Card for my computer?

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TheKhan74

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Nov 6, 2009
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Hi all, my computer of almost 4 years finally up and died and I was lucky enough to have a computer purchased for me. It was this one:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pavilion+Desktop+with+AMD+Athlon%26%23153%3B+II+X4+Quad-Core+Processor/9549401.p?id=1218122580360&skuId=9549401

Pretty crappy, but hey, I didn't have a choice and can't complain at any rate. Free is free. Unfortunately, I am a gamer and would like to continue to purchase games in the future. Am I correct in assuming that any and all bottlenecking for gaming on this machine is due to the graphics card? Is it worth it to upgrade or will the memory and/or processor not be up to snuff either?

I tried to transfer my ATI Radeon 1900 something or other and while I got it to fit, it is way too big for the case and I had to really push some of the wires out of the way. It didn't look good in there and I've had problems with it overheating in the past and there is only the one available slot in the case so I couldn't put another fan on it.

What is more concerning is that there is a connector on the card that has a 3x2 squarish grid on it - which I assume connects to the power supply? Anyways, there isn't a cable in the case that goes into it. There is one 2x2 cable connector and then a bunch of 6x1 (might be 8x1) connectors (that aren't in use).

So I have some questions:

Are there cards out there that aren't gigantic? Lengthwise is actually more important than height. A two slotted high card will fit, but the length on this ATI is just crazy (almost 9 inches).

What is the deal with this 3x2 connector on the far end of the card? Is that an ATI thing, or is it on all cards? Am I SOL on not having an appropriate 3x2 cable in my computer? What is the 2x2 one used for that is just sitting there limp inside my case?

I guess that's it. Thanks a lot guys, I really appreciate it!
 
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1. Yes there are cards that are shorter but 9 inches isnt that long either. you're not going to get a high performance card at that length
2.its a 6pin PCIexpress connector that's needed for extra power that the graphics bus just can't provide on it's own.. (I don't know where 3x2 came from....)
3.No, Nvidia has them too
4.What's SOL? Anyways, there are adapters for PCI-E power cables (2 molex to 1 PCI-E)
5.Those are called molex connectors or 4 pin power connectors. like i said earlier, two of those can be used with an adapter on your card
 
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Ok thats not a bad PC as far as CPU/RAM.

You can get a 6pin adapter http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812887001&cm_re=6pin_adapter-_-12-887-001-_-Product such as this.

As stated in the last post high power graphics cards are huge with 10 or 10.5 inches being common.

Now the bad news.....not only do you not have room for a high power graphics card and I doubt the power supply is up to snuff either.

However, you can go with something in the low/mid range like a HD 4650 that will fit, run cool and probably will be fine with the existing PSU. So you are not entirely SOL. :kaola:

uncfan_2563 SOL = S*** out of luck 😉
 
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it would help us if you could tell us how many watts your power supply can put out, usually it will be posted on a label somewhere on your power supply. Chances are that the power supply can't handle a very high power card as those cheaper pre-builts only put the bare minimum power supply in to reduce costs. I really wish they would start packing bigger Power supplies so this wasn't such an issue.
 
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Agree with the others, the HD4670 is about as much as I would recommend without a PSU change and it's not a bad performer either.
Given that your new system is Win7 and a fairly decent rig, I'd suggest getting a decent 500W PSU and either a HD5770 (8.6 inches long) or a 5750 (7.2 inches), they compare with the HD4870/GTX260 and GTS250/HD4850 respectively.
 
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Wow, you guys are quick, and helpful! Sorry, I didn't know the connectors went by the name of '6pin,' 4pin,' etc

After your advice I'm looking at this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125277

From all the reviews it seems like it stays cool, doesn't use a lot of power, and is good bang for the buck. From the picture it looks like it could be almost 2 inches shorter, which is perfect, and the taking up two slots thing doesn't bother me because there is only one slot in there to begin with! (but with plenty of room height-wise)

My PSU is 300 watts, should that be enough? I'm not going to overclock or anything.

Will I need to get that 6pin adapter for this card? I didn't see anything to plug into from the pictures, but I could just be missing it. Is there a specification for cards that tells you if you need to plug it in for extra power? What is the lingo for that?

Thanks again guys, you all rock!
 
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The only issue I would have with that is the 4670 is not really powerful enough to make use of 1gb of VRAM.
Putting 1gb on these mid range cards is really a marketing gimmick.
The 512mb version is plenty. You only need a card with more than that if you are gaming at resolutions above 1920x1080 anyway.

So the good news is you can get the same performance and save a few dollars :)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125244

It should be fine with the PSU you have. Its designed to use low power and runs off of the PCI Express slot. It does not need a 6pin connector.
 
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@ TheKhan74: Looks good to me and it should also run quietly, which might be a concern, some 4670s are know to be noisy.
The card linked to by Anort3 is one of the cards reported to be noisy and although, as he says, 1Gb of memory is really wasted on a HD4670, I would advise you to get the card you linked to, just for the quiet cooler.
Neither requires an additional power connector, so stop looking, it's not there😉
 
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Awesome. I think I'm going to order it today. 5 bucks isn't going to break the bank, and this computer is already the quietest I have ever had so I don't want to ruin that! Thanks guys, I'll let you know how it runs when I get it :)
 
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