Upgrade from ati x 1900 xtx 512mb to HD 4870 1GB

not a chance bro.

change your PSU to somehting reputable, like a Antec 500 Watt or larger.

Then you should be fine power wise. I also wouldn't recommend getting that card unless your Monitor is LARGER than 1680 by 1050.

WHat about the rest of your specs?

A quick google would put that as having about 2gigs ram and a pentium D of some description.

Oops! Also, the monitor is 19" Dell TFT, max resolution 1280x1024 4:3 (obviously

From this chart, a HD4830 would draw less power than the X1900 currently installed, yes those `old` cards did soak up the juice!

http://forums.atomicmpc.com.au/index.php?showtopic=264

And it would also be a useful upgrade without being unduly held back by the processor;

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gefo [...] 515-6.html

Dont need to tell me twice heheh

Hey

Thanks for the info everyone, its really kool that all you guys are helping me out, another question, what would a CPU upgrade involve? Sounds a little advanced?

Also, maybe I should tell you part of the reason I want to upgrade, I got this computer two years ago and have played quite a few games on it (Hitman BM, Splinter Cell 1,2,3,4 Half Life 2 Crysis, Condemned, S.T.A.L.K.E.R etc etc) and they all played ok, except for a few odd crashes. Recently, however, I got Bioshock and it seemed to play allright for a while and then the screen would just freeze after about 5 mins of play, even if the game was paused or all the graphical settings were turned down. Sometimes, the screen will turn itself off for about 10 seconds then come back on and the game plays for another 5 mins, sometimes it does the black screen thing and when it comes back, the system exits the game and there's an ATi message saying that the VPU has recovered, I know this is part of CCC and can be turned on and off. Then sometimes it will just plain old hang the system and I have to restart the computer to solve it, which is bad for it I guess, so I';d prefer not to have to!

I've updated to CCC 9.3 and fiddled with the CCC settings and tried the built in overclocking but to no avail. The only thing that works for sure is turning the hardware acceleration down a coupla notches on the windows display properties>settings>advanced>troubleshoot tab and that's not an ideal solution since it makes the games freeze for a coupla seconds every 10 seconds! Which is annoying when im playing Mirrors Edge and trying to jump from one train to another!

Phew, that was a long rant, hope it didn't bore the crap outta anyone! Basically, my games keep making the Graphics Card do a VPU recover and I can't find a solution except to lower the hardware acceleration of the whole computer! D'oh!

any help appreciated
John

If you're running a 1900XTX then you should be able to run a 4850 as it's just a few watts more, but a 4870 maybe not. It depends on how many amps you got on the 12v and the quality of the PSU. Personally I wouldn't chance it and would get a good quailty PSU. Looks like your system is a BTX system. You don't have too many options as far as upgrading your CPU and replacing the Mobo isn't worth it for a BTX. I say upgrade your PSU and video card, then carry those over when you save up enough money for the rest of a new system.

Just to clarify, the HD 4870 512MB uses 131w of power, so the 1GB version will probably uses about 5w - 6w more.

ah, so maybe i should get a new PSU and a 4850, and maybe a new monitor! What does it mean when you say that the higher power cards will be "bottlenecked" by the CPU? Sorry... newbie!

i am familiar with the term, i just didn't realise the direct relationship between the card and the CPU...

Thank you for explaining that, so would I benefit from getting a 600W PSU for example? Then maybe also buying a 4850, or could i get away with the 4850 without upgrading the PSU? You think the problem I described above might be the PSU failing?

Thanks Coozie7, I think it may have been the dusty card thing, cos I took out the card and removed a thick layer of dust from what i assume was the air vent! I hadn't seen it when i cleaned the card before because i had to remove it completely from the computer to access it. And now my games seem to be running fine, without freezing, on the highest settings no less! Thanks to San Pedro for that suggestion, and everyone else on here, i appreciate all the info, the machine came like this, I havn't added anything so it would be strange if the PSU was overloaded? Although we are talking about Dell here!