Best slimline graphics card?

Barack Obama

Hi

I currently have an ASUS 4450 in my slimline Dell (3.4GHz intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM). Adding the card to the PC was a big help for playing games. I'm looking to upgraded and wondering if it's worthwhile going for either of -
Sapphire HD 5570
Asus HD 5570

The main differences that I can see are -
1GB GDDR3 from 512MB DDR3
650MHz core clock from 600MHz
1800MHz mem clock from 800MHz
400 cores from 80

I'm not entirely sure what all that means, I'm just listing the differences . So, is this upgrade worth going for? Any differences between Asus and Sapphire?

The 5570 seems to be the best low profile card that I can find, but please throw any suggestions for others!

Thanks

Solitaire

There are better cards but they're rare as hens' teeth Best I've seen in Ireland was a slim GTS250 Why oh why didn't AMD release a slim version of the HD5770??!?

In any case the HD5570 is a huge improvement over the HD4550 (which isn't really a true gaming card anyway!) and is a decent gaming card for resolutions of 720p and below Above that you will have to decrease quality settings, but by then its far beyond the HD4550's limited capabilities anyway! :P

lmimmfn

Youre right Solitaire, those 5770 low profile cards are impossible to find, heres the best thing i could find thats low profile( great card ) - NVidia 450 - http://www.nexus-t.co.uk/viewproduct.asp?Id=166630

Thing is im not sure PCIE 2.0 cards will work off that old PCIE1.0a mobo( i.e. in the Building and Upgrading section )

Solitaire

Wow! Haven't seen any slim GTS450s up until now!

No idea why a PCIe2 card wouldn't work on PCIe1 though, it just won't have the same theoretical max bandwidth. Yes, I know PCIe2 is designed to carry 150W of power but JEDEC still seem to be refusing to enforce it, and still insist that any card with a theoretical maximum power draw of more than PCIe1's 75W have to add auxillary PCIe power connectors (PEGs) to the card or fail certification

lmimmfn

Solitaire wrote: »

Wow! Haven't seen any slim GTS450s up until now!

No idea why a PCIe2 card wouldn't work on PCIe1 though, it just won't have the same theoretical max bandwidth. Yes, I know PCIe2 is designed to carry 150W of power but JEDEC still seem to be refusing to enforce it, and still insist that any card with a theoretical maximum power draw of more than PCIe1's 75W have to add auxillary PCIe power connectors (PEGs) to the card or fail certification

yeah, slim 450GTS would rock in a media centre

No, i get what youre saying, im only remembering when the 8800GT( the first PCI-E 2.0 card ) was released, it had issues with the old PCIE 1.0/1.0a and VIA chipsets( PCI-E 1.1 however was fine )

marco_polo

Fairly pricey Low profile 5750 on elara.

http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfullft.asp?productcode=ECE2045056

Barack Obama

Thanks for the info guys but it looks like lmimmfn is spot on about the power supply - I'm hamstrung with only having 275W. I checked the specs on the Sapphire website and it said that a 400W PSU minimum is required .

So basically, if I want to upgrade, I should buy a new case with PSU and transplant everything across?

Venom

Barack Obama wrote: »

Thanks for the info guys but it looks like lmimmfn is spot on about the power supply - I'm hamstrung with only having 275W. I checked the specs on the Sapphire website and it said that a 400W PSU minimum is required .

So basically, if I want to upgrade, I should buy a new case with PSU and transplant everything across?

I'm 99% sure you would need a new motherboard as well as Dell use non-standard parts.

Solitaire

Normally I'd laugh at the thought, but in this case you're running a Pentium D in there, and it maxes out at a hefty 90W. That's nearly half the 12V capacity (which is usually around 220W on those 270W SFF models) gone, and putting on enough hardware to push the consumption past ~130W is going to stress it more and more

However, so long as you don't go too far past 150W the PSU shouldn't be in any danger and IMHO some people are being hysterical about power draw here (that's what started the "OMGWTF U NEED TEH 1200W PSU FOR THAT GRAPHICS CARD!!1! craze :rolleyes: ) - I really don't see that HD5570 using more than 20W very often, maybe 30W average under very heavy gaming. Sure, it might occasionally hit peak values of ~50W but those would be for a split second and aren't a normal operating condition for it, therefore they only have to come under the maximum bar for the PSU's 12V capacity, which I suspect is around 220W. Somehow I don't see that happening. Even if I'm pessimistic about how hungry hat old chipset is and average the card at 25W while gaming and the system at 25W while gaming that's still ~140W even with the CPU and GPU running maxed out

Still, it would be nice if you gave us the label info for that PSU of yours... it would a good move to confirm for sure its 12V capacity

Barack Obama

Here's the info from the label - hope it helps

Model No. N275P-01
Output 275W
Max combined power on +5v £ 3.3v output is 106w.

Solitaire

Argh. That's a very old unit, poor 12V rail. Only 204W of 12V power. Practically every other PSU Delta manufactured for Dell used voltage conversion and could supply well over 90% of the PSUs listed max wattage as raw 12V power. This older unit is worrying - you don't have tons of margin.

You're stuck with a crappy choice - get the HD5570 (it should still be fine, just less efficient) or bin the whole thing and get a new build as soon as you have enough money.

Barack Obama

Solitaire wrote: »

Argh. That's a very old unit, poor 12V rail. Only 204W of 12V power. Practically every other PSU Delta manufactured for Dell used voltage conversion and could supply well over 90% of the PSUs listed max wattage as raw 12V power. This older unit is worrying - you don't have tons of margin.

You're stuck with a crappy choice - get the HD5570 (it should still be fine, just less efficient) or bin the whole thing and get a new build as soon as you have enough money.

Thanks (again! ). I'd be happy with just getting the HD5570. I thought though from what lmimmfn said that I won't have enough power. Do you reckon I will?

Solitaire

More than enough. As I said your average consumption while gaming or HD encoding should hit 130-140W if both the CPU and GPU are running flat-out and the HDD and mobo chipset are heavily loaded to boot. That's roughly two-thirds of its capacity, so while its not as good as running the PSU at 50% capacity its not pushing it hard by any stretch of the imagination. Certainly you might get intermittant load spikes but as they'd last seconds at most you can plot that against the (unknown) OCP trip-point of the PSU, which must, by definiton, be somewhere (usually well) above the stated 204W

Overheal

Solitaire wrote: »

In any case the HD5570 is a huge improvement over the HD4550 (which isn't really a true gaming card anyway!) and is a decent gaming card for resolutions of 720p and below Above that you will have to decrease quality settings, but by then its far beyond the HD4550's limited capabilities anyway! :P

Dont have to decrease by much, not that an extra 5770 wouldnt help Metro 2033 along a little better, theres still a ton of oomph in the card. Thats assuming playback at 1920x1080.

Solitaire

5570 not 5770