will a GPU help my OS

A

Avenue

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I have an old PC that I'm reviving for someone. This thing is really old. It only has a single core processor, and 1 GB or ram. I've put Zorin os on it, and it works okay.
Now it had a dedicated GPU (500mb)- nothing special, but the fan packed in, so I asked the guy if he could replace the fan, but he couldn't and came back with a brand new GPU- A Gforce 210, 1GB. I've been using the onboard graphics in the meantime, and the OS is a little sluggish moving between menus and minimizing windows etc. Not too bad, but I was wondering if there is any benefit to keeping the card. Will it help the os at all, or should he just take it back. He's only going to be using the pc for emails and news and typing the odd letter.
The motherboard is a Asrock g31m-s with an Intel GMA 3100 384mb GPU
 
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Rickster said:
Why was Zorin installed?

Get XP or Puppy Linux.
Click to expand...

I put on Zorin lite, which uses LXDE, but I found it buggy and quite rough around the edges. Zorin core is very friendly to people that are coming from a windows environment, so I decided to use that to ease them into it.

Avenue said:
I've got no idea. I'll see if linux has a diagnotic program I can use, but it may take a while
Click to expand...

Its an intel celeron 430
 
Linux mint XFCE. No problems here.
That onboard GPU uses some of the ram IIRC so rather make use of that new card.
 
Avenue said:
I've got no idea. I'll see if linux has a diagnotic program I can use, but it may take a while
Click to expand...

Code: 
[xxxx@asterix ~]$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor	: 0
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 13
model name	: Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor         1.40GHz
stepping	: 6
microcode	: 0x17
cpu MHz		: 1866.891
cache size	: 1024 KB
physical id	: 0
siblings	: 1
core id		: 0
cpu cores	: 1
apicid		: 0
initial apicid	: 0
fdiv_bug	: no
f00f_bug	: no
coma_bug	: no
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 2
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe bts
bugs		:
bogomips	: 3735.35
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 32 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management:

Code: 
[xxxx@asterix ~]$ inxi -Fx
Resuming in non X mode: glxinfo not found. For package install advice run: inxi --recommends
System:    Host: asterix Kernel: 4.4.5-1-ARCH i686 (32 bit gcc: 5.3.0) Desktop: Openbox 3.6.1
           Distro: ArchBang Linux
Machine:   System: Hewlett-Packard product: N/A v: F.14
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 3088 v: KBC Version 39.2A
           Bios: Hewlett-Packard v: 68DTD Ver. F.14 date: 07/27/2006
CPU:       Single core Intel Celeron M (-UP-) cache: 1024 KB flags: (sse sse2) bmips: 3735 speed: 1866 MHz (max)
Graphics:  Card: Intel Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: N/A drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 144x49
Audio:     Card Intel 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller
           driver: snd_intel8x0 ports: 2100 2200 bus-ID: 00:1e.2
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.5-1-ARCH
Network:   Card-1: Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection
           driver: ipw2200 v: 1.2.2kmprq bus-ID: 02:04.0
           IF: wlp2s4 state: up mac: 00:15:00:23:cc:ff
           Card-2: Broadcom BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX driver: b44 v: 2.0 bus-ID: 02:0e.0
           IF: eth1 state: down mac: 00:12:79:c2:f2:3d
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 40.0GB (13.1% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD400UE size: 40.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 37G used: 4.9G (15%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
Sensors:   None detected - is lm-sensors installed and configured?
Info:      Processes: 98 Uptime: 22 min Memory: 593.4/1503.8MB Init: systemd Gcc sys: 5.3.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.421) inxi: 2.2.38

If you don't have inxi just install it via your package manager.
 
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Zorin OS is way to heavy for that PC. You are gonna run out of RAM and agonising slow swap is gonna kick in. If you can try & upgrade it to 2GB at the least. XFCE or LXDE base distro would be a better option as well.
 
Rickster said:
I doubt he will be doing banking on it :D
Click to expand...

haha, actually that's exactly what he's doing on it. Yeah xp works beautifully, but these guys are always getting viruses. They were just recently taken down by some ransonware, so I decided to go the linux route, especially since they are doing all their internet banking on it. (and cant be trusted with flash drives and you have won the UK lottery scams)
 
ponder said:
Zorin OS is way to heavy for that PC. You are gonna run out of RAM and agonising slow swap is gonna kick in. If you can try & upgrade it to 2GB at the least. XFCE or LXDE base distro would be a better option as well.
Click to expand...

I'll try get them to upgrade the ram. That's why I was asking the question actually. he paid R800 for the card, and with that he could have bought some more ram and perhaps even a dual-core CPU? the motherboard supports it.
 
Avenue said:
I'll try get them to upgrade the ram. That's why I was asking the question actually. he paid R800 for the card, and with that he could have bought some more ram and perhaps even a dual-core CPU? the motherboard supports it.
Click to expand...

Is he frigging mad, a new GT610 costs less, could probably get one for R300 and another R500 would get him a Q6600 CPU online.
 
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