I want to downgrade my video card.

I built my own computer in Dec2010 with all the then latest
components, but I've never used all the capabilities of the Video Card
GeForce GTX480 Ultra, Model: GV-N480UD-151.

This card uses a lot of power, and covers & prevents access to one of
the large PCE slots.

I suppose this card is designed for Gaming, but all I need is
something for Office10, Internet cruising, Photoshop6, and TV
downloads.

Is there a thin Video card available that will not obscure the PCE
slots, and will be cheaper to run?

The MBoard is:
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7

Peter

On 01/11/2016 07:17 PM, Peter Jason wrote:
I built my own computer in Dec2010 with all the then latest
components, but I've never used all the capabilities of the Video Card
GeForce GTX480 Ultra, Model: GV-N480UD-151.

This card uses a lot of power, and covers & prevents access to one of
the large PCE slots.

I suppose this card is designed for Gaming, but all I need is
something for Office10, Internet cruising, Photoshop6, and TV
downloads.

Is there a thin Video card available that will not obscure the PCE
slots, and will be cheaper to run?

The MBoard is:
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7

Peter




Sure , I just bought a new one off eBay...there were a lot listed there
at reasonable prices.

Peter Jason wrote:
I built my own computer in Dec2010 with all the then latest
components, but I've never used all the capabilities of the Video Card
GeForce GTX480 Ultra, Model: GV-N480UD-151.

This card uses a lot of power, and covers & prevents access to one of
the large PCE slots.

I suppose this card is designed for Gaming, but all I need is
something for Office10, Internet cruising, Photoshop6, and TV
downloads.

Is there a thin Video card available that will not obscure the PCE
slots, and will be cheaper to run?

The MBoard is:
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7

Peter

My two sources of excellent information on video cards
have dried up. The information I have, the cards are so old,
they would not have Windows 10 drivers.

That means about all you can do, is shop by price.
Look for a $50 card.

The installation procedure is:

1) Go to Programs and Features, and uninstall the video card driver.
2) Shutdown the OS, power off, install the new card.
3) Boot the OS, and it should use the VESA fallback driver.
On Windows 8 and Windows 10, the driver is stuck at 1024x768.
That provides a hint the fallback is running.
4) Now, install a video card driver for the new card.

That procedure helps if you're changing brands
(NVidia to ATI or ATI to NVidia). I would do it
that way in all cases, just to be sure. (Yes, sometimes
the old NVidia driver works, but I wouldn't take
that chance.)

Say I pick this one.

GT 610
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814133457

It's fan based, but with the fan that helps guarantee
it will never overheat on you.

It has no auxiliary power connector on the end of the card,
which helps me predict it isn't a "fire breathing card". The
card is $40, so it's not a high end card. Those are my
vague indicators it won't burn up.

A GT 610 gives me VP5. Cards go up to VP7 (HEVC support),
but the VP6 and VP7 cards might not be the absolutely
lowest power cards you can buy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_PureVideo

ATI/AMD has the same problem. The latest versions of
UVD come with the newest high power cards. They won't
release a $40 card with the latest UVD on it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Video_Decoder

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ocessing_units

I can get an R5 230 for $40. And that's 19W max.
It gives UVD 3 video decoding. I can't do much better
than that without getting a high power card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125672

The newest $40 card is probably the best you can do.
I like ones with a fan, so they're always well behaved.
I've bought two identical fanless cards, and one of them
overheats. I only recommend fanless cards, to people
who say "I hate noise and will do almost anything to
avoid noise". For anyone with a normal level of
noise tolerance, there's a good chance one of the
other fans in the PC is much louder.

Paul

Peter Jason writes:

Is there a thin Video card available that will not obscure the PCE
slots, and will be cheaper to run?

Nvidia's GT210 is currently the cheapest they sell (from Nvidia). I'd
get one of those, preferably a card without a fan. They go for about
$30.

Hard to say if it's good enough since your requirements are a little
vague but with the price so low, why not. Although I think it'll be
quite some time before you save even $30 in your electricity
bill. Again, depends on use.