Upgrade from GT8800

[adrian101a]

HI

Motherboard GA-MA770-UD3.
Processor AMD Phenom II x2 550 3114 Mhz.
Graphics Card EN8800GTS/HTDP/512M.


I am thinking of upgrading my Graphics Card.

looked at

SAPPHIRE 100287VGAL Radeon HD 5670, $69 from Newegg USA ( im in the UK)

Sapphire 11168-02-20R HD 5670 512MB GDDR5 PCIE Graphics Card £55 on Amazon.

I'm not an expert so im completelt uncertain, any advice welcome.

Regards
Adrian.

 

[Zero_]

That's actually a downgrade.

For an upgrade from a 8800GTS you should be looking for HD5770, GTX550Ti and above.

 

[adrian101a]

Many thanx for your advice

I found this on Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11167-04-20R-5570-DDR3-Graphics/dp/B0037NYGM0/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1320142611&sr=1-3

But there is this also

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11163-02-20R-5770-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/B002ZO3D76/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1320142758&sr=1-1

£30 differnce.

Regards
Adrian.

 

[adrian101a]

Ive also seen the 260GTX recommended.
$100 on Newegg.
Regards
Adrian.

 

[ha2fb]

What is your budget? $100 and below?

 

[adrian101a]

Say £80, $127
Regards
Adrian.

 

[Zero_]

Many thanx for your advice

I found this on Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11167-04-20R-5570-DDR3-Graphics/dp/B0037NYGM0/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1320142611&sr=1-3

But there is this also

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11163-02-20R-5770-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/B002ZO3D76/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1320142758&sr=1-1

£30 differnce.

Regards
Adrian.

One is a HD5570 and the other is a HD5770. Spot the difference?

 

[adrian101a]

Thanx, yes imissed that.
Ive seen a 570 on Amazon for £90.
Regards
Adrian.

 

[adrian101a]

GIGABYTE GV-N26UD-896M REV2.0 GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

£62

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125391&Tpk=GTX260

My PSU is Seasonic 520W power supply.

Regards
Adrian.

 

[adrian101a]

Something else of concern is

I run Win xp 32 bit, with 2 gig Ram.

Am i right in thinking XP 32 bit can only address up to 2 gig, and that 2 gig includes graphics memory.

I wonder if a 1 gig graphics card might reduce memory usage performence for the CPU

Regards
Adrian.

 

[ulillillia]

XP is limited to 4 GB of RAM, though usually about 3 GB of that is actually used. VRAM is also included into that 4 GB limit. 3 GB RAM is plenty for Windows XP to run for almost anything. I have just 2 GB (temporary RAM) and I very rarely end up going over that (putting stuff in swap file, of which is very slow).

 

[adrian101a]

Will my PSU handle the HD5770 or the 260GTX.
Regards
Adrian.

 

[ulillillia]

520 watts should work with those video cards. However, if you SLI or CrossFireX them and/or overclock, you may need to upgrade the power supply.

As a side note, I've run XP, back when I had my Core 2 Duo E8500 processor, with 4 GB of RAM. Only 3 GB of that was able to be used and I have a 256 MB video card so I'm not entirely certain where the other 768 MB is coming from.

 

[adrian101a]

I came acoss a little workaround edit of i hink it was sys.ini in C: that allows xp to address 4gig RAM, i will have to look for it again.

Im dithering on what to buy, need to do more research

Regards
Adrian.