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GPU Advice Please

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  • 18-08-2007 9:15pm
    #1
    Gloopy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 57 ✭✭


    Hi guys and gals.

    I had been planning on building a brand new rig, but that's gone by the wayside due to cash flow problems, til at least January 08.

    So I was contemplating upgrading my current gfx card to tide me over. Problem is, my current computer is a Dell Dimension 8400 and I'm not sure how feasible a decent upgrade would be.

    Current comp;
    Intel 3.4 P4
    ATI X1600XT
    2 GB RAM
    350W PSU (according to the manual)

    Proposed upgrade;
    ATI X1950 Pro.

    What I'm worried about is the PSU. Any thoughts?


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    #2
    uberpixie
    Registered Users Posts: 1,864 ✭✭✭uberpixie


    Gloopy wrote:
    Hi guys and gals.

    I had been planning on building a brand new rig, but that's gone by the wayside due to cash flow problems, til at least January 08.

    So I was contemplating upgrading my current gfx card to tide me over. Problem is, my current computer is a Dell Dimension 8400 and I'm not sure how feasible a decent upgrade would be.

    Current comp;
    Intel 3.4 P4
    ATI X1600XT
    2 GB RAM
    350W PSU (according to the manual)

    Proposed upgrade;
    ATI X1950 Pro.

    What I'm worried about is the PSU. Any thoughts?

    If its a good quality Psu you would get away with it, imho.

    (old shuttle box ran 3500+ AMD64, 1 gig ram, X800XT PE on 240W PSU)

    There are people here who have upgraded dells before on similar specs to 1950 pros.

    They should be able to shed some light on it.


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    #3
    Anti
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,401 ✭✭✭✭Anti


    I would have to agree with pixie. The 1950pro is built on a 80nm process, so it consumes less energy then the x1900 which is on the 90nm core. Try it out and it should work, if not you can then buy a psu.


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    #4
    Gloopy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 57 ✭✭Gloopy


    Thanks for that guys. I checked it out on Outervision's Extreme PSU Calculator, and the 350 Watts should be more than enough... I was just worried that the X1950 Pro might need another connector direct from the PSU, but I'm really not familiar with this kind of stuff.

    Having said all that, the Dell forums have a few threads where people have made the same upgrade I'm talking about, with no issues, so I'll try it!

    I'm looking at the Sapphire cards, as I read somewhere that these are reasonably quiet? Also, given that I play on a 22" monitor, preferably at 1600 x 1200, would a 516MB version serve me better, or will I be okay with the 256?

    Thanks again for the advice guys.


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    #5
    Anti
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,401 ✭✭✭✭Anti


    There is very little difference in the 2 cards with the ram, untill you start going to very high resolutions. But gievn what your cpu is you wont see a difference:

    If you want a quiet card :

    http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-072-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=404

    That is the quietest on the market. Just add a nice quiet fan to it. and it will keep nice and cool, and allow you to overclock aswell


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