Gaming Getting a new graphics card

[GeekyGuy]

Yeah, here you go

Yeah, I got that thing, but unfortunately, I don't know how accurate my input is, with regards to what all I have inside my box. I was hoping for something that can actually measure power -- in real time -- being pushed into the system from the power supply.

 

[Elias843]

Oh right, well if you find anything PM please
Edit: My friend would like to know how to open an Advent pc.

 

[notnarb]

So it's safe for me to buy a 4770 slot it in and get everything working perfectly? What about overclocking, i read i could clock it to over 1000mhz quite easily but it will make it noisier and hotter, correct?

it will be hotter, causing the fan to have to move faster but it will also draw more power, and, lets face it, you wont have all that much headroom. You could encounter stability issues at a lower overclock then others (perhaps even requiring a slight underclock to keep things steady). As far as if it will work in your system - make sure we have the same PSU! Open up your case and look at the thing in the top right, it should list that it has a 12Va and a 12Vb rail (both at 18A) and on the bottom half it should say that the total wattage on those rails should not exceed 264W

scratch that, just used that tool to find out how much power a pentium D uses and dayum do they use energy. I am going to have to go back to my original suggestion of a 4670 cause from what I remember, the power supply was not a standard size (and thus not easily replaceable). Then again I am tired, favoring the 'better safe then sorry' approach then calculating it out, perhaps someone else with a little more knowledge on PSUs then myself could evaluate if a 4770 would work for you

 

[TheWingless]

From what I read a Pentium D can use 90 to 130 watts at peak depending on what model you have. And they sure do suck up a whole lot of power compared to newer processors for the price. I would probably go for a lower power card myself like the 4670.

Though I had a 300watt power supply and my previous powered through the motherboard graphics card... The system BSOD on the "Starting Windows" screen occasionally... Probably a sign there wasn't enough power? I dunno. It's a risky attempt... I'd recommend a PSU upgrade or just go with the lower power card.

 

[Elias843]

Well my PSU is exactly like yours notnarb i double checked, I have my DVD-RW drive, my hardrive, my processor, 4 sticks of ram and a motherboard with an onboard graphics card connected to my PSU.
processor at 100% = 90-130w (according to wingless)
dvd drive = 40-50w?
4 sticks of ram = 30-40w?
HDD = 20-30w?
HD 4770 = 50-80?
mouse and keyboard = ?
motherboard = 5-20?
PSU needed = 235-350?
are these figures correct or is there anything missing?
I'm confused..

 

[notnarb]

At this point I would say get a 4770, and if it proves to be unstable, underclock it until you find a better PSU on sale (your current one gives 22A on the 12V rail, which is pretty good). The things you are not accounting for is that your dvd approx is a little high and your motherboard approx is a little low (Newegg cheat-sheet. I would guess that the 4770 uses a bit more then 75W, otherwise they wouldn't have required a power connector. The thing you need to worry about however is the decreased efficiency of PSUs over time, your computer should be a few years old now and over time they are able to produce less and less power. Also, as you get closer to the maximum output of a PSU, efficiency (AC to DC) declines, billing you more for power.

I'm still thinking your PSU would work for you but it wouldnt hurt to have enough financial headroom to get a better PSU if your current one craps out on you. We'll see tomorrow how I feel about putting my 4830 in my old rig and seeing if it's stable, I am a little curious (don't get your hopes too far up)

per-post edit: USB devices use up to 400mA on the 5V rail, so up to 2W, someone correct me if I'm mistaken

 

[Elias843]

what is the difference between sapphire, gigabyte, Asus etc. Here

 

[GeekyGuy]

The main differences I noticed when shopping around for the same card were the fan types and the memory clock speed.

 

[notnarb]

The main differences I noticed when shopping around for the same card were the fan types and the memory clock speed.

Yea the difference between card manufactures are the fan they provide (all of the 4770 seem to be the same reference design fan, must likely due to its newness to the market), the factory clocked memory speed and core speed - both adjusted depending on how good of a fan they put on it typically, as well as the included adapters, which seems to be the only difference in the manufacturers this early in the 4770 game. Sapphire typically provides the most adapters, but most seem to have the standard hdmi, vga, component adapters, and even molex to 6pin PCI-E.

Problem: just got my the adapter from my sapphire 4830's box to see if it would reach the graphics card (which I doubt, it barely makes it), and I noticed that the six pin on the PSU is just barely different from a normal 6 pin, which would explain why it is so short (I checked the adapter to see if you would need to get a 6 pin extension cable or if the cable sapphire provides would be long enough to get the 4 pin under your CD drive to the card)
Wtf is this?

