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#1
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Need to upgrade an old GeForce 8500GT w/256ram
I'm needing to upgrade an old GeForce 8500GT w/256ram, which came stock
on a Gateway Desktop GM5632E, and running Vista Ultimate, on a 24" LCD monitor. I'm thinking the solder joints are starting to fail on this old one. After being on a couple days, the display starts to disintergrate, then BSOD's to needing a cool down & reboot. It's old, outdated & time to go! I'm an old gamer (Unreal Tournament & Quake) and sometimes run my R/C flight sim (RealFlight 4.5 which likes 512MB vid RAM or more). So, top of the line vid card really isn't needed, but I'd like one with 1GB RAM, no extra PS connector required, and similar sized to what it came with would be good (about 6 3/4" Long x 4" deep). I have a little room in length before running into things....say NO MORE than 9 1/2" long. Stock PS is rated as follows; 400W max +5/+3.3 max 140W +12v(1) and +12v(2) max 30A NVidia has so many choices, I'm needing some suggestions. So; 1GB-RAM, short card preferred, NO extra PS connector on card needed, PCIe 16, NVidia ONLY (sorry, no ATI for me). Suggestions please? |
#2
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Need to upgrade an old GeForce 8500GT w/256ram
a1pcfixer wrote:
I'm needing to upgrade an old GeForce 8500GT w/256ram, which came stock on a Gateway Desktop GM5632E, and running Vista Ultimate, on a 24" LCD monitor. I'm thinking the solder joints are starting to fail on this old one. After being on a couple days, the display starts to disintergrate, then BSOD's to needing a cool down & reboot. It's old, outdated & time to go! I'm an old gamer (Unreal Tournament & Quake) and sometimes run my R/C flight sim (RealFlight 4.5 which likes 512MB vid RAM or more). So, top of the line vid card really isn't needed, but I'd like one with 1GB RAM, no extra PS connector required, and similar sized to what it came with would be good (about 6 3/4" Long x 4" deep). I have a little room in length before running into things....say NO MORE than 9 1/2" long. Stock PS is rated as follows; 400W max +5/+3.3 max 140W +12v(1) and +12v(2) max 30A NVidia has so many choices, I'm needing some suggestions. So; 1GB-RAM, short card preferred, NO extra PS connector on card needed, PCIe 16, NVidia ONLY (sorry, no ATI for me). Suggestions please? GT-220 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130522 According to this, it draws around 58W. The 8500 GT was around 40W. But that's only if you believe the information here. http://www.gpureview.com/videocards.php A check of the power numbers here, shows the estimated power consumption to be wildly optimistic. Measurements of a real card, yield 21W as the peak power consumption of GT 220. In terms of your computer, that will be coming from the 12V rail, and thus is a load of around 12V @ 2A, from the motherboard slot connector. http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...0_3.html#sect0 Based on the Xbitlabs chart, it looks like the GT 240 might meet your requirement as well, of not needing an Aux connector for power. This is an example of a GT 240 with GDDR5 RAM. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814261056 http://www.gpureview.com/GeForce-GT-...-card-619.html You can use the charts here, if you need some benchmarks. Your old card and the new card, may not appear in the same chart, so it'll take a bit of clicking, to get comparable numbers. http://www.tomshardware.com/charts Paul |
#3
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Need to upgrade an old GeForce 8500GT w/256ram
Paul,
A check of the power numbers here, shows the estimated power consumption to be wildly optimistic. Measurements of a real card, yield 21W as the peak power consumption of GT 220. In terms of your computer, that will be coming from the 12V rail, and thus is a load of around 12V @ 2A, from the motherboard slot connector. Thanks for that info, it helps. The following one you recommended is more towards what I'd like to get........ Http://www.gpureview.com/GeForce-GT-...-card-619.html That one is looking mighty good! I noticed the reviews stating these cards have an onboard audio chip, ported through the HDMI connection. I don't (yet) use the HDMI port, and my onboard MoBo audio is disabled, instead running my audio via an external Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor (USB 2.x connection) Do you see any problems with that GT 240 card's onboard audio & my setup? Maybe my current 8500GT has it too & I didn't notice as I'm not using the HDMI port? Jim L. |
#4
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Need to upgrade an old GeForce 8500GT w/256ram
a1pcfixer wrote:
Paul, A check of the power numbers here, shows the estimated power consumption to be wildly optimistic. Measurements of a real card, yield 21W as the peak power consumption of GT 220. In terms of your computer, that will be coming from the 12V rail, and thus is a load of around 12V @ 2A, from the motherboard slot connector. Thanks for that info, it helps. The following one you recommended is more towards what I'd like to get........ Http://www.gpureview.com/GeForce-GT-...-card-619.html That one is looking mighty good! I noticed the reviews stating these cards have an onboard audio chip, ported through the HDMI connection. I don't (yet) use the HDMI port, and my onboard MoBo audio is disabled, instead running my audio via an external Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor (USB 2.x connection) Do you see any problems with that GT 240 card's onboard audio & my setup? Maybe my current 8500GT has it too & I didn't notice as I'm not using the HDMI port? Jim L. When you have Audio over HDMI, then expect to find an additional selection in your Sound control panel. You may see two output devices listed, your existing USB audio device, and the new audio over HDMI (HDaudio) device. All that you have to do, is click the one you want the audio to come out on, and that should be it. Depending on your cunning with drivers, it might also be possible to disable the HDMI audio entirely, and not give it a driver. You can use Device Manager to disabled devices you don't want. But if the driver package on the CD in the video card box, insists on installing everything, you can just use the Sound control panel to sort out who gets the signal. (That would be the "path of least resistance".) This isn't the exact control panel, but it illustrates making the choice. http://webpages.charter.net/chew_toy...Audio%20-1.PNG I've found in the past, that when a sound driver installs, it tends to go to the Sound control panel, and make itself the desired choice. In your case, you'll want to undo that, so after the new card is installed, the selection will be in the wrong position for what you want. Chances are, you'll need to change it back. One other word of warning - the safe computing warning. While installing new hardware is normally a seamless, and happy experience, sometimes stuff happens. Make sure you have a backup of your C:, before installing the new card. If you have regrets later, you'll have something to restore with, and try again. I normally uninstall the existing driver, shut down, unplug the old card, plug in the new card, then use the new installer CD to do the job. I follow that method now, after filling one of my OS installs with all sorts of garbage (three different brands of video cards). To avoid too much irrelevant cruft, it helps to uninstall the existing driver, just before changing the hardware. (That way, you don't have ATI files still running on your Nvidia machine, or vice versa.) Paul |
#5
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Need to upgrade an old GeForce 8500GT w/256ram
Paul,
You may see two output devices listed, your existing USB audio device, and the new audio over HDMI (HDaudio) device. All that you have to do, is click the one you want the audio to come out on, and that should be it. Depending on your cunning with drivers, it might also be possible to disable the HDMI audio entirely, and not give it a driver Thanks for that. I'll keep an eye open for such changes, and change it back if need be. One other word of warning - the safe computing warning. