SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4870 in Dell 9150?

[carnonated]

My question is will it fit in my case? ive measured it and it should barely fit but im just wondering if anyone knows for sure if it will or will not before i buy it. thanks!

 

[daedalus685]

It should fit, except that the MB in the Dell 9150 is backwards from standard (It opens from the left side of the case and not right) so the heatsink will block the slot ABOVE the card, not below. So you'll have to check clearance and it will result inteh PCIex1 slot above the card being unusable. If there are any heatsinks in that area you might have issues.

 

[carnonated]

oh ok. thats good in my case seeing as i only have 1 pcie slot

not sure what its called, but the thing that cools down the card (the vent looking thing) will not be taking up space for anything however there is still an opening in my tower for it (above my pcie slot)

sorry im not...good with computer stuff lol. Another question i have is my CPU. i have a Intel Pentium D CPU both at 3.20ghz and i have 4 gigs of ram. im upgrading my psu to a 700w one. what im asking i guess is will my computer be good enough for this card or should i just not buy it and go cry? thanks!

 

[daedalus685]

It wil hold the card back a bit. I wouldnt ever think about getting anything better than a 4870. Whether it is worth it would depend on what you have currently and what resoluton you want to play at.

A 4850 is probably a better idea from a cost benefit point of view. It is more than enough to drive any game at settings appropriate for that CPU.

If you are playing at a CPU limited resolution (anything lower than 1400*900) you would need a better CPU to see any gains.

The Pentium D will certainly hamper the card a bit, how much it does depends on resolution. Even given that, all the hampering means is that you get less out of the dollars you spend.

 

[carnonated]

the price difference between a HD 4870 and 4850 is only $20 here for the 512mb one. my monitor is only 1280x1024. would buying a new CPU or CPU and motherboard be smart? (do cpus come with motherboards in some sort of combos?) if so what motherboard and or CPU would you recommend to support this card? also how much will it cost? i am in canada if that changes anything. thanks!

 

[daedalus685]

You can get CPU+MB in many combos from retailers such as newegg.

There is no reason to buy a 4870 for that resolution. It will be almost entirely dictated by the CPU and you will get very poor scaling. A4850 woudl be plenty, even a 4670 would probably be plenty.

If you want more fps at that resolution you would need a faster CPU. If you realyl want to improve your graphics you need a new display. With a new display a new GPU (or a more powerful one) would be worth it, but not until. Reaslistically there is nothing a 4670 can't do at that resolution to warrant the price of anything more than it.

I'd recomend a new display before anything else. Then you can choose a computer to match that instead of vice versa. How much you need to spend is entirely dependant on how much FPS you need, and how large your display is.

 

[carnonated]

but seeing as $20 is only $20 i think i should buy a 4870. that way in the future when/if i do decide to upgrade my display and CPU/MB i will have the card to go with it? and what is scaling?

also does every MB fir into every computer or do i need a certain kind?

 

[daedalus685]

but seeing as $20 is only $20 i think i should buy a 4870. that way in the future when/if i do decide to upgrade my display and CPU/MB i will have the card to go with it? and what is scaling?

also does every MB fir into every computer or do i need a certain kind?

Most cases are built to ATX standards, Dell's may not be.

If you realyl care that little about your money spend it how you want.

Scaling refers to how much increase in performance you get out of increasesing the power of a component. For example, if you add a second GPU for crossfire you are effectively doubling the power (at least the cost ) but the performance you get out of it will not be double (it will be somewhere between 60 and 90% usually).

In our case, I am refering to scaling in the sence of increase of power between the 4870 and lesser cards. At the resolution yuo are playing at, teh scalign between a 4670 and a 4870 may be as low as 10%, yet the price difference may be greater than 100%. That would be very poor scaling. It is froma bottleneck due to teh CPU and resolution you play at.

That resolution can be maxed out by any GPU, the performance almost entirely dictated by the CPU if you have any sort ofmodern GPU.

You can always keep the GPU till you upgrade teh rest of the computer but I am tellign you that there is no point in upgrading until you get a new display. The cash you spend now on a GPU woudlbe almost entirely wasted until you get a larger monitor. But it is your money. Nothing more powerful than a $60 4670 would be worth it because of the poor scaling you are introducing. That is to say that the cost would scale MUCH faster than your performance.

 

[daedalus685]

Think of it this way, you can use a bigger monitor now (even a bad gpu can play a movie, and you can always play at a resolution less than the display) but until you get a new display you can't use any of the pwer a 4870 gives you.

If you plan to stay at that resolution you won't ever need anything more powerful than a 4670 GPU, and the only way to increase performance would be to get a better CPU/MB.

You should not spend money on a GPU until you need it, and you don't need it until you get a new display (at least you don't need anything more powerful than a rather low end card).

 

[carnonated]

so if i were to upgrade my monitor, and to a 4870 would it be worth it? im currently looking at a 1920 x 1080 one thats in my price range on newegg. it seems to have good ratings. would i also need to upgrade my cpu at that point or would i have good performance without the cpu upgrade? sorry for all these questions but i have more money than brains

(also im not just upgrading my monitor to go with the card, i do need to replace my old one it has a few dead pixels and some other minor problems.)

 

[daedalus685]

You won't have to upgrade the CPU just yet, but it should be next on your list.

A new monitor is always the best upgrade, as nothing else allows you such a huge jump in resolution 😀