Replacing gt430 w/ 300w psu?

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Farscape1_14

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Been having trouble with a gt430 card that's passed it's warranty and looking into replace it. Something seems to be up with the fan's speed control, what little control there is, and it's been running maxed out and quite loud.

Problem is all I have for a psu at the moment is a 300w. I'm wary of investing more into getting a better power supply and then investing even more for a more powerful card. I only really play minecraft and skyrim and such games at the moment and they've been running fine so I was more or less looking into a replacement/slight upgrade that could possibly improve play there while providing minimal coverage for future non-graphics intensive games.

I've tried looking into what I could best get as a reasonable replacement/upgrade that would work with the 300w and I think the best I've seen is the MSI Radeon HD 6670 GDDR5

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127586

Anyone have any opinions on the card or whether what I'm planning is any good?
 
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toyftw

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Hi - have to agree with the other's, if you can swing the xtra $20-25 go with the 7750

Tom
 
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Farscape1_14

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I've noticed these cards look to take up two slots while only having one pci-e connection.

I have the two slots available but theres something stock i have no clue about in the 3rd slot, would that be a problem if the fan is somewhat up against it?

The stock piece looks like it has cat-5 cable connections sticking out the back? Not sure if I can remove it if its in the way or if it should be fine where it is.

And can anyone give me an idea about the fan noise one of these might have? The noise off my current card is one of the big reasons i'm looking for a new one.
 
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Farscape1_14

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Thanks for the suggestions so far.

[strike]Some additional restrictions I have is that my monitor has a vga connection and a few suggested makes only have hdmi/dvi and display port. Not sure if it's recommended to look at other makes or if theres a converter or something.[/strike] Seems like a vga to dvi converter would only cost about 5$ so guess this isn't too much an issue?

Also noticed some of the cards are DDR3 and some are GDDR5, is there one in particular I should go for? Apparently the card I've had is ddr3 so I'm not sure if it's worth the price difference between the two.
 
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Farscape1_14

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I'm thinking of going with the MSI someone suggested. With free shipping from amazon I can get it cheaper than it would have cost from newegg as well.

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Radeon-Express-Graphics-R7750-PMD2GD3/dp/B009SPJ8FG/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1355277743&sr=1-2&keywords=Radeon+HD+7750+-6570+-6670

It's a ddr3 rather than a gddr5, I'm fairly sure I've been running with a ddr3 so I'm unsure how much of a difference there would be between the two or if I would need the upgrade or not.

It takes up two slots but I'm hopeful that the mystery card in the third slot won't be a problem.

I'm curious about the fans still if anyone has any input. I can see the power connector in the pictures and notice it's a 3 pin fan, that would mean it has rpm sensing for voltage based control off the card but not direct control through a 4th pin right? I'm still learning about how fan speeds work and haven't figured it out entirely. I just want to make sure whatever I have won't be running at a set speed if it gets too loud like my current 2 pin card.

 
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Farscape1_14

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Oh I know that. I just have something in the 3rd slot (thinking it could be a tv tuner since i double checked and it's a f barrel type connection?) and I wasn't sure there would be a problem if the two butted up against each other in a worst case scenario
 
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Farscape1_14

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Can anyone give me a hand with a few last issues before i commit to the MSI card?

It's a 30$ difference between the ddr3 and ddr5 so I just want to make sure I'm not making any large mistake by going for the cheaper version.

And I really want to make sure about the fan's speed/control. I tried to contact MSI's tech support to find out about it and I am hopeful since it's a 3 pin fan but since I'm still new to how fan control works I want to be sure this time.

And can anyone give me a rough idea what kind of performance increase I could expect over my old gt430 card? I know the card I have is quite weak and I'm not going to get much out of anything limited to a 300w psu but I was just curious.
 
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Farscape1_14

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Twice faster at what though?

And is that increase going to be noticeable given what I've been playing? I've been using a ddr3 without problem but don't know how things would stand with a better card if would bottleneck the performance or anything.

The only ddr5 version I've found for the MSI is almost 50% more.

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-OC-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-R7750-PMD1GD5/dp/B0077POOOY/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1355339931&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=R7750-PMD1GD5

I've tried reading up on the "best" makers in this range and they seem to be MSI, ASUS and XFX by some accounts.

I found one for ASUS and XFX that both are only about 27% more. Not sure which I should look into though if I really should go for the ddr5.

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-HD7750-1GD5-V2-Radeon-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/B007RFYEQW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355340200&sr=8-1&keywords=HD7750+DDR5

http://www.amazon.com/XFX-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-FX775AZNP4-FX-775A-ZNP4/dp/B007Z3T5JC


 
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prototype18

prototype18

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The difference is you "quad-pump" the clocks or GDDR5 to get the transfer rate, while you double for GDDR3.

This results in much higher memory bandwidths compared to GDDR3 bases cards, given they have the same bus width and memory speeds.


Edit : Asus or XFX .
 
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Farscape1_14

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For either the ASUS or XFX fans I linked should both have some sort of fan speed control?

With the fan cases on each I can't even check the pin connections and I just want to be really sure I can control the speed if necessary.
 
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Farscape1_14

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Thank you for all of the help everyone, I'm spending more than I'd expected but I'm sure from whats been said it should be worth the extra cost.

I'm almost certainly set on the XFX GDDR5 7750 and I'm just checking around anywhere I can to be super sure on the sound levels it gives off before I absolutely commit.
 
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