ATI 4650 or 4670? (PSU limitation)

[hotroderx]

Thanks for the suggestion, but only palit and sapphire are available to me. I have no problems with noise, but it should run cool. And if what steckman said is true, then its freakin awesome!

As for the Power to the motherboard, I seem to have a direct 24 pin connection, no adapters in between. Those 24 wires come directly out of the psu and go directly into the motherboard. So, maybe it should be able to run the 4670. what say?

I'm already running a 6200TC on my current PSU

your good then 😀. If them are your only to options I would go with palit

http://www.palit.biz/main/vgapro.php?id=975#spec

(assuming thats the card only one listed on there sight as 4670)

vs

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102820

Reason being palit's cooler looks beefier

 

[your_doom]

Oh, ok thanks!

Palit will take up 2 of my pci slots....... 🙁

But anyways, hope its worth it!

 

[hotroderx]

I kinda curious to how the card is manging the fan with no data link (3rd pin) I wonder if its possible there a sensor built into the card that adjust the power flow to the fan thus causing it to spin faster or slower depending on voltage but that seems kinda funky way to do it.... don't mean to harp on this just don't want to be someone who gives out mis information 😀

I didn't have to plug the power in myself so I didn't look at it. But based on the photos at NewEgg and Sapphire's websites for my model it is a 2 pin power connector.

Doom just a little background on why i suggested beefer cooler 😀
I know it will take up to slots but the reason I suggest the beefer cooler is I ran into a issue a few months back. I had a friend buy a nice new 8600gt (not a high performance card but still a decent card at the time) it was a XFX and will we installed it and it had a similar cooler to whats on the sapphire will after 5 or 10mins of gaming the card would artifact like crazy so we returned it got the new one same issue except it was 25mins this time. So I started trouble shooting possible issues. Long story short the card was running at 80c or 176f which is blistering for a video card thats low to mid range. I called XFX up and came to find out that yea there was a slight issue with the fans but proper case cooling was need to insure it would run smooth which I red flagged if anything 2x's 120mm fans and 2's 90mm fans in case is adequate (CPU ran 5-10 degrees warmer then room temperature) so at that point we pretty much knew it was defective card issue

 

[cybot_x1024]

it realy depends on how 'good' your generic power supply is. The 4670 will run fine on a branded 300w PSU. Most generic power supplies dont quote the actual power you could drain from the power supply.
You could have a look at this article on generic power supplies. Then make your judgement

 

[mactronix]

@ HotRoderX
The fan thing isnt like a CPU fan its all done on the card
Mactronix

 

[your_doom]

Doom just a little background on why i suggested beefer cooler 😀
I know it will take up to slots but the reason I suggest the beefer cooler is I ran into a issue a few months back. I had a friend buy a nice new 8600gt (not a high performance card but still a decent card at the time) it was a XFX and will we installed it and it had a similar cooler to whats on the sapphire will after 5 or 10mins of gaming the card would artifact like crazy so we returned it got the new one same issue except it was 25mins this time. So I started trouble shooting possible issues. Long story short the card was running at 80c or 176f which is blistering for a video card thats low to mid range. I called XFX up and came to find out that yea there was a slight issue with the fans but proper case cooling was need to insure it would run smooth which I red flagged if anything 2x's 120mm fans and 2's 90mm fans in case is adequate (CPU ran 5-10 degrees warmer then room temperature) so at that point we pretty much knew it was defective card issue

Yea, my friend also had this xfx 8600gt a year ago. It idled at 70 degrees! Needless to say, it didnt even last a year. XFX 8600gt is (in)famous for overheating

@cybot
As ive said, mine is a Supercomp (some local company) (read: unbranded) PSU. Will the 4670 work?

 

[cybot_x1024]

generic, unbranded ... sounds the same to me, IMO. It is going to work because the 4670 only drains ~59W. All i would be concerned about is the stability.The more you load you put on the power supply the greater the noise level increases in the rectified DC power going into the components in your PC. Noise may result in damage of your hardware. So id advice getting a branded psu from a company with a good reputation.
Read the article i posted on my previous post and hopefully you will understand.

 

[Shadow703793]

^+1 for saving up $ and buying a good PSU.

 

[your_doom]

@ cybot
Thanks for the inputs. Yea i read that, and it was informative.

But i cant really buy a new PSU cuz im a 16yr old and i will have to convince my parents for a new PSU (convincing them for a new GPU was hard enough!).

Anyways, its good if some of my hardware blows off, atleast i will have a reason to buy new ones and a new psu 😀 XD

BTW will I be more safe with a 4650 than a 4670?

 

[cybot_x1024]

@ cybot
Thanks for the inputs. Yea i read that, and it was informative.

But i cant really buy a new PSU cuz im a 16yr old and i will have to convince my parents for a new PSU (convincing them for a new GPU was hard enough!).

Anyways, its good if some of my hardware blows off, atleast i will have a reason to buy new ones and a new psu 😀 XD

BTW will I be more safe with a 4650 than a 4670?

The difference is not much(~10w), therefore the safety of your hardware would not change much. Go for the 4670. the 4670 trails the GF 9600GT by just a few fps.

 

[kashi169]

can a Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 512MB GDDR4 work whit a 250w psu?

 

[kashi169]

I would not try it

Why?

 

[mactronix]

@ kashi169,

I will give you all the relevant info i can think of, then you can make an informed decision yourself.

While it is not a standard, it is generally recognized that the PCIE slot on a motherboard will supply 75 Watts to the Graphics card. However this may not be the case with a generic PC like yours. It has been known for the makers to work out the loads needed just for the hardware they supply and rate the power supply accordingly, the 4650 would be a safer option as far as power usage would be concerned and would still give you a sizable increase over what you have now, (assuming its what is listed on the specs for your machine) I am adding a link to a review that includes both the 4650 and 4670. techPowerUp HIS HD 4650 iSilence 512 MB Review Page 6 - 32

So really now you need to decide which card suits your set up best, the charts in the link as you will see cover most resolution and settings. It is always advisable with these type of machines to phone and ask customer/tech support if the PC will actually support the card you plan to use, sometimes the motherboard isn't capable of doing so and this is usually fixed with a bios up date, however sometimes it just plain cant and if this is the case a quick phone call will save you money and time.

Anything i haven't covered please ask,

Mactronix

 

[cybot_x1024]

maybe the 250w could work if the pc only had one hdd drive, a energy efficient dual core processor, no optical drive or other ad in cards.
But again 250w would be really pushing it, and the system wouldnt last long.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Why?

You can always get a cheap used 4650 off of Amazon.

Uses less power than a 4670 so even a 250watt would probably be ok.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B001F51ISM?condition=used

 

[kashi169]

yhea i am buying the 4650 512mb gddr 3 today