"I ate giant saucy lamb balls last night. They were good at first, then a lot less good. The waiter was nice though, he put lapkins in our laps personally. My brother said it was kind of creepy but I found it mildly enjoyable." - Glip the Gnome
so due to other financial obligations from my previous thread, i had to postpone my graphics card update. it looks like i should be able to get one in the next month or two so i wanted to make sure that what i am looking at will work/fit with my current build.
i'm looking at the Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 (100315-2GL) 2048MB PCIe x16 Gen 2.1 Eyefinity 6 Edition or the Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 (100315L) 1024MB PCIe x16 Gen 2.1.
if there are other suggestions for a 1-2GB card under $200, i would be open to those, too. i am looking to upgrade so i can run swtor and skyrim on decent settings (and not have to upgrade again for 3-5 years).
does anyone see any red-flags with the dell motherboard, PCIe slots, physical space, temp, power, etc.? also, how easy is it to install a graphics card? are their tips or tricks that i should know before i start taking it apart?
I'm running high end cards, and expect to replace mine every 1-2 years, tops... so I don't see how you can do 3-5 years on a mid level card, personally... unless you never do new games
other than that, in a desktop, graphics card is easy... unscrew, unplug the power, unplug the card straight up (there's a clip in the middle to back of the card, at the back of the pci-e slot), plug in new card, plug in power, screw in... nothing too complex
Other than that, I would say, for under $200 you can get quite a bit. Best if you prefer ATI since the 7xxx series has come out, the 6xxx series is quickly coming down in price. 6850 can be had for the $120 or less range pretty easily, and if you can handle sapphire, then more power to ya. 6870 can be had for 15-20 more also easily. Haven't seen prices on the 6950 or 6970 lately, but I believe the 6950 at least can be had for under 200.
A 4870 can still play most games at high settings too btw =-)
Yah, last time I tried to put a new vid card in a Dell it didn't take on account of the power supply. They don't build those things with parts any better than necessary to get it out the door.
I'm running high end cards, and expect to replace mine every 1-2 years, tops... so I don't see how you can do 3-5 years on a mid level card, personally... unless you never do new games
other than that, in a desktop, graphics card is easy... unscrew, unplug the power, unplug the card straight up (there's a clip in the middle to back of the card, at the back of the pci-e slot), plug in new card, plug in power, screw in... nothing too complex
I just finished ME3 on a system with a Nvidia 9600GT. Now, I played the game at lower than max rez, and it had a few graphical issues; which I've heard it had even on high end cards. But it's entirely possible to play games on a older system as long as you aren't hell-bent on having all the settings at max.
I just finished ME3 on a system with a Nvidia 9600GT. Now, I played the game at lower than max rez, and it had a few graphical issues; which I've heard it had even on high end cards. But it's entirely possible to play games on a older system as long as you aren't hell-bent on having all the settings at max.
That's still only 2 years - I replaced my 8800gt (which was a year old) with my 5870HD 14 months ago. I'll be replacing my 5870s by the end of the year. 2 years maybe, 3-5 I don't see it being possible honestly. But hey, I guess everybody has their own needs.
The new console generation next year will shake up minimum reqs significantly. I can imagine going three years without upgrading (five is pushing it), but probably not these next three years.
The iffy bit of your setup is the power supply (searching the web it appears the Inspiron 518 came with a 300w power supply). If it's a 300w power supply and you don't want to change the power supply, the best cards for your computer would probably be the Radeon 5770 (aka Radeon 6770) or Radeon 7750. Both are around $110. The 5770/6770 is a bit faster but the 7750 consumes less power. They won't last 3 to 5 years, but they're adequate budget gaming cards that should run on your current power supply and aren't too expensive.
Using a budget of $200 you could upgrade the power supply to something like the Antec Earthwatts 500w ($42.50 with promo code; $32.50 after MIR) and an XFX Radeon 6870 ($160; $145 after MIR). Total would be $202.50; $177.50 after MIR).
I'm excluding nVidia cards only because in the low end they consume too much power for your existing power supply, and in the $200 budget the only decent card that you could get while still getting an adequate power supply is the aging GTX 460. The GeForce GTX 560 and 560 Ti are good cards but with a power supply it'd put your budget north of $200 (the Earthwatts and the cheapest 560 would be $217.50 before MIR; for a 560 Ti it would be above $250 before MIR).
I just finished ME3 on a system with a Nvidia 9600GT. Now, I played the game at lower than max rez, and it had a few graphical issues; which I've heard it had even on high end cards. But it's entirely possible to play games on a older system as long as you aren't hell-bent on having all the settings at max.
Having been slumming at mid spec for many, many years, I can agree with this. I was riding out an 8800GTS all the way up to BF3 before I finally found a reason to upgrade. If you have 4 cores and good memory, you can get away with a fair amount (how the engine works withstanding) on a low-spec card.
Having low expectations never hurts either.
chmod said:
I don't want to live in a world where there are no consequences for being stupid. A few thousand years ago these users would have been eaten by lions.
That's still only 2 years - I replaced my 8800gt (which was a year old) with my 5870HD 14 months ago. I'll be replacing my 5870s by the end of the year. 2 years maybe, 3-5 I don't see it being possible honestly. But hey, I guess everybody has their own needs.
Pretty sure 8800GTs were older than that. I replaced mine about 14 months ago, too, and I know it was already outdated at the time in comparison to when I bought it, but the 8800GT was a beast of a card that lasted longer than most models/tiers... so it's hard to say. I think I went 8800GT -> Radeon 1600XT (?) -> GeForce GTX460 768 MB Cyclone -> GeForce 570 w 2GB RAM (for 2 high res screen work + high res mods for Fallout NV). That order may be incorrect. I know I had another GeForce in there somewhere, but it may have been before the 8800GT.
650w corsair that is much more reliable, $60 ac/ar.
Both routes are solid for your needs, though both go over your $200 mark temporarily. The first combo is cheaper though, only 1 rebate to wait for, but that psu will take you through several builds in the future. I really want that psu myself for this build that has taken years of deal making to get(just waiting on an ssd and ati7750 deal to finish), but the psu I have I got for $90 a long while back, a corsair 950tx. An old psu, bronze qualified, and it use to cost much more when they sold it.
