Reply to: Graphics cards

[doodab]

On German TV at the moment they're showing tips on computer bits going wrong and one was a graphics card:

- open your oven
- make 4 little balls of aluminuim foil and place on baking tray
- place graphics card on little balls
- shut oven door
- cook for 10 minutes at 110

And it worked. The video is probably here somewhere

I might give that a go if I get a chance. But I'm going to buy a replacement anyway so that it's waiting for me when I get in on Friday.

Just ordered one of these:

http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R5670-PMD1G-OC.html

[darmstadt]

On German TV at the moment they're showing tips on computer bits going wrong and one was a graphics card:

- open your oven
- make 4 little balls of aluminuim foil and place on baking tray
- place graphics card on little balls
- shut oven door
- cook for 10 minutes at 110

And it worked. The video is probably here somewhere

[d000hg]

Good points but that's not unique to new cards, top-end ones have been that way for years. Manufacturers make low-power slimline versions too, it is a bit tricky though buying online.

[Fred Bloggs]

Look carefully before buying a modern graphics card for an older PC. Many of the newer cards will need one or two suplimentary power plugs on to the card as the card slot can't deliver enough juice. It is very common now to need a new power supply to give the right plugs availability when you upgrade the graphics card. I did this recently to my son's PC, bought a new ATI graphics card and a 750 watt PSU to go with it. Also, be aware that many cards now take up the space of two slots in the PC case, make sure your PC case will accomodate the new card space wise.

[doodab]

whats your current PSU? anything around 500 should be more than enough.. then again.. a good PSU will not go waste, you can always carry it forward to you new PC.. the ones i really like are seasonic gold standard ones.

It's a 550W but it's already supporting 6 hard drives, which will suck close to 200W when starting up + there is a RAID adapter in there that uses 25-30W, so anything over about 75W for the graphics card is going to need a new PSU. Plus I'm only at home for a couple of days so I want to take the old one out and put the new one in, not spend a lot of time faffing about with cables.

[amcdonald]

whats your current PSU? anything around 500 should be more than enough.. then again.. a good PSU will not go waste, you can always carry it forward to you new PC.. the ones i really like are seasonic gold standard ones.

Nah get a 1000 watt one, and a massive cpu cooler then you can use it as air conditioning

[tranceporter]

whats your current PSU? anything around 500 should be more than enough.. then again.. a good PSU will not go waste, you can always carry it forward to you new PC.. the ones i really like are seasonic gold standard ones.

[doodab]

A GTX260 is going to need a PSU upgrade as well.

Good point about CEX though I might pop to TCR at the weekend.

[tranceporter]

there you go:

CeX (UK) Computing, Graphics & Sounds, PCI-Express Graphics Cards, Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 896MB DX10

I think the one in Norwich where I am currently has a GTX 280 in stock.. waltz into one of the shops and see whats being displayed.. good stuff at decent price.

GTX 260 ebay.. £70ish:

BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC Maxcore 896MB PCI-E 2.0 Graphic | eBay UK

GTX 280.. £90ish:

Nvidia gtx280+thermalright HR-03+Silenx 120mm Fan | eBay UK

now go and buy one!

[tranceporter]

just get a gtx 260 from entertainment exchange (cex.co.uk) or ebay. they are pretty decent and you can get them cheap. just check if your motherboard has a 16x PCI-e 2.0 slot. that should more than sufficient till you get the next contract. and stick with Nvidia.. you can switch to ATI if you build a new computer later.. keep the compatibility like someone else said..
I have a spare GTX 470 lying around somewhere, but that wont be cheap..lol.

[minestrone]

The £130 ones seem to be the best value and would get reused in a new PC later on. On the other hand it would mean I'd need a new PSU now, and I can't be arsed with that level of faffing, I want to whip the old one out and stick the new one in and be done with it.

So I think I'm going to go with one of these:

Scan.co.uk: Sapphire HD 5670 Graphics Card 512Mb - 11168-02-20R

I have the 1 gig version of that one, as I say I am not too sure how good it is as I do not play games on the PC.

The system you quoted is pretty similar to mine, i5 2500k (going to overclock) , 8 gig DDR3, with a 1T HD it came in at 660 or something and that includes a 90 quid sound card. It is a fast bugger.

[doodab]

Maybe, if you're lucky your motherboard might support newer processors

I upgraded my AMD one like that, it's got a processor that in theory it doesn't support but comparing from the same stepping I know in theory 'should' work. So I just get a warning message from the BIOS every boot saying this CPU is unsupported!, but it works fine

I updgraded the CPU, and increasded the memory, oh and the graphics card because like you it just stopped working eventually. But still cheaper than a new mobo, case etc

It will, but a 3GHz quad core is £250 and for £350 I could upgrade to a modern system with a faster CPU, 3x the memory bandwidth, PCIe Gen 2, lower power consumption etc, so it doesn't seem like very good value.

[amcdonald]

Well yes but if I'm looking at modern games I'm looking at a whole new PC anyway.

Maybe, if you're lucky your motherboard might support newer processors

I upgraded my AMD one like that, it's got a processor that in theory it doesn't support but comparing from the same stepping I know in theory 'should' work. So I just get a warning message from the BIOS every boot saying this CPU is unsupported!, but it works fine

I updgraded the CPU, and increasded the memory, oh and the graphics card because like you it just stopped working eventually. But still cheaper than a new mobo, case etc

[doodab]

Ideally you'd want a gig of memory though, a lot of games need it now

Well yes but if I'm looking at modern games I'm looking at a whole new PC anyway.

[amcdonald]

The £130 ones seem to be the best value and would get reused in a new PC later on. On the other hand it would mean I'd need a new PSU now, and I can't be arsed with that level of faffing, I want to whip the old one out and stick the new one and be done with it.

So I think I'm going to go with one of these:

Scan.co.uk: Sapphire HD 5670 Graphics Card 512Mb - 11168-02-20R

Ideally you'd want a gig of memory though, a lot of games need it now