Please help on upgrading the card

Your tower looks to have the space for a 2 slot card, you can always look it still just takes on plug on the board, just the larger heatsink hangs down and it takes 2 screw locations.

An example of a dual card on mATX board(small board like those used in many acer systems)

Most single slot cards are louder. For instance a 4870 was not that loud of a card since it has a better cooler.

To be honest, i recommend cleaning the heatsink on your card with an air duster as a 4850 should not be THAT loud. As a card gets too much dust build up, it gets louder trying to cool it self.

If you plan to get a card, take note of the length of your case as well as the 12 volt current on your power supply. If you lack the power, a new card could make the system unstable.

Something like a 5770 or 6770 even a from ATI will take less power and thus work with your system. a 6850 should work as well
On the nvidia end. gtx 550ti or GTX 460. If you have a card you wonder about, just ask.

thanks for replies,

nukemaster, yes, I just checked, it has space for 2 slots, but then it will be next to my sound card without any space between them, is that ok? 6850 requires 500 watts I think. What is 12 volt ? If it runs 4850 now, then it should be fine I guess? The power supply is - fsp400-60tha. I guess this is it:

http://www.primesource.in/inner_pr [...] 0tha-p.htm

So the top card for 400 watts is gtx550 Ti? Or is there any others?

Out of these 2 which one would you go for?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814500194
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814121435

I think asus?

thanks

Alright, so you are saying these 2 cards(zotac & asus) use the same amount of power as mine current hd4850, but are more powerful? It means Im wasting power now with my hd4850?

The asus card is much longer though 9.54" vs 7.4" on zotac .... will it fit?

6770 still says 450 Watt or greater power supply.

The power requirements are over rated. a 6770 card will have trouble taking more then 100 watts on its own.

New generations of cards get much more powerful and more energy efficient. So the newer and faster card takes similar power. Please note, this is not a massive upgrade, but it is still faster.

I have placed cards close to other cards like that, but with both the new cards taking air in the center, it may run a bit warmer. That is one advantage to any card(Nvidia ot AMD) that blows all the hot air out the back of the case.

ermmm, I just read other sites, and all people are saying that gtx550ti is not that of an upgrade from hd4850! And all recommending hd6850

The question is will it run with 400 watts power supply? Would you risk? My CPU is not overclocked - 2.33 gigahertz Intel Core2 Quad Q8200 + 1280x1024 resolution, it shouldt use max power right?

And if i get hd6850, I should look for not overclocked version I guess? Is this a better choice or I wont notice a difference on 1280x1024??

Just curious, is that photo upside down or that's how your PC stands? If it's the latter, I suggest flipping it, since the heat goes up, not down.

I dont get it! here it says 400 watts minimum:

http://www.visiontek.com/6000-series/hd-6850.html
and here:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0354216

in other places it says 500 watts.

Ok, some guy @ youtube said hes running it fine on 400 watts, and my FSP got 2 12 v rails with 15 & 14 amp.

Yes, I looked at that link, the power consumption against my current card is fantastic.

What do you mean louder? Do you have any links with more info? Probably its louder when playing games? But my current card pisses me off when I surf the web! Right now while Im typing here, no idea why, but theres something on this page that makes my card waken up? If I switch now to the next tab with google website - it goes quiet again. It does this noise with some websites only.

alright, so im not alone...you see you dont get noise, I do.

Im on latest Firefox. Just unticked "hardware acceleration", and its good, man! haha, why didnt I do that earlier. thanks for the tip!

I was asking from the same concern as Sunius.

That is good to see, Heat will rise away from your sound card and leave the case.

If it was the other way, heat would rise and hit the top of the case by the sound card and never leave.

Since it is a standard ATX(Technically mATX) cause, you are good.

Please note that new cards do away with S-video plug(Lets you connect to a Standard def TV. If you do not do that, this is not an issue for you )

Yeah, i just wanted it not to use your video card for rendering pages, no text. I am seeing if there is a way to do it for you to test.

One way, would be to right click on a firefox shortcut and set compatibility mode for XP SP3. This kills off the Aero skin, but does stop the video card from clocking up on the tomshardware page. Youtube videos will still clock it up.

Looking to see if there are any better ways.

I tried to turn it off in the firefox options, i do not see a text difference. Not sure why.

Maybe. Just an interesting note for you.

Firefox with Tomshardware.com open. average 140 watts

Google.ac because regular google has some html5 animation that makes it similar to toms. average 100 watts

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

If i run the tests with acceleration off, my gpu does not get to 850(even as it is, it bounces from 157-600-850, but mostly 850). EDIT test done, with it off average power is down, but scrolling is the same. So for sitting looking at a site, Hardware acceleration takes more power. When scrolling a page or even my winamp playlist, they are the same. In my case if increases power usage by 40-50 watts

Just food for thought since the idea of GPU acceleration was to save power....

Damn i have steered well of topic.

I was recommending turning it off because the website would not hold it at full speed. It is not only toms, but another unmentionable site gives me about 600mhz so less. it all has to do with FF having the video card do some of the heavy lifting for its rendering and displaying engine.

It only would when you scroll and with some luck that would not be enough to heat up and get as loud.

That said, It never makes my card loud, the fan speed only goes up by 2%. but these are not the same card.

My images are more an observation of how much more programs rely on our video cards(FF, IE, Chrome and windows own AERO interface).

Like I said, we have come well beyond the topic of this thread now.