Radeon HD 4670 Question

[Sykolojikal]

I just bought this new radeon hd 4670 for my old PC hoping to boost my performances while playing games. A friend of mine told me that a new video card wouldn't do the trick because it would be "bottlenecked"?? by the rest of my hardware.
I am currently using a Pentium 4 3.0 ghz with 2 gig of ram. I am not sure what mobo I am using but I do know it supports Pci express 2.0

Thanks a lot

Syko

 

[mister g]

According to most TH people the Pentum 4 is really, really, old. Think when Blu-Ray wasn't even made yet. You're not sure of the mobo but if it supports PCI-e 2 then I think its modern enough to support a Core 2 processor. However really check the mobo because I don't know of any PCi-e 2 mobo would support P4 unless it's an nForce.

 

[Sykolojikal]

Thanks for the info. I have tried to find my mobo's name and all I could find was Dell 0c7195. Can't seem to find the specifics on the card though.

Syko

 

[mister g]

Wait, tell me what Dell system yu have, I might be able to narrow down what mobo type you have. Dell uses slightly modified chipsets but they still function normally.

 

[Sykolojikal]

From what Sandra tells me it's a Dell OptioPlex Gx280

Thanks

Syko

 

[coozie7]

Most Dells have either a visible service tag or name plate on them, failing that check through system information Start>Control Panel>System>System Info although a quick Google shows that motherboard belongs to an Optiplex GX280.
From that search the system board will not support a dual/quad core upgrade, sorry, you're stuck with a single core only.
That HD4670 should run without problems but what are you upgrading FROM?

By 'bottlenecked' your friend means that the CPU cannot feed the graphics card fast enough, slowing it down because it is waiting for the CPU to send it data it can work with.

 

[sabot00]

Yes the 4670 will be bottlenecked, however it won't matter because the 4670 is so cheap that any bottlenecking is likely irrelevant.
If you want to save some money then the 4650 is still a fine card.

 

[Sykolojikal]

I used to have a Ati x300x550x850 card. What I had understood is that if my mobo only supported Pci express 1.0 I would only be using half my card power. Is that true?


Thanks

Syko

 

[mister g]

I know it may seem ridiculous but I got my info from this site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optiplex
Anyway its says the chipset is only a 915, as far as I can tell that's even older than my Dimension E520 which uses a G965. That wouldn't support PCI-e 2. It wouldn't just be a bottleneck the highest CPU it could go would be a Pentium D, and that already is a bottleneck as it's a sub-par dual core CPU. I would know I own one.

 

[sabot00]

The 4670 will still operate at its best even with PCI-E 1.1, as it can't use up the bandwidth provided by PCI-E 1.1 x16.

 

[mister g]

Most cards today don't even saturate a PCI-e 1's bandwith, let alone a 2. A 4670 would be fine, just make sure your power supply is at least 400 watts and if it isn't one of these should suffice.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0253818

 

[Sykolojikal]

Oh well, I guess I am just do for a overall upgrade. Thanks for the answers everyone.


Syko

 

[mister g]

Good luck Syko, your forum picture should be approved by tonight, just wish they would speed up on mine, got the wrong picture for my quote.

 

[sabot00]

Mine was approved over a year ago, .