Want to upgrade to GeForce GTX 470

[launchpad1]

I want to upgrade my graphics card to the GeForce GTX 470, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130550 But i'm not sure if my current motherboard can handle this.

Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5N-D 1.XX
Bus Clock: 333 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD ASUS P5N-D ACPI
2.33 gigahertz Intel Core2 Quad Q8200
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
2048 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Not hyper-threaded
4094 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
500.11 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
350.32 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
EVGA NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB DDR3 PCI-E 2.0 (current card)
Windows Vista Home Basic (x64) Service Pack 2
900 watt PSU

And what is DDR5 compared to DDR3? Thankyou!

 

[rolli59]

Your motherboard can but you will need a PSU with 38 amps on the +12 volt rail and some overclock on that CPU to get the full potential out of the card.
As a alternative you might want to look at GTX460 1 GB that is substantial upgrade from your 9800GT

 

[benski]

^ Whut he said. 470 is overkill unless you speed your processor up. And GDDR5 has twice the bandwidth of GDDR3, I think it's the same as the difference between DDR2 and DDR3.

 

[launchpad1]

Thanks so much! OK so if I go with the GTX 460 I won't need to get a new PSU? And it's cheaper too so that's cool. Now not trying to be a pain, but there are so many types of 460's:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006519%2050001402%2040000048%20600007855%20600007323%20600007779%20600062521&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=48%7C14-130-567%5E14-130-567-TS%2C14-130-571%5E14-130-571-TS%2C14-130-568%5E14-130-568-TS%2C14-130-575%5E14-130-575-TS

Would the overclocked ones run too hot, some people have stated that the 470 overclocked ones get crazy hot. You're suggestions are much appreciated.

 

[benski]

460's are a much cooler card than the 470s. The MSI Hawk ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127518 ) and Asus DirectCU ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121391 ) are good ones, the MSI Cyclone is good too and slightly cheaper than the Hawk. Any of them can be overclocked nicely without generating an excessive ammound of heat.

edit: if you really want to go with one of those EVGA's I would pick this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130571 because I'm not a fan of the reference cooler with the turbine fan and I don't think it's worth paying the extra money for the FTW edition.

edit again: A 900 watt psu is plenty for either a 460 or a 470, maybe even 2.

 

[Petey1013]

Make sure you get a 1GB 460 and not a 768MB aswell.

And OC that CPU!

 

[launchpad1]

460's are a much cooler card than the 470s. The MSI Hawk ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127518 ) and Asus DirectCU ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121391 ) are good ones, the MSI Cyclone is good too and slightly cheaper than the Hawk. Any of them can be overclocked nicely without generating an excessive ammound of heat.

edit: if you really want to go with one of those EVGA's I would pick this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130571 because I'm not a fan of the reference cooler with the turbine fan and I don't think it's worth paying the extra money for the FTW edition.

edit again: A 900 watt psu is plenty for either a 460 or a 470, maybe even 2.

Wow that MSI Hawk is NICE. Decent price too. OK after looking around again at cards, i'm going with that one. Thanks so much Benski and all who posted with help!

 

[rolli59]

The hawk is a really nice card.

 

[jerreece]

Yeah the MSI Hawk is a great option. I'd still take a peek at OC'ing your CPU just to make sure you don't get bogged down with any game titles. If you have a 900W power supply, I'd hope it's a good quality one. If it is of good quality, anything with 900W max should have plenty of amps on the 12V rails. If not, it's a piece of junk. LOL

 

[17seconds]

You might want to look at the ECS GTX460 Black that comes with an Arctic Cooling Twin Turbo PRO cooler. After rebate, it's just over $200.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134117

The ECS Black is quieter and cooler than the MSI Hawk by actually quite a bit, and overclocks like crazy.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/ecs-geforce-gtx-460-black-review/8

 

[launchpad1]

Thanks Matto i'll check it out!

 

[launchpad1]

OK I switched cards to the MSI GTX460 Hawk and I get no picture. I get sound from the comp starting up, and the fans on the card work. I doublr checked the cables and even switched back to my old card to make sure everything checks out. Am I missing something or is the card a bust?

 

[17seconds]

Try to reseat the card and make sure you have all power cables connected. You might also want to make sure you uninstall your old Nvidia drivers and/or start up in Safe Mode to make sure that it's not a driver problem.

 

[launchpad1]

Is there any way I could keep my old drivers and install the new ones incase the new card still doesn't work or would there be a conflict?

 

[jerreece]

You can always re-download older nVidia drivers if need be. But for the GTX 460 to even function, you'll have to have newer drivers installed. Drivers won't make the difference between whether the system boots up or not though. It should boot up without any drivers at all.

 

[17seconds]

You must uninstall the old drivers, then restart, before installing new drivers.

 

[launchpad1]

OK will do!