Graphics Card Question

Currently I have this as my graphics card:

[www.nvidia.com]

But I haven't been happy with the FPS on some of the game and was told to go checkout the AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series. Been looking more between the 6850 and 6970 series.

[www.amd.com]

My question is, are the AMD any better than the current card I have and I see I would need a bigger power supply, so how do I know what power supply box works with my computer, or does that not matter. Any help would be great.

I already spent money on a processor going from duo to quad core and it made no difference gaming wise, so I don't want to buy a new card if it won't make a difference.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2012 10:17PM by Renault#1Fan.

What is your power supply?

In newer games the HD 6850 should be quite a bit faster. In older games not so much. Sorry, it's hard to quantify really, as they generally aren't tested against each other (sites compare recent cards, which is pointless to most really, as how often do you swap to another card of the same generation?).

The 6970 will obviously be much faster, but then it costs quite a bit too.

My current power supply box is 300 watts

Upgrade your PS to 700w and get a card with 1gb on-board ram. I have a HD 4890c with 1gb ddr5 on board and it runs everything just fine. Requires two pci-e power plugs.

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[www.mediafire.com] Some say you should click it, you know you want to. [www.gp4central.com] <----GP4 Central

Will any power supply box work, or are there different sizes?

There are different sizes, but it's the quality of the PSU that matters more than the size.

The cheap PSUs are rated on their peak usage (the ability to power something for a brief moment in time, and some can't even manage that). The better PSUs are rated on how they can sustain power (the ability to power something cleanly for any real length of time... like when pushing both the CPU and graphics card simultaneously, like when gaming).

The other difference is the level of protection a PSU offers if it were to break. The cheap ones don't offer any real protection, so if it goes pop (and trust me, they do), then all your components are at risk of frying (like your hard drive, with all your por... files). The better models offer more protection, so the chances of a PSU taking another component with it is much reduced - in fact I've never seen it yet.

A decent 400w PSU is far better than a cheapy 700w one.

OK, thanks for the help.

I installed the new PSU its a Corsair CX600 and their was no difference to my games FPS, going to buy a new graphics card and hope that improves the FPS over my old one. Getting tired of spending money and nothing is working so hopefully the card will. Also the processor fan I got is a clip in rather then screw in and it won't clip in. Even took the motherboard out to get it to snap and nothing. Anyone know of anything that I can use to install the new fan?

Why on earth did you think a new PSU would improve the frame rate? :\

Thats what people told me in the HP forum, they said my current card may not be getting the power it needs to perform at its best.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/2012 05:01PM by Renault#1Fan.

Oh dear. Clearly they're a bunch of idiots.

If it wasn't getting enough power then it simply would have been unstable or restarted when under load (such as in games).

I suppose the good news is that it seems you wanted a new PSU to enable a graphics card upgrade and the new PSU will allow that.

I'm just thankful you didn't buy a lemon. The Corsair CX series is the Corsair's basics brand, but it's better than the cheap PSUs that tend to catch fire and break things.

Yeah, not the first time someone has, was also told going from duo core to quad core processor would help the games and that turned out to be wrong. I asked the HP forum what would fit and thats the only comment I got, so I went with it and at least it went from 300 to 600 watts, quieter too.

How many CPU cores depends entirely on whether the game (or other program) can use more than one processor. Older games will benefit from a single or dual-core CPU that's clocked quicker. Most, if not all games in the past couple of years will be coded to better support multiple cores.

That said, unless your CPU is quite old you'll nearly always be bottlenecked by the graphics card rather than the CPU in games.

Ok, mine is about 3 years old but I guess I'll try a new card.

Ok guys, I looked around and think these are good, just want to see your opinion.

[www.amazon.com]

[www.newegg.com]

Decided on these because there were some other cards that may not fit in my computer, these 2 will.

I'd be surprised if all other single-GPU cards aren't at least the same size. The 6970 is exactly the same size and Nvidia's best single-GPU product is a touch shorter.

The further down the range you go the shorter the card should be.

When I was shopping, my current card was 10 inches in length, these are close, there was a 6950 that I looked at but it was listed as almost 16 inches in length and that may just fit but there are wires after about 14 inches that to where I don't think it will work. I was thinking that those 2 will be a good step up from what I have now but just wanted someones opinion, don't want to make a mistake before buying.

Keep in mind all cards aren't the same, even if it has the same chip. There's a reference design, which is the design that AMD or Nvidia recommend, but manufacturers are welcome to come up with their own design for better cooling, passive cards or other funky reasons.

Most cards which deviate from the reference design won't be any longer and indeed are often shorter, but it would be a good idea to check the individual card before ordering.

The one you linked above are clearly listed at 10.2" and 11.3" respectively.

Yeah, just getting really confused, XFX sounds good, don't know if it is though.

From what I read Sapphire has the best of the brands so I'll go with there version of the 6970.

I order this one so I hope its better.

[www.newegg.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2012 12:09AM by Renault#1Fan.