying an aftermarket vga cooler from Zalman (the VF900-cu) to keep noise down and reduce heat. Good heatsinks and fans are available to keep both heat and noise down on the 8800gt and enable higher overclocking (the thermalright hr-03 plus comes to mind) so make sure to check on the cooling mounted on your card before you purchase.


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## tony24 (Jan 13, 2008)

Thanks for the help.

so Ive ordered the Gigabyte 8800GT.

Im just not sure that if i get this PSU:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-023-OC

How can i tell if it will fit into my case(do the measurements have to be exact)? oh yea and now that I think about it will the 8800GT fit into my case???


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Measure the space between your top optical drive and your current PSU. Also measure the space between the rear where the expansion cards are and the drive bay mounts.

That is an OK unit, but look at this one:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-018-OC&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=148

Or this if it comes in stock when you are ready to buy:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-002-PP&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=928


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## tony24 (Jan 13, 2008)

One more question...

Does the 8800GT run on its own power supply, and if it does does this have it:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-023-OC

Thanks alot for your help and sorry for all the questions, i just need to be sure.


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

The 8800GT like all modern graphics cards run off the 12V coming from the PCIe power connector. Both the power supply you listed and the ones I listed have this connector, but the above two are slightly higher quality and as such I would spend that little extra bit of money on them.


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## tony24 (Jan 13, 2008)

what is PCI Express 2.0????


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Its a new revision of the standard (developed by the PCI-SIG) that essentially doubles the bandwidth of each PCIe lane by doubling its signaling rate from 2.5MT/s to 5MT/s. PCIe 2.0 is both forwards and backwards compatible.


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## tony24 (Jan 13, 2008)

How do I know if ive got it?


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

You don't, I can tell you that. Its only supported on the new Intel X38 & X48, the AMD 790FX and 770, and the nVidia 780i chipsets.


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