Best Possible Video Card for my System?

[LuckyGiant]

About me:
- First post on the forum, so hi!
- I'm not a hardcore gaming enthusiast, happy playing at medium settings
- Basic knowledge of computers, but nothing much technical (so no overclocking)
- I'm looking to upgrade my video card if it means I can delay upgrading my whole system for a while
- May upgrade my PSU if its needed to upgrade the graphics card

My system:
AMD Athlon X2 7750 Dual Core 2.7GHz
ATI Radeon HD4670 512MB DDR3 Engine 750MHz Memory 800MHz
2x2GB Dual Channel DDR2-800
AOC 2217V 22 inch widescreen LCD monitor (1650x1050)
Asus M2N68-AM Support AMD Socket AM2+
Western Digital 500GB 7200rpm SATA
Samsung SH-S223F DVD±RW
420W PSU (Came with the case Easteck Case ET-3383BS, 1.5yrs old)

The questions:
1) which are the best cards my system could use?
2) what are the performance gains over my current card?

Many thanks

 

[Dice144]

What brand and model is your power supply? Brand quality makes a world of a difference.

 

[Vette73]

Yea need more info about your PS, like the 12v line.

But you might be able to get by with a GTS450. Faster than what you have and you can usually find one for less than $99 AR. Also anything faster you might be cpu limited.

The 4670 I think is around 75watts and the GTS450 is 105watts. So unless you are maxing out your PS you should be able to swing that. So you might not need a new PS.

 

[LuckyGiant]

Thanks for the replies

My PSU came with the case which is an Easteck Case ET-3383BS
Its about 1.5yrs old

I'll try to hunt down some more information on the PSU, but probably just go on the assumption its just a generic one as the case was not expensive.

What I'm trying to establish is if I can get a bit more life from my system because I don't do anything too demanding and are happy gaming on medium settings.

So I guess now theres 2 parts to my question:
- gpu upgrade on the current power supply worth it or will there not be notable differences for the money?
- if upgrading my power supply whats some good card options for me to put in there, I'd assume at some stage my CPU will quickly become the limiting factor so the GPU price probably isn't an issue.

 

[happy medium]

Just grab a 5750, its 95% as fast as a gts450,uses only 85 watts and cost about the same.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161309&cm_re=5750-_-14-161-309-_-Product

It will work with your psu. It will make a perfect fit with your current cpu also.

Good luck and welcome to the forums.

 

[Milanov]

That was interesting to read, thanks!

 

[cusideabelincoln]

A 5750 will be about twice as fast and doesn't use too much more power than your current 4670. Although it will require an external power connector, so you will need to have a PEG connector or spare molex connectors. The 5750 also uses less power than the competition, the GTS 450, so it would be a better fit if you don't want to upgrade the power supply.

Your system isn't too bad in respect to upgrades. Your motherboard supports the latest AMD processors. A simple drop in upgrade (along with a video card upgrade) can also improve performance depending on what games you are playing and what other tasks you do with your computer. You could possibly lower power consumption, as the 7750 is a bit of a power hog.

 

[LuckyGiant]

If a 5750 is the best I can do without a PSU upgrade and it gives me about twice the performance of my current 4670 then that sounds great!

Is there any way I can use software check what my current system power consumption is and if my 420W generic brand PSU can definately handle an ATi 5750?

Also any thoughs on a ATi 5770?

 

[happy medium]

If a 5750 is the best I can do without a PSU upgrade and it gives me about twice the performance of my current 4670 then that sounds great!

Is there any way I can use software check what my current system power consumption is and if my 420W generic brand PSU can handle an ATi 5750?

Also any thoughs on a ATi 5770?

Open up the case and tell us what it says on the power supply.
The numbers we are looking for are 12+ amps.
I will allmost garantee your psu will work ,unless its a real piece of crap. In that case you should just get a new one anyway.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Is there any way I can use software check what my current system power consumption is and if my 420W generic brand PSU can definately handle an ATi 5750?

Also any thoughs on a ATi 5770?

Going from a 4670 to a 5750 is adding about an extra 20W (rough estimate). The 5770 requires 15-20W more than the 5750, again a rough estimate. The 5770 is certainly a bit faster to justify the power.

But really I wouldn't risk overdoing on a generic power supply, even with these low power parts. Even a well-built 300W power supply would be preferable to some generic 420W unit. If you are capable I'd recommend a power supply upgrade regardless of what you do to the rest of your system.

However, you probably live outside the US so good power supplies might be harder to come by. I googled your case and I see a lot of New Zealand websites pop up, so do you live in NZ? If you don't want to swap power supplies my recommendation would be to play it as safe as you can, and this would put the 5750 at the top of the list. I wouldn't recommend getting a card that is any slower (thus lower power, like the 5670) simply because that wouldn't be a worthwhile of an upgrade, and your choices as to fast + low power are definitely limited.

 

[LuckyGiant]

Thanks for the additional help, I managed determine the details from my power supply.

ISO Swithching Power Supply: Model No. ISO-500PP
DC output: +3.3V -- 22.0A. +5V -- 36.0A. +12V -- 18.0A.
+5Vsb -- 2.0A. -5V -- 0.5A. -12V--0.5A.
Fuse Rating: 5A.250~(+3.3V&+5V= 220W Max)
MAX.Output Power: 420W.

Graphics card maximum power draws seems to be the following according to the ATi website.

4670 Peak 59W
5750 Peak 86W
5770 Peak 108W

According to the power supply specs is it possible to determine which card I can safely run?

 

[toyota]

yeah that psu is junk as it only makes a rated 18amps on the 12v line. not to mention that it probably never made that in real world conditions even when brand new. I would realistically say that your psu probably only makes about 13-14 amps at best if it has been used for a while. it is certainly built with pretty low end parts that have degraded over time. you are probably already taxing it a bit under full load with your current system. by that I mean you are probably using about 85-90% of what the 12v is realistically capable of. I would get a new psu if you buy a card that uses even 10-15 watts more that your 4670.