PNY GeForce GT 630 2048MB DDR3 PCI-Express 2.0 DVI+VGA+HDMI Graphics Card VCGGT6302XPB Graphics Cards VCGGT6302XPB

I have an HP Pavilion desktop computer that is about 7 years old. It has a video card that is integrated into the mother board and shares processor time. I was using 1 monitor through a VGA connection. I'm not much of a gamer, but I do like to play Minecraft. I was having all kinds of problems with my frames-per-second. Hoping to get more speed out of my computer, I swapped out my hard drive with a very fast solid state drive and re-installed my system. Minecraft on Windows 7 was even slower on this computer, so I installed Windows XP as a dual boot system. That was a little better. However, I had to ratchet down many settings in the game. I turned the clouds off, changed the render distance to about 6 blocks, turned off all the fancy graphics and visual effects. Even with everything turned way down or off, the fasted FPS I could get was 16. If there were any mobs or other players nearby, my FPS would drop to 3 or 4. I couldn't even play when something was attacking me.I bought this video card in hopes that it would make things a little faster. I immediately saw a difference. I was now able to connect a second monitor... 1 through VGA and 1 through DVI. Having two monitors was great. When I played Minecraft, I really saw the difference. It was like playing a completely different game. My FPS jumped to over 100. I was able to turn the fancy graphics on. I turned on the clouds and increased my render distance. I was able to use resource packs with much more detailed graphics. Even with everything turned way up, I never dropped below 50 FPS... even with multiple monsters nearby and on a Windows 7 operating system. It was amazing. My block updates for Minecraft were also significantly faster. I'm guessing the computer processor and memory were now free to do more processing instead of video rendering. I was thinking of buying a new computer. This single graphics card changed everything and I feel like I have a new computer.The only problems I had were related to my system. For Windows XP, the graphics card drivers require service pack 3. I did not have that, so I could not use the card with my much older system. Since I have a dual boot system, I just shifted to my main Windows 7 system with no problems. I plan to remove my Windows XP system since I was only using it for Minecraft anyway.The second problem I had was related to the computer audio. Since this new card has an HDMI output and HD audio as part of the HDMI output, my regular earphones stopped working. I was able to quickly find a few web posts from people with the same problem. I opened my computer bios at system startup and found the default audio settings. I changed the audio setting to be "onboard" by default instead of "automatic". With that quick change, my sound was back. I haven't used the HDMI features of the video card yet, so I do not know if I need to change the bios again for HDMI output.I'm not sure if other video cards would have had the same results, but I'm very glad I bought this one.

The card is solid for playing games but obviously not as good as a $500+ card. I have no complaints on resolution for the games I play (GTA IV, Crysis 2 and 3 and the like). I have it connected to my monitor using the DVI output. The Nvidea game-optimization software seems a little over the top, offering to align your game settings to the card's performance profile but it is not intrusive and if it helps a little then it's not a big deal.The only trouble I had was setting up a second display. I also want to play recorded media through Windows Media Center on a 53" HDTV. When I connected to the TV through HDMI the card had some trouble and the screen froze. I had to restart a couple times and the (up-to-date) Nvidea Control Panel software could not get the display set to the TV's native resolution. Windows Media Center's display setup finally got it set right. I haven't tested the HDMI connection much since geting it set up but it was stable and seemed to work as it should. Because the setup pain was temporary and it works it still gets 5 stars.In all it is a good purchase and I am happy with the price/performance ratio.

The item displayed and the item that was sent to me are not the same. The displayed video card shown takes up 2 slots. The one sent to me in the same box as displayed.. is a low profile and much shorter card. Thought this was a good deal since it has so many positive reviews and loved the price offered. Only to discover they have done a "bait and switch". I paid for express delivery to Hawaii which almost matched the cost for the card.. only to be duped with a card that IS NOT the one advertised. Beware.I am a custom PC builder and have built hundreds of systems and take favor with Nvidia cards. Have contacted Amazon and awaiting a resolution. Just beware of the "bait and Switch" before you order this card.

My computer: Dell Inspiron 620; 8GB of RAM; Intel Core i5 2320 @ 3GHzThe card was easy to install. It does not require a connection to the power supply and just fits into the PCI E X 16 Slot. After that it took around 30 minutes to acquire and update all of the drivers needed to function properly.My FPS (frames per second) for my computer’s stock graphics card was rated at 7 FPS. When I installed this graphics card it went up to 22 FPS. That is not the upgrade I was expecting with a brand new graphics card, and wasn’t enough for me to keep the card. I have returned it for a refund. For a brand new graphics card I was expecting a massive jump in FPS, and this didn't give it to me.On Blacklight Retribution (free to play first person shooter) the gameplay quality was very choppy. When I would turn my character in any direction the screen would struggle to shift from left and right and would distort during a turn. The low quality settings could have remedied this, but I didn’t buy a new graphics card just to play on low settings.I did not see an overall upgrade in the video quality of any videos, be it 1080p YouTube videos or the videos I have saved to my hard drive. I wouldn’t recommend this card if you just want a simple video upgrade.