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Upgrade/compatibility question

jaysus

jaysus

jaysus

Associate
Joined
25 Dec 2009
Posts
442
I've got the following setup, and the display has gone wibble- most likely candidate being the graphics card. I was planning on upgrading soon anyway so I'm trying to decide whether to buy a cheap second hand card or spend £100 and get a new card. If I get a new card, will it be compatible with my existing setup? If so, which one shall I get?

AMD Athlon X2 4200
4GB DDR2 RAM
GeForce 8600 GTS (pci-e)
XP Pro

Help appreciated.
 
The make/model no. of your PSU may come into play here.

All cards will be compatible with you current setup however it may bottleneck.

The sweetspot is about 120 atm for either the 4890 or 4770.
 
Any PCI-E card you get will be compatible, but not necessarily wise. I wouldnt look to spend much at all for a new card if I were you, certainly not anywhere over £100. Cheap second hand would be the way to go (imo :)). Possibly the cards mentioned above if you have the PSU for them.

If you're planning on upgrading soon, then you could get a new card to see you through until you replace the other components.
If you're going to be building a high end machine, however, then be aware that current generation cards are a bit up the spout in terms of pricing and availability at the moment unless you get an ATi 5770. Once NVidia manage to release their 300 series in full, we should see prices going down to keep everything nice and competitive. So don't invest too much in something that'll be cheaper by the time you actually come round to using it.
 
At the moment I'm in the process of trawling ebay each day looking for a cheap second hand card, but its getting boring already. I've been looking at the option of getting a cheap new card, and it seems to be that I'll have to spend a minimum of £40 (inc p&p.)

For that I'm looking at either a Geforce 210 512MB, Radeon 4550 512MB or a Radeon 4350 1GB. Which is the better option, or is there a fourth option I've not considered?
 
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Yours has a 30amp 12v rail, so it will limit what Gfx card you can run, so check beforehand.
 
Liamalxd said:
tbh the 8800GT was an amazing card to have on its own i have 2 x 9600GT's and half the time they only just match up to a single 8800GT :)
Click to expand...

Mine is still going strong but not for much longer, i need more fps ready for Aliens v Predator! :)
 
wiggy said:
Yours has a 30amp 12v rail, so it will limit what Gfx card you can run, so check beforehand.
Click to expand...

Cheers, will do..any idea how I check though? I can't see anything on technical specs to say whether or not they'd be alright with my PSU. Or is this just something I need to worry about with more powerful cards? If so, thats not a problem - when I do upgrade to something more powerful I'll be going for a 600W+ PSU.

Liamalxd said:
tbh the 8800GT was an amazing card to have on its own i have 2 x 9600GT's and half the time they only just match up to a single 8800GT :)
Click to expand...

Nice to know, but I can't see myself getting one for £40.

I'm getting bored of the ebay game now, so if someone does have advice on what the best card I can get for £40 (inc p&p) is I'd be grateful.
 
I've been doing some more digging, and I've narrowed it down to this choice:

ATI Radeon HD 4550 512mb vs nVidia GeForce 9500GT 512MB (or possibly 1GB, for a couple of quid more.)

I can't see a huge amount of difference between the two. Advice? Please?
 
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