Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > Help!! Video card upgrade!!
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glasseyeball   10-06-2008 at 01:40:24 AM

Hello everyone!

I am looking for some advice on upgrading my video card. I've looked through a lot of online reviews for either ATI or Nvidia Cards, and can't decide on which would be best for my system. I am running a Pentium 4 HT 3.06, 2 GB ram, currently have a Biostar V7102GL26 GeForce 7100gs. My target games are UT 3, Deadspace, Fallout 3, and Stalker:Clear Sky, as well as upcoming titles like Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3. I have a 19' widescreen monitor and would like to run these games 1440x900 if possible. The 7100gs is getting dated and am looking for a good upgrade. Also, its an Gateway case and I think a microATX board, so theres not a lot of room and these new cards look giant. Can someone please help me!!

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aevm   10-06-2008 at 01:58:24 AM
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Can you fit a HD 4850 in there? It's about 9" long, depending on the manufacturer.

More powerful cards would probably be bottlenecked by the rest of the system, so I wouldn't consider them.

What kind of PSU do you have?

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Reply to aevm
Shadow703793   10-06-2008 at 02:02:04 AM
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^+1.

@OP: Mind giving detailed specs? esp. PSU.

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http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3553/3818083596_1a772f7162_o.gif
 Reply to Shadow703793
dagger   10-06-2008 at 02:09:18 AM
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aevm wrote :

Can you fit a HD 4850 in there? It's about 9" long, depending on the manufacturer.

More powerful cards would probably be bottlenecked by the rest of the system, so I wouldn't consider them.

What kind of PSU do you have?



It'll be bottlenecked pretty badly. P4@3ghz is known to highly bottleneck a less powerful 8800gt, and somewhat bottleneck 3850. A better choice would be around the range of 9600gso/4670/3850.

Message quoted 1 times
------------------------------ Q6600@3.6ghz, GA-EX38-DS4 motherboard, 8gb 800mhz ddr2 4-3-3-12, 8800GTS(g92)@780mhz, 1TB + 1.5TB hdds, 850watt psu
 Reply to dagger
invisik   10-06-2008 at 02:30:47 AM
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dagger wrote :

It'll be bottlenecked pretty badly. P4@3ghz is known to highly bottleneck a less powerful 8800gt, and somewhat bottleneck 3850. A better choice would be around the range of 9600gso/4670/3850.

 

it will bottleneck but he will get much more fps with the 4850 then the 9600/3850 regardless of the cpu.

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Message edited by invisik on 10-06-2008 at 02:33:10 AM
------------------------------ intel core 2 quad q6600 @3.2ghz msi p6n diamond (X-FI Extreme sound) 6gig of OCZ+CoRSAIR oc 900mhz Nvidia gtx 260 sli @ 730/1465/1250
Lite-On Blue-ray Western Digital 7200rpm 500gb Antec 500 Earthwatt Window vista 64-bit
Reply to invisik
dagger   10-06-2008 at 02:33:12 AM
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invisik wrote :

it will bottleneck but he will get much more fps with the 4850 the 9600/3850 regardless of the cpu.



Maybe slightly, but not much more. That's what bottlenecking does. 2-3 times the price for not much gain. :p

------------------------------ Q6600@3.6ghz, GA-EX38-DS4 motherboard, 8gb 800mhz ddr2 4-3-3-12, 8800GTS(g92)@780mhz, 1TB + 1.5TB hdds, 850watt psu
 Reply to dagger
glasseyeball   10-06-2008 at 03:21:22 AM
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I believe the PSU is 450w. I don't think a 4850 will fit, the 7100 is in there pretty snug. I was looking at the radeon 4670 but was told that the 3870 is better cause it has a 256bit bus instead of the 4670's 128.

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dagger   10-06-2008 at 03:23:35 AM
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glasseyeball wrote :

I believe the PSU is 450w. I don't think a 4850 will fit, the 7100 is in there pretty snug. I was looking at the radeon 4670 but was told that the 3870 is better cause it has a 256bit bus instead of the 4670's 128.