 

[Blythe31]

saw this thread, so I decided not to make another one.
I'm running on a Dell Dimension 9100 with an ATI Radeon X600. This card's been alright so far, running games like l4d, CS:S, etc. fine.
I've recently purchased Bioshock and Mass Effect and noticed that I need to get a card that has pixel 3.0 shader. Just recently got back into PC gaming, so i'm not really big on the computer terminology or what might be coined as common knowledge to some of you, so i'm sorry if i get lost.

I'd like a budget class 2 card that can run these games and possibly Crysis at around 1440x900 with a high picture quality.
I was thinking about getting the Radeon HD 4670 512MB or the GeForce 9500 1gb 128bit


I'd like to spend as little as possible, but I also don't want to deal with slow downs, low graphics quality, etc. Something that runs cool and quite and wouldn't require me to change my psu.

 

[Raki]

Well a HD 4670 or a 9500GT isn't quite fast...you won't be able to play Crysis on High on this resolution

How much W does your PSU output? And how much A on the 12 V rail?

 

[kjean]

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

 

[Blythe31]

I felt rather clueless trying to use that calculator but I googled what was the stock PSU in dimension 9100's and it came up as 375-400w I think.

I'd like to get the best bang for my buck but try and keep it under a $100. Also, is that powerful enough, or would I have to upgrade my power supply too?

I'll also be installing these components myself. Is this a difficult procedure? I don't want to go about buying something and end up messing it up due to user error. I'm fairly competent at following directions though, so I'm sure if I found a video or a step by step instructions It wouldn't be too much of a nightmare.
Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Minox]

I felt rather clueless trying to use that calculator but I googled what was the stock PSU in dimension 9100's and it came up as 375-400w I think.

I'd like to get the best bang for my buck but try and keep it under a $100. Also, is that powerful enough, or would I have to upgrade my power supply too?

I'll also be installing these components myself. Is this a difficult procedure? I don't want to go about buying something and end up messing it up due to user error. I'm fairly competent at following directions though, so I'm sure if I found a video or a step by step instructions It wouldn't be too much of a nightmare.
Thanks for the help guys.

Thing is, Dimension 9100 was that time's strongest Dell available (with the exception being the XPS series) while the 5100 was farther down the line so I don't think it's safe to make assumptions from such comparisons. On another note, if you really want to know the effect of a Dell 5100 PSU it'd just need a simple look at the PSU.

 

[Blythe31]

Thing is, Dimension 9100 was that time's strongest Dell available (with the exception being the XPS series) while the 5100 was farther down the line so I don't think it's safe to make assumptions from such comparisons. On another note, if you really want to know the effect of a Dell 5100 PSU it'd just need a simple look at the PSU.

Um... what comparison am I making? I'm have a 9100 not a 5100 or 5150.

I just opened her up, and she's running at 375W

 

[Elias843]

Well thanks for Hi-jacking my topic, I think you should also get the HD 4770, it seems to be an amazing card for the price, it can run crysis on medium-high settings and it only uses 50-80w, i believe that is due to the 40nm core (correct me if I'm wrong) which also keeps it cooler.
Anyways i wanted to ask if the HD 4770 would fit in my Dell's PCI-E slot.

 

[Blythe31]

Sorry for the threadjacking bro. Just didn't want to start a new one and get users all cranky because there was already one made.

Well a HD 4670 or a 9500GT isn't quite fast...you won't be able to play Crysis on High on this resolution

How much W does your PSU output? And how much A on the 12 V rail?

Also, to raki, I'm not sure what "how much A to the 12v rail" is exactly, but I looked at the unit and this is what it said.

-12v = /1A Max
+12vA = /18A Max
+12vB = /18A Max

and if you don't think either card is fast enough, what would you recommend in a $100 price range.

 

[Elias843]

lol, don't worry it was a joke.

 

[Raki]

Well I would recommend something like a 9600 GT/9800 GT or a HD 4830

it depends on how much space you have inside...are dual slot cards possible? I haven't found a HD 4830 which is single slot...the 9600 GT/9800 GT are avaible as "small" (they are still freaking long) single slot versions from XFX (so no great cooling cover like many 8800 GT/9600 GT/9800 GT cards got)...this was important for me because my PC is quite small (BTX) and I have a giant aluminium Cooler on my Processor.


Your dell has the Pentium D 830 right?
I have the same Processor and recently put in a 9600 GT and I can run all games I tested so far on Max without problems (Processor is at about 90%-100%, so a better Graphics card may be limited by the processor), so far I tested Mirror's Edge, CoD 4 + 5, DMC 4...more games will follow when I get my new HDD, the one I have now is about to die

my PSU is 400 W with a 12 V rail of 20 A btw

 

[TheWingless]

@Elias843: As long as it's a PCI-E x16 then it should fit. It doesn't matter if it's 1.0 or 2.0 aside from one being slower or something like that.