Single 6 pin upgrade from Radeon X850

[wburrows]

Hi, I have a Dell Dimension XPS G4 with a recently upgraded dell power supply (650w for G5) and an ati radeon X850 pe gpu. I've tried upgrading it to two of the newer boards ati 4850x2 and gtx 285 but in both cases when I increase my level of detail the system will just power itself off in the middle of the game. I guess its when it goes to render the first screens at the new detail level. Actually to be fair the 4950x2 didn't even get to that point.. it powers off about 2-3 mins after loading the windows XP desktop These boards both require 2 x 6 pin (or 2 x 8 pin) power input. My 650w has 2 x 6 pins from the supply but still will not work with the gtx 285. Well it only lets me play in low detail levels.

So with all that background my question is: what's the best option for a single 6 pin gpu board to upgrade to from the X850? Is there a board that will give me a level of performance above the X850 and requires on a single 6 pin power input that's worth the investment? My board is 5 years or more old now and I'm not sure what the fastest 6 pin board was before the industry moved to the multiple power input designs.

Thanks Warwick

 

[uncfan_2563]

umm i dunno if it's the fastest but the Nvidia GTS 250 works with 1 6 pin power connecter

 

[coozie7]

What troubleshooting have you done for the previous replacements? Dell powersupplies are usually quite strong and I cannot see a 650W Dell supply not being able to run the cards you have already tried.

I would look to the 9600GT/GSO from Nvidia or the HD4670 from ATI, both are a useful upgrade and anything more is just going to be wasted because the CPU cannot drive it.

 

[wburrows]

Coozie7,

I've only tried switching the 6 pin plugs for the gtx 285. e.g. on the spec sheet from dell for the G5 power supply it had a note that the p5 connector is for 75w and above draw requirements. The p4 connector (6 pin also) didn't say that. So I thought maybe one of the sockets on the 285 is a legacy low power connector and the other a high-power draw. So i switched them to check that but no joy. When I tried to run crysis in the detail level above minimal it switched off. It got a lot further than the 4850x2 though.

For the ati 4850x2 I went a little further as it was the first board I tried and the one that I really wanted. The ati needed a 6 and 8 pin connector so in this case I had to use the molex-to-pci connector that came in the box. p5 i connected to the 6 pin on the 4850x2. My 650w supply only has 2 molex connectors (for the DVD players in my drive bays) so I had to get splitter cables to make up the other 2 molex for the 8 pin connector to the 4850x2. I first tried splitting one of the existing molex, then i got a splitter to split the hard drive connector into two molexes but neither worked. I also tried taking one molex from the drive bay wire bundle and one from the hard drive bundle to see if it was a matter of load. For the ati there was no change. First it would load to the desktop and after 2 minutes or so just shut off. On subsequent attempts of the same configuration the time before shutoff would get shorter and shorter.

Oh AND since I switched power supplies from the G4 460w to the G5 650w I also had to deal with the additional cpu power connector. For my cpu the additional connector is a 4 pin. So I got a molex to 4 pin pci (??) cable to do this because the G5 650w came with an 8 or 10 pin p2 connector that didn't fit. The splitter I used to do this runs off the same power bundle as my DVD drives (molexes). The x850pe seems to be dealing with this configuration with no problems.


Thanks for your suggestion RE replacements. I'll check into them.

 

[wburrows]

Thanks, uncfan_2563 I'll look into the gts 250. Do you know off-hand how it stacks up against the x850pe?

 

[Crashman]

Hi, I have a Dell Dimension XPS G4 with a recently upgraded dell power supply (650w for G5) and an ati radeon X850 pe gpu. I've tried upgrading it to two of the newer boards ati 4850x2 and gtx 285 but in both cases when I increase my level of detail the system will just power itself off in the middle of the game. I guess its when it goes to render the first screens at the new detail level. Actually to be fair the 4950x2 didn't even get to that point.. it powers off about 2-3 mins after loading the windows XP desktop These boards both require 2 x 6 pin (or 2 x 8 pin) power input. My 650w has 2 x 6 pins from the supply but still will not work with the gtx 285. Well it only lets me play in low detail levels.

So with all that background my question is: what's the best option for a single 6 pin gpu board to upgrade to from the X850? Is there a board that will give me a level of performance above the X850 and requires on a single 6 pin power input that's worth the investment? My board is 5 years or more old now and I'm not sure what the fastest 6 pin board was before the industry moved to the multiple power input designs.

Thanks Warwick

HD 4770 is efficient.

 

[wburrows]

HD 4770 is efficient.

Crashman,

Diamond or XFX? I have those options at Fry's.

 

[wburrows]

For those who are interested... I ended up with an HD 4850 which has a single 6-pin slot and seems to work great so far. I have maxed the settings in Crysis Warhead and it seems to be lapping it up I'm getting a strange flickering in the sky that I'm not happy about though but I'll save that for another thread.

 

[uncfan_2563]

good choice. i always thought the 4850 took two 6 pins so i didn't suggest it. good thing you found a good card