Performance ranking:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews [...] 70/26.html

------------------------------ Q6600@3.6ghz, GA-EX38-DS4 motherboard, 8gb 800mhz ddr2 4-3-3-12, 8800GTS(g92)@780mhz, 1TB + 1.5TB hdds, 850watt psu
 Reply to dagger
glasseyeball   10-06-2008 at 03:34:34 AM
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Looks good, only thing left is will it fit in my case. The 4670 form factor is smaller and uses less power, how much does the bus speed matter? between 256 and 128? Will the 3870 fit in my case?

Reply to glasseyeball
glasseyeball   10-06-2008 at 04:47:49 AM
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Ok look at these two cards....

3870
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102752

4670
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102792

Which one? I think both will fit in my case.....if they aren't longer than 6 inches, i think thats all the room I got.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by glasseyeball on 10-06-2008 at 04:49:12 AM
Reply to glasseyeball
dagger   10-06-2008 at 04:54:54 AM
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glasseyeball wrote :

Ok look at these two cards....

3870
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102752

4670
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102792

Which one? I think both will fit in my case.....if they aren't longer than 6 inches, i think thats all the room I got.



Since 3870 is $10 more, but offers more than 10% performance increase than 4670, that would be the better choice of the two.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews [...] 70/26.html

Although with 8800gt/9800gt being $110 ar plus free shipping (which adds $8.25 on prices of the others), it's better value.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130380

Message quoted 1 times
------------------------------ Q6600@3.6ghz, GA-EX38-DS4 motherboard, 8gb 800mhz ddr2 4-3-3-12, 8800GTS(g92)@780mhz, 1TB + 1.5TB hdds, 850watt psu
 Reply to dagger
johnyeah   10-06-2008 at 04:57:27 AM
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dagger wrote :

Since 3870 is $10 more, but offers more than 10% performance increase than 4670, that would be the better choice of the two.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews [...] 70/26.html

Although with 8800gt/9800gt being $110 ar plus free shipping (which adds $8.25 on prices of the others), it's better value.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130380



Factor in CPU bottlenecking. I'd say he'll probably get about the same performance out of the 4670 as the 3870.

------------------------------ "If you don't plan on listening, why ask?"
 Reply to johnyeah
swifty_morgan   10-06-2008 at 04:59:18 AM
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I don't care what some of these guys say about the processor bottle necking your video card. I'd get the biggest, baddest video card I could get that would work with the power supply you have unless you're going to upgrade that if it's not good enough. You can't have enough gpu. the 128 cards are a joke if you want to play clear sky or anything else that will put demand on your system.

Message quoted 1 times
Reply to swifty_morgan
glasseyeball   10-06-2008 at 05:03:52 AM
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Even with the bus difference? Also, choosing between ATI and Nvidia seems to just be a matter of which has the best price....

Reply to glasseyeball
ahslan   10-06-2008 at 05:06:19 AM
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well the 3870 is a pretty damn good card...I checked out my friend's 3870 and was quite impressed with its performance...

------------------------------ AMD64 X2 6000 + Biostar Tseries 770 + 4gb DDR2 800 G.Skill + Thermaltake WingRS case + Raidmax 530w modular PSU + 200gig internal WD HD + 250gig external WD HD + 500gig external Simpletech HDD + Belkin Wireless G PCI receiver + Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD4850
 Reply to ahslan
glasseyeball   10-06-2008 at 05:07:53 AM
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swifty_morgan wrote :

I don't care what some of these guys say about the processor bottle necking your video card. I'd get the biggest, baddest video card I could get that would work with the power supply you have unless you're going to upgrade that if it's not good enough. You can't have enough gpu. the 128 cards are a joke if you want to play clear sky or anything else that will put demand on your system.




Well I am on a budget of about $100, so some of the bigger, badder cards are out of my range. Plus, my case is somewhat small so those 9 inch cards most likely won't fit.

Reply to glasseyeball
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