Upgrading from 7950GT

T

Tzeentch

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Joined
Dec 16, 2002
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Hi people,

I need to make one final upgrade to a PC : the video card.
Here's the machine specs at the moment :

MB : Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 socket 939.
Processor : AMD64 X2 3800+
Memory : 4GB corsair value select.
OS : Windows 7 RC1
Graphic : Nvidia 7950GT.

The MB has 1 PCI-Express16 version 1. I was wondering what I can upgrade the video card to. I don't wanna spend too much, so I was looking in the price order of the ATI 4770. Now this is a PCI-E version 2 card. Is it worth it to go with that? Or should I spend about the same on an older PCI-E version 1 card?

This is going to be the final update for this machine, who's eventually going to replace my wife's computer probably around September 2009 to February 2010, when I buy myself a new desktop (my computers have been playing musical chair between me, my wife, home server and kids for a long while now).

Thanks everybody!
 
PCI-E 2.0 cards are backwards compatible with 1.0. The bus just runs at 1.0 speed, which still provides plenty of bandwith for a single graphics card. 4770 is a great card and dominates that price point. I'd say go for it.

My only concern is that the GPU might be bottlenecked a bit by the relatively slow processor, and you might be able to get by with a cheaper card. Anybody know?
 
smartpatrol said:
PCI-E 2.0 cards are backwards compatible with 1.0. The bus just runs at 1.0 speed, which still provides plenty of bandwith for a single graphics card. 4770 is a great card and dominates that price point. I'd say go for it.
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Let me just qualify this statement. Some of the earliest PCIe 1.0a motherboards are not guaranteed compatible with PCIe 2.0 cards. I'm assuming from your 939 setup that you have an early PCIe implementation (Nforce 4 perhaps). While there are certainly a lot of more recent PCIe 1.1 boards that work fine with PCIe 2 cards, the earliest ones are hit-and-miss.

Yes, that's right, it seems there is no clear answer as to which boards work and which do not, as it depends on the implementation of PCIe for the board. Nobody has been able to produce a clear list of "go" and "no-go" motherboards, so I would suggest you search Google for your motherboard and "pcie 2.0" compatibility.

The PCI SIG fucked this one up folks.
 
defaultluser said:
Let me just qualify this statement. Some of the earliest PCIe 1.0a motherboards are not guaranteed compatible with PCIe 2.0 cards. I'm assuming from your 939 setup that you have an early PCIe implementation (Nforce 4 perhaps). While there are certainly a lot of more recent PCIe 1.1 boards that work fine with PCIe 2 cards, the earliest ones are hit-and-miss.

Yes, that's right, it seems there is no clear answer as to which boards work and which do not, as it depends on the implementation of PCIe for the board. Nobody has been able to produce a clear list of "go" and "no-go" motherboards, so I would suggest you search Google for your motherboard and "pcie 2.0" compatibility.

The PCI SIG fucked this one up folks.
Click to expand...

The only video card that definitely had problems with PCI-E 1.0a motherboards was the early runs of the nVidia 8800GT (nVidia's first PCI-E 2.0 card). Modern cards should present no problems in 1.0a motherboards.
 
The 4770 probably has around the same power consumption as a 7950gt if not lower, shouldn't have to worry about the power that much.
 
4770 but you will be somewhat limited by your cpu itll be a nice last upgrade
 
Which 430W PSU? Exact make and model please. Not all 430W PSUs are the same BTW.
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It's an Antec Trupower430.

BTW, I went with the 4770, not only does it work (after installing the 8.612 64 bits display drivers from amd's website), but it makes a world of difference. I didn't think I'd be able to do that, but with the 7950GT I was playing GTA IV at 800X600 with everything at the lowest setting and it was still very bad... but with the 4770 I'm playing at 1920X1080 (my monitor's native res) with some settings at high and it runs just fine.

Thanks everybody for the answers.
 
Tbird87 said:
The 4770 probably has around the same power consumption as a 7950gt if not lower, shouldn't have to worry about the power that much.
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While power capability was part of the reason why I asked about the PSU, quality was the other reason. And the OP confirmed my thoughts:
Tzeentch said:
It's an Antec Trupower430.
Click to expand...

The Truepower I and II series as well as the Smartpower series were well known for their above average death rates due to a poor choice in caps and cooling design. In more specific terms, Antec/CWT specified/used caps that did not respond well to heat. Unfortunately, Antec made the decision to have the PSU fan only ramp at really high temps in an effort to keep the PSU quiet. However, just medium to high temps were enough to screw up the caps so really high temps were murderous. Over time, this degraded the quality and performance of those PSU series.

So I recommend replacing the PSU, especially if you hear a squeal, whine, or any odd noise coming from the PSU.
 
Danny Bui said:
While power capability was part of the reason why I asked about the PSU, quality was the other reason. And the OP confirmed my thoughts:


The Truepower I and II series as well as the Smartpower series were well known for their above average death rates due to a poor choice in caps and cooling design. In more specific terms, Antec/CWT specified/used caps that did not respond well to heat. Unfortunately, Antec made the decision to have the PSU fan only ramp at really high temps in an effort to keep the PSU quiet. However, just medium to high temps were enough to screw up the caps so really high temps were murderous. Over time, this degraded the quality and performance of those PSU series.

So I recommend replacing the PSU, especially if you hear a squeal, whine, or any odd noise coming from the PSU.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I've had no problem with at all, but I'll still open it up and check the caps.
 
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