Is the GeForce GTX 470 1280MB Graphics Card compatable with my mobo?

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lucio vichente

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Dear members of the community.

My current XFX NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT has thrown in the towel and I am now looking for a replacement. For the money I'm willing to pay I've identified the GeForce GTX 470 as my preferable choice.

My current system is as follows:

MOBO: Intel GIGABYTE GA-G31M-S2L http://www.giga-byte.co.uk/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2693#sp

CPU: Intel® Pentium® Processor E2180 2.00GHz http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=31733

Memory: 2046MB RAM (I'm unsure as to what type it is)

PSU: 650w

My present motherboard has the following slots 1 x PCI Express x16, 1 x PCI Express x1 and the GTX 470 has the PCI-Express 2.0 bus type.


I'd greatly appreciate it if someone could tell me if its a viable replacement. Me being the novice I am, I'm unsure as to how compatible it is with my current set up.

Any help would be appreciated!

Additional Information:

UK resident
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition
General use for home PC is gaming (Bad Company 2, Dawn of War 2)
Have very limited knowledge of overclocking but I am interested
 
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If you have the money a new system would be nice but really isn't necessary at this point. The ram and a quad core will only cost you about $200. A new i7 system will of course cost around 4 times that amount at least.
Furthermore the GTX 470 is an unreasonable amount of overkill for your current resolution. Even if you want overkill for that monitor a GTX 460 768mb is what I would recommend. It is nearly twice as powerful as the 8800GT and anything more than that will basically be useless until you move to a higher resolution monitor.
I would recommend something like this;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.373049
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130562...

yakmar

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Hello,

Could you please specify exact brand of your power supply? And what resolution are you gaming at?

Furthermore i have copied the following information from the motherboard factuerer.

1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot
2. 1 x PCI Express x1 slot
3. 2 x PCI slots

Officially the card needs to run at a 2.0 PCI slot. But i have a GTX460 running in a 1.0 (x16 PCI Slot). In other words; you will lose peformance but it's minimal. (Think about 1 to 5% at decent third tier CPU).


What more worries me is that your CPU will be a bottleneck for this card. The CPU will not provide enough speed to procces calculations of the card you have selected. Thus giving you loss of peformance. If you really want a new videocard, based on your computer specifications (If your PSU has a good brand) i would suggest you getting a 9800GT. Anything higher then this your CPU will bottleneck the videocard.


A bit offtopic: Also are you running on Windows 7? If so 2 GB of RAM is the minimal you should get. 4 GB's is way better.


I hope this helps.
 
The card will work fine on that motherboard but you shouldn't bother as long as you have that processor. At the least you would want to replace it with something like an e5200 or e6500 and preferably overclock it to at least around 3.3-3.5ghz. Or if you can afford a quad core that would be an even better idea.
Another 2gb of ram is also a very good idea.
What is the native resolution of your monitor and what is the brand/model of that power supply?
 

lucio vichente

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Firstly thank you for the replies.

I generally play in the resolution 1280 by 1024.

Sorry not yet sure what the make of the PSU is.

I anticipated such responses. All i was really trying to do was see if i could get away with not buying an entirely new system. Chances are if i do buy a new psu ill just get an i7 (likely the 930). In which case I'll also need a new motherboard and perhaps even a new case.

Hey Ho considering how much i use it for gaming it was bound to happen eventually.
 
1. OC the CPU to 3-3.4Ghz or so.

2. Yes, the GTX470 will work.

3. Open up your case and look at the label(s) on the PSU for the manufacture info,specs,etc.

4. For 1280*1024 that GPU is a MASSIVE overkill. Save a bunch of money by getting a 4850 (~$90-100 here in US). Or get a GTX460.
 

lucio vichente

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1280x1024 is the resolution I play at with my 8800. Obviously if i bought a GTX470 i'd wack it up, probably to 1920x1200.


 
If you have the money a new system would be nice but really isn't necessary at this point. The ram and a quad core will only cost you about $200. A new i7 system will of course cost around 4 times that amount at least.
Furthermore the GTX 470 is an unreasonable amount of overkill for your current resolution. Even if you want overkill for that monitor a GTX 460 768mb is what I would recommend. It is nearly twice as powerful as the 8800GT and anything more than that will basically be useless until you move to a higher resolution monitor.
I would recommend something like this;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.373049
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130562
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148235
OCing the processor up to 3.5ghz or higher with that cooler should be easy and then you'll be set to handle pretty much any game maxed out for a while to come.
 
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yakmar

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Hello,

Personally i wouldnt recommend overclocking prior a new overclocker. Especially since your suggestions is based on air. a 1GHZ overlock on air. I wouldnt take the risk. Alot of things can turn out bad. As i pointed before; my advice to the starter of this topic is buying a complete new computer since if the starter have to replace the CPU, he also needs to replace the motherboard, GPU, memory and so on the upgrade isnt worth anymore.

You would have to upgrade everything. So my advice again; buy a complete whole new computer. (Make your own build and let it assemble!) I do not mean buying a pc at the local store.

Regards.
 
@yakmar: What are you smoking m8? You can EASILY OC an i7 930/920/950 over 4Ghz on air. People have OCed the i7 920 to 4Ghz on air with fine temps (mid 60s with P95 small FFTs) with a good cooler like a Core Contact Freezer. People have even OCed the E2180/2160 to 3-3.6Ghz on air. As long as the OP reads up on the OCing there is very little risk involved. I don't think the OP's a newcomer in to the custom building scene as he seems to have a custom set up and OCing shouldn't be that difficult to him, it's the logical next step imo.

The E2180 is a pretty damn good overclocker too: http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=670480
That was on water however. I can get to 3.2Ghz on air easily on that CPU.

I DO NOT recommend building a new PC now as Sandy Bridge and Bulldozer will be out soon. Sandy Bridge is said to come out some time in Q1 2011 (October 1, 2010 - December 31, 2010), probably near Christmas time or Halloween. Bulldozer should arrive in March/April or earlier in 2011. When BD/SB arrives AM3 and LGA1366/1156 are history.

Note: The LGA1366 line up will get a 32nm refresh and that's pretty much it.

@jyjjy: +1 on getting a Quad, but Imo, $200 for that C2Q is too much. You can get an AM2+ board (so you can re use DDR2 RAM) and a Athlon II X4 for about the same price.

@OP:
1280x1024 is the resolution I play at with my 8800. Obviously if i bought a GTX470 i'd wack it up, probably to 1920x1200.
Good. Then the 470 or a 460 should be fine. I wasn't sure if your LCD could go higher than 1280*1024.
 

What I actually linked was $174 in a combo with an Arctic Freezer 7 Pro. What would be the point of an Athlon II? That would just require the hassle of swapping out the motherboard, reinstalling Windows for a weaker processor than what I'm suggesting.
Agreed on the overclocking though. It is simpler than most people think, pretty much totally safe and these processors can easily handle a boost of 1ghz or higher.
 

By your logic no one would ever overclock because at some point they had never overclocked before. Also he does not need to replace his motherboard or ram to upgrade his processor. In fact his current processor is about the weakest one his motherboard can handle. There are literally dozens of better processors that will work with his motherboard.
 
^ Good point. Just checked the benches and it's damn close to the X4 that I was thinking about. Certainly not worth the extra effort. I guess if you really wanted to you could spend an extra $100-120 and get an AM3 board and DDR3 but that's not worth it either. I guess the best thing OP could do is grab a good cooler and OC the hell out of that E2180.
 
And with overclocking taken into account the Q8300 should beat any Athlon II pretty handily.
I think the upgrade is certainly worth it compared to OCing the E2180. It would be alright but the 1mb cache on that processor really hurts it.
 
^ Imo, there kind of is no point in spending any more money on a dead socket. But I do agree the Q8300 is a darn good upgrade, but I don't think it's worth $175. I'd say pay no more than $120 for a Q8300/8400.

I was just looking at Ebay and there are Q6600s for ~$60 or so, if OP can snag one of these, that would be worth it.
 
I think you are going a bit too far. If you can spend $200 and make you computer capable for your purposes for a few years to come then you do it "dead socket" or not. You don't need to wait months for the latest processor and drop $1k+ on a new computer to play games.
A used Q6600 would be a good idea to save some cash but I doubt he will find one for under $100.
 
maybe look at an e6xxx the 45nm version of corse
good clocks can be had for a really low price

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116371 3.33 GHZ
99 bucks

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116347
84 bucks 3.06

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116367
2.8 GHZ e5500 $77

The one above will be easy to overclock
no joke everything on auto(watch the temps)
switch the bus speed from 200 to 266 or a more conservative 233 or 240

gives you a great boost and will be your intro into overclocking

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116076 69 bucks
2.7GHZ same as above


yeah stay around 230mhz FSB
 

lucio vichente

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Ok cheers, although i wish everyone on this forum wouldn't link newegg.com :( me being a UK resident it doesn't really help me!

I think i'll follow your advice and upgrade the CPU as well as buy a decent cooler (my current cooler is worth about £1). I currently have two 1gb sticks of RAM in each of the slots so ill need to buy two 2gb ones.

I've already downloaded MSI afterburner so im certainly interested in overclocking, i doubt ill have any trouble. Ill get the GTX 460 like you suggested.

Thanks for the help!
 
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