AMD Radeon 5670 replacement query

DSpurs · Feb 20, 2015

Hello,

I have an AMD Radeon HD 5670 graphics card in a Dell i5 cpu 750 machine running Windows 7. My graphics card is runnign very hot (running Civ 5) and I have been back and forth with AMD. I am wondering whether I need to upgrade my GPU and if there was a simple upgrade option. I don't know an awful lot about the options and something that will slot is like for like albeit more powerful. Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks

David

jbrown156 · Feb 20, 2015

DSpurs :

what is your budget for a new card and what power supply does your system have currently ?

DSpurs · Feb 20, 2015

It is a Lite On PS-6351-2. I cannot see any obvious wattage but there is a reference to continuous wattage output of 300W. My budget would be £150-200. Thank you for responding so quickly.

DSpurs · Feb 20, 2015

It also says Max Cont DC output is 350W.

jbrown156 · Feb 20, 2015

DSpurs :

ok your welcome .. the cause if the heat is simple the components not getting enough power.. as you can see here
http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/desktop/5000/5670#
the 5670 needs atleast a 400 watt power supply to work properly and you only have a 300watt ..i suggest you get a power supply and a better gpu to ease your pain..

i dont have any access to the uk newegg so i willgive you links you can make refference to
here is a
graphics card

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/zotac-geforce-gtx-750-ti-2gb-gddr5-pci-express-3-0-graphics-card/9223113.p?id=1219399593892&skuId=9223113

power suppl
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/thermaltake-smart-series-650w-bronze-power-supply-black/8733872.p?id=1219365660388&skuId=8733872

if you dont want to spend that much then you can opt for this setup then..

graphics card #2
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/evga-geforce-gtx-750-superclocked-graphic-card/5114487.p?id=1219109722796&skuId=5114487

power supply #2
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/evga-600b-600w-active-pfc-power-supply-black/2427003.p?id=1219072713094&skuId=2427003

DSpurs · Feb 20, 2015

Ok, thanks. Is it easy to replace a PSU? Or could I buy a better card that will work with that PSU?

Many thanks for helping.

jbrown156 · Feb 20, 2015

DSpurs :

its best you replace the psu because am pretty sure a 300 watt cant handle a graphics card and a core i5 at the sametime with hdd and fans in the system it will surely overheat and eventually just give up ... get the parts i suggested .. your main priority is the psu as its the by far most important part of any given computer ..

DSpurs · Feb 20, 2015

Ok, thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to help me. I had not really thought about the PSU as being the problem so I appreciate your advice. Many thanks.

jbrown156 · Feb 20, 2015

DSpurs :

ok no problem always willing to help

coozie7 · Feb 20, 2015

When was the last time you cleaned out the graphics card? Over time dust and carpet fibre will clog the cooling fan and the little fins on the heatsink itself, the same is true of the CPU fan/heatsink BTW.
Dell offer a variety of case formats, if it's a mid sized tower you'll be OK, but if it's a small 'desktop' or 'slimline' design you'll have problems replacing the power supply.
If you're playing fairly undemanding games like Civilisation I'd just drop a GTX750 into the system and leave the power supply alone, it's a huge upgrade from a HD5670: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-review,review-32899-7.html a full 5 tiers faster and the GTX750 doesn't need an extra PCI-E power lead to run (but check the specs very carefully), while most GTX750 Ti cards DO need the extra power lead.
Again, if the case is a small design, you'll have to look at low profile cards, normal sized ones just will not fit.
A few names to check: Overclockers, Aria, Scan, CCL, Dabs, Novatech, Ebuyer, Maplins (lousy site but some good deals at times) and the ever present Amazon.

jbrown156 · Feb 20, 2015

coozie7 :

get what you are trying to say but since he has the money to upgrade the psu its wise to just get an upgrade because i thinkyou know well enough that 300watt is way too little even if he gets a small power consuming card .. OP just get the upgrade its for your the best because who know jow long now you have that power supply and to make it even worste its been under stress for as long as you had that 5670 using ..

DSpurs · Feb 20, 2015

Thanks. I have had the 5670 since I bought the system from Dell (its an XPS Studio 8100) so I have had the PSU and graphics card in the same system from day one. So 5 years!

The CPU and Motherboard temps seem ok, just the GPU idles at 70 degrees centigrade and goes to 105/7 playing Civ 5.

I am not particularly savvy so am a bit cautious about replacing parts and am worried about getting the right dimensions.

It could be a 350W PSU.

jbrown156 · Feb 20, 2015

DSpurs :

nope its a 300watt with a 350watt peak output ...you have the psu and gpu for more than 5 years so you definitely should consider a upgrade because anything can be coming close to the end of their cycle at this point .. look save yourself the problem and just get the new parts

DSpurs · Feb 20, 2015

Sorry to be a novice, but would it be as simple as replacing the 5670 with the GTX750? Are there different size or plug issues I would need to consider? Again, apologies for the basic questions. I have only replaced a hard drive before.

DSpurs · Feb 20, 2015

jbrown, thanks. I appreciate the advice. I will look at replacing the parts.

jbrown156 · Feb 20, 2015

DSpurs :

the gtx 750 does not require any plug (pci express power connector ) so you wont plug anything from the power supply to it .. however the stronger gtx 750 ti or r7 260x are far stronger cards that need the connectors to work .. just go with the more modern setup so you will have the pc for much longer

DSpurs · Feb 20, 2015

jbrown, ok, thanks.

DSpurs · Feb 20, 2015

coozie7 :

When was the last time you cleaned out the graphics card? Over time dust and carpet fibre will clog the cooling fan and the little fins on the heatsink itself, the same is true of the CPU fan/heatsink BTW.
Dell offer a variety of case formats, if it's a mid sized tower you'll be OK, but if it's a small 'desktop' or 'slimline' design you'll have problems replacing the power supply.
If you're playing fairly undemanding games like Civilisation I'd just drop a GTX750 into the system and leave the power supply alone, it's a huge upgrade from a HD5670: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-review,review-32899-7.html a full 5 tiers faster and the GTX750 doesn't need an extra PCI-E power lead to run (but check the specs very carefully), while most GTX750 Ti cards DO need the extra power lead.
Again, if the case is a small design, you'll have to look at low profile cards, normal sized ones just will not fit.
A few names to check: Overclockers, Aria, Scan, CCL, Dabs, Novatech, Ebuyer, Maplins (lousy site but some good deals at times) and the ever present Amazon.

I cleaned the PC out yesterday. Only the third time in 5 years but I got rid of a lot of dust.

coozie7 · Feb 20, 2015

A quick look on the Dell site shows the XPS Studio 8100 as having a fairly normal case, so you shouldn't have too many problems with a powersupply swap and standard sized graphic cards should drop in very nicely.
It probably would be a good idea to upgrade the PSU, nothing too fancy, 500 Watts maximum from a good maker like Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, Silverstone, FSP (Aurium series), XFX (The Pro series are both good quality and keenly priced) or the Rosewill Capstone series.
The GPU is overheating and 'throttling', which is to say it's slowing itself down to prevent a meltdown BTW.

There is plenty of 'how to' videos on the 'net but swapping a graphics card is easier than swapping a hard drive.
If you go for a GTX750, it will not need an extra power lead.

There is a well trodden path for swapping from AMD to Nvidia:
Download and save Display Driver Uninstaller, it's hosted by Guru 3d amongst others.
Open your documents (start>my name>downloads) there create a new folder and extract DDU into it.
Download and save the latest WHQL drivers for the card of choice. Again, it'll go into the 'downloads' folder.
Uninstall all the AMD drivers and software.
Restart into Safe Mode (hold F8 then select 'safe mode').
Navigate to the Downloads folder, open the new folder and run the DDU program, select the 'clean and shut down option'.
Once DDU has done its stuff it'll shut the system down.
Unplug everything, power lead first and do your hardware upgrades.
Plug everything back in and boot up.
DON'T PANIC! it's supposed to look like that! With no video drivers Windows will use its own low grade VGA drivers to generate a display, looks like c£$p but it's better than navigating in the dark.
Go to Downloads again and install the drivers you saved out earlier.
Reboot.
Depending on display you may need to do a few tweaks in the drivers to get things as you want them, if you're using HDMI you'll almost certainly need to open the drivers and adjust the panel options for example.
Done.

DSpurs · Feb 20, 2015

coozie7 :

A quick look on the Dell site shows the XPS Studio 8100 as having a fairly normal case, so you shouldn't have too many problems with a powersupply swap and standard sized graphic cards should drop in very nicely.
It probably would be a good idea to upgrade the PSU, nothing too fancy, 500 Watts maximum from a good maker like Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, Silverstone, FSP (Aurium series), XFX (The Pro series are both good quality and keenly priced) or the Rosewill Capstone series.
The GPU is overheating and 'throttling', which is to say it's slowing itself down to prevent a meltdown BTW.

There is plenty of 'how to' videos on the 'net but swapping a graphics card is easier than swapping a hard drive.
If you go for a GTX750, it will not need an extra power lead.

There is a well trodden path for swapping from AMD to Nvidia:
Download and save Display Driver Uninstaller, it's hosted by Guru 3d amongst others.
Open your documents (start>my name>downloads) there create a new folder and extract DDU into it.
Download and save the latest WHQL drivers for the card of choice. Again, it'll go into the 'downloads' folder.
Uninstall all the AMD drivers and software.
Restart into Safe Mode (hold F8 then select 'safe mode').
Navigate to the Downloads folder, open the new folder and run the DDU program, select the 'clean and shut down option'.
Once DDU has done its stuff it'll shut the system down.
Unplug everything, power lead first and do your hardware upgrades.
Plug everything back in and boot up.
DON'T PANIC! it's supposed to look like that! With no video drivers Windows will use its own low grade VGA drivers to generate a display, looks like c£$p but it's better than navigating in the dark.
Go to Downloads again and install the drivers you saved out earlier.
Reboot.
Depending on display you may need to do a few tweaks in the drivers to get things as you want them, if you're using HDMI you'll almost certainly need to open the drivers and adjust the panel options for example.
Done.

Many thanks. I am always very pleasantly surprised how helpful people are. I think I will probably need to take my PC to a local shop to have the upgrades made. I am pretty ok at following online guidance, but it seems there are a few too many variables here buying the right things and then installing them. This has been very helpful though and makes me wonder how the system has coped for 5 years!

coozie7 · Feb 20, 2015

We are here, to help.

The bits: Nice little card, the 2Gb of memory might be a little more than you need: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-261-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1854 it has all the main connectors so it'll connect directly your current monitor.
Decent power supply, solid, reliable, compact, no frills: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-172-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2462

It's easy for those of us with the experience (sometimes expensively bought) to forget just how intimidating computers can be so if you're not happy doing these upgrades yourself then, obviously, get someone else to do them, I'm not going to TELL you to do anything, it's not why I contribute to these pages.
I WILL suggest you at least view a few 'how to' videos before taking your system to a shop, for one thing you'll save money and you'll get that warm, fuzzy glow when the system powers up and you see how much better it's running because of your work.

And BTW, I only recently upgraded my own system (mouse over the Hurricane) from an i5 750/HD7950 that could STILL play modern games at 1080 res with plenty of eye candy turned on, there's plenty of life in your 'old' Dell yet!

DSpurs · Feb 20, 2015

coozie7 :

We are here, to help.

The bits: Nice little card, the 2Gb of memory might be a little more than you need: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-261-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1854 it has all the main connectors so it'll connect directly your current monitor.
Decent power supply, solid, reliable, compact, no frills: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-172-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2462

It's easy for those of us with the experience (sometimes expensively bought) to forget just how intimidating computers can be so if you're not happy doing these upgrades yourself then, obviously, get someone else to do them, I'm not going to TELL you to do anything, it's not why I contribute to these pages.
I WILL suggest you at least view a few 'how to' videos before taking your system to a shop, for one thing you'll save money and you'll get that warm, fuzzy glow when the system powers up and you see how much better it's running because of your work.

And BTW, I only recently upgraded my own system (mouse over the Hurricane) from an i5 750/HD7950 that could STILL play modern games at 1080 res with plenty of eye candy turned on, there's plenty of life in your 'old' Dell yet!

Great, cheers coozie

sora · Feb 20, 2015

OP, what power supply do you have currently?

DSpurs · Feb 21, 2015

sora :

It is a Lite On PS-6351-2. I cannot see any obvious wattage but there is a reference to continuous wattage output of 300W.

DSpurs · Feb 21, 2015

One final question if I may. If I just bought an improved PSU (e.g. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-237-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1088) would that mean my existing HD 5670 GPU would run cooler? Then I could invest in a new GPU later? At the moment it runs at 75 degrees centigrade when just browser the internet.

AMD Radeon 5670 replacement query

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