Help with this sony vaio

alright my friend has a sony vaio.. it actually cant play HL2 without extreme lag.. and it cost $1100.. sad i know.. but he wants to buy another video card.. and theres no AGP.. its the "ISony Vaio PCV-RS720G" .. it has PCI-e or PCI.. im almost sure its just PCI.. but all he wants to do is get a new graphics card for $100 so that he can play HL2 and CS: source with no lag.. thats all hes trying to accomplish.. can anyone help?

 

it might not be the card. Might be malware or somthing here are some cards anyway:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121180 (if pci-e)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814133134 (pci)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814139166 (pci)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102533 (pci)

Nice site to see how your pc is for hl2 http://www.half-life2.org.uk/check.php

 

lucky for him, in addition to on-board graphics, there IS a 16x PCI-Express slot, so hook him up with the best PCI-E card you can find for your price range, and you're set (dont forget to turn off on-board video )

further specs for his comp are here http://www.docs.sony.com/release/specs/PCVRS720G_mksp.pdf

 

the powersupply he has is only 295W .. i seen that yesterday when i looked it up.. will that power all that stuff??? isnt there a chance everything will fry? .. thats what happened to his old computer.. and so your sure theres a PCI-E slot on the computer? .. also... my computer case is coming in tomorrow.. it comes with a 350W PSU that i wont be using since i have a 500W.. would it help if i gave him that PSU?

 

i guess it depends waht PSU.. i dont really kno much about PSU's and that stuff.. these people will probably help you out

 

I'm sure theres a PCI-E slot, as long as the Spec page is correct

things wont fry with an underrated PSU, but they might not run stably. He might benefit from running the 350w one, depending on which one is built better and how they are rated (between the 295w and the 350w, as some PSU's are rated at diffeent temperatures)

 

what should he do then? buy a $100 video card.. hes going to do that.. now he just needs to kno if anything will run correctly with the PSU he has

 

Well i cant be certain, but keep in mind the ATI cards have less power consumption than the nVidia 6 series (the nvidia 7 series is better now, but expensive)

 

well.. im lost now.. i dunno what to tell him..

 

get a 100$ card maybe 6600. I think psu is a bit low, and should upgrade.
Use this to see if he should upgrade psu http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/Power_Supply_Calculator.php?cmd=INTEL

 

definetly get the new Video card. if there ends up being an issue, take it form there