Ideas for a Grapic Card and place to buy same please

Vunderground

I|have a Dell Dimension 9200 with:

Win7 64 Bit
4GBs Ram
Intel Chipset 965
375 Watt DC PS
Dual Core Processors 1.866

(think they are the relevant bits of info)

Currently with Nvidia gForce7900gs.

its the power that really seems to let the show down.
Many thanks -

cherryghost

yeah, the best graphics card you could get on that system is probably ATI 5670, or the GT240 (wouldnt recommend it though).

5670
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=579136

you'd notice a large increase in performance over the 7900GS

kmick

Be careful what you buy with the Dells - the power supply is rubbish in them which means it limits the card you can use.

cherryghost

actually most dells are fairly reliable. i got a 9600GT in a 350W one

GL OP

Vunderground

Thanks for that.
The ATI looks good, but it's looking for 400watts pwr...damn you mr dell...the main reason I'm looking to get rid of the Nvidia is that the GPU keep hitting 60c when the machine is doing nothing and the fan is well noisy.
It was ok initially, but now its a card in search of a refuse bin.
Does any of the stuff on Peats site look any good? I've got a headache from doing the temperature maths.

cherryghost

dont believe the minumum power requirement tripe, they pull most of those figures of their arses most of the time. the 5670 will run fine in your pc. its less power hungry than a 7900GS!

Vunderground

I've read a lot of people saying the same about what Dell say in relation to power, but the smoke is getting annoying

Nobody seems to like the 7900 despite Nvidia releasing new drivers pretty frequently. The one before last made it impossible to overclock btw Didn't go down well at all.

I think I will give them a miss this time round as the Sapphire Radeon is looking pretty good. Gonna order now. Thanks again!

kmick

cherryghost wrote: »

dont believe the minumum power requirement tripe, they pull most of those figures of their arses most of the time. the 5670 will run fine in your pc. its less power hungry than a 7900GS!

I bought a 9800GT and my Dell 350w power supply could not handle it at all. Had to sell the card as second hand losing money in the process. Ended up with a 9600xt as it was not fan cooled so had lower power requirement. Point is do your research.

cherryghost

kmick wrote: »

I bought a 9800GT and my Dell 350w power supply could not handle it at all. Had to sell the card as second hand losing money in the process. Ended up with a 9600xt as it was not fan cooled so had lower power requirement. Point is do your research.

9600GT and 9800GT power consumptions are very different from each other, my friend. which is why i didnt recommend a 9800GT at all. I've done my research. End of story

zodac

kmick wrote: »

I bought a 9800GT and my Dell 350w power supply could not handle it at all. Had to sell the card as second hand losing money in the process. Ended up with a 9600xt as it was not fan cooled so had lower power requirement. Point is do your research.

Bah, I had a 9800GT in my 300W Dell PSU for a good 3 months and it ran fine (2 molex-> PCI adaptor). I only upgraded PSUs because I added more things.

Dell PSUs are pretty reliable, but more than anything else, nVidia really overestimate the power usage of their cards.

Here is a pretty good link showing the true usage of graphics cards when at load. The site is French, but you can ignore that and just look at the graph.

To OP, Komplett have a good selection of graphics cards. The 5670 would be a nice option, but depending on your monitor resolution, even a GT 220 could be enough for you.

cherryghost

alls good anyway. hes going for the awesomeness that is the 5670. powerful, doesnt require much power. a real winner in my eyes. and to top things off it Directx 11 ready

Solitaire

kmick wrote: »

I bought a 9800GT and my Dell 350w power supply could not handle it at all.

People have been running 9800GTs off the old Delta 305W PSU in many old Dells since the very beginning. How on earth did you manage to bork a 350W Delta with one then?!? :eek:

kmick

I dont know it worked fine for the guy I sold it to who had a 450W power supply. I was unlucky I guess.

peking97

Vunderground wrote: »

Thanks for that.
The ATI looks good, but it's looking for 400watts pwr....

Is it not 500W? How long has the machine been in use? It may be that the 7900 cooling has deteriorated especially if it's in a dusty environment. HTH

Solitaire

Think its ~400W, the HD5670 is one of the low-power cards, drawing probably ~40W max.

peking97

I'm seeing recommended PSU as 500W?
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=579136&view=detailed#ProductTabs

Effluo

peking97 wrote: »

I'm seeing recommended PSU as 500W?
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=579136&view=detailed#ProductTabs

I figure they put those high ratings on it so people who buy the 25euro psu's which can't hit their own rating figure they can use the card.

Those recommendations are to be taken with a pinch of salt, if you want to know how much a card uses check out it's reviews on the internet review sites.
google, card name "review power consumtion"

Vunderground

On the bottom of this Sapphire page we get:

http://www1.sapphiretech.com/in/products/products_overview.php?gpid=323&grp=3

So 400w recommended unless you are installing two cards. Its on order now and I will post back to say how its going.


How many ppl check the power supply before buying a pc?
The point about the dusty environment has been taken too.
I've learned a lot from this ...thanks all.

peking97

Vunderground wrote: »

Its on order now and I will post back to say how its going.

Please do as I'm interested in the same one.
Incidentally, what do you plan to do with the 7900?

Vunderground

I hadn't thought about what I was going to do with the card!
Its only a few weeks old as the pc was under extended warranty and Dell at first replaced it with an ATI card (cant remember model,but its not supported anymore) which got rid of the overheating problem, but was very poor graphically. So, back came the Nvidia. And the overheating. Hence this thread.

More than welcome to pm me if interested in the 'old' card, though i suppose I'd keep it as 'backup' for a bit.

Vunderground

This is a great little card. I've got much improved graphics and all round experience. Heat hasn't been an issue and the fan doesn't kick in for me 'till the frame rate is at 60 or so...delighted with it. Thanks all!

cherryghost

glad you got back to us man enjoy!

peking97

There seems to be 4 different versions of this card available from Pixmania....
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/rf/sapphire-radeon-hd-5670-512mb-gddr5/772__103?t=3_1

Anyone know what the differences are?
Pixmania don't have a compare facility!

Vunderground

The one I have is the first on the list. I remember when I was reading reviews there was a 1GB one as well as the 512MB and quite a few were saying the former was a rip off as the extra memory was effectively worthless.
Good luck!

peking97

So yours is SKU-11168-02-20R with DVI, VGA and HDMI outputs?
None of the four I linked to have dual DVI outputs. Do you run only one monitor?
I'm currently running only one but I plan to get a second one at some stage so would prefer dual DVI outputs.
Any thoughts?

Vunderground

Yep. Checked the box just then.
And it does have the three outputs which are wasted on me as I only run one monitor. Cables are not included.
Beyond that I'm afraid I don't know.