Switching from Nvidia to AMD graphics card questions for a newbie
 

Hi, so I want to change my graphics from Nvidia to AMD. I have no idea what to look for in terms of compatibility, I don't really need anything particularly high-end, I have no need for mining or whatever. I mainly use my computer for low-end games but mostly just usual daily computing stuff. I've looked on the internet for shopping guides but I find them all very confusing. My main question is what do I need to look for when shopping around compatibility-wise, I really want the thing to just work. How do I determine the hardware I already have (I don't think my computer's manual lists it or otherwise I think I've lost the manual anyway) etc... what would really be nice is a "this AMD card is the equivalent of what you already have with Nvidia". Basically, I have no idea what I'm doing, please help.

Please do tell what make and model of computer you have. Then we can go to the manufacturer's web site which will give detail specifications of the current hardware setup, which in turn will make it easy to make recommendations.

EDIT: Also post the output of the command below:

Computer is a Dell, processors are 4x Intel Core i5-6400 CPU @ 2.70GhZ with 7.7 GiB of RAM.

lspci gives:


01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GK208 [GeForce GT 730] [10de:1287] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

Dell is good, that's the make. What's the model of the Dell computer?
Dell typically has a service tag number, this number gives exact information, without that information, there's no telling which model of Nvidia GeForce GT 730 it has, there are three models of this card all of which vary in performance from each other and only Dell can tell us which one you have.

Service tag is: 7VVQXG2

I'm no expert in the graphics department, so still looking. Dell does not specify everything, and these cards can be configured in many ways, typically the memory can be supplied by three different manufacturers just being one example. For now, have a look at this Benchmark website where many people have tested your current graphics device based on the pcids produced by the lspci command.

On this web page there are links that may be of interest, such as "Compare alternatives" and "See where your GPU ranks". Important notes to keep in mind while looking at a new card is your bus being PCIe 2.0 as there are PCIe 3.0 cards in similar category. Also look at minimum power supply required for any card you may be interested in, I was unable to figure out what size power supply your computer has from Dell's site, it may be 300 watt or 400 watt, this is important to know before purchasing a new card as you may need to either upgrade your power supply or downgrade the video card if looking at a newer model.

There are literally hundreds of cards available that you can use with your system, bus type and power supply size are important factors. You can always take the side of the computer cabinet off and should be able to see what size power supply it has, the size is usually visible without taking anything else apart.

I don't do gaming, but I do photography and a good graphics device makes a big difference for me when doing exposure corrections on my work. Knowing what you want from a graphics device also makes a difference, most often, we tend to go overboard.
Hopefully someone else will chime in their knowledge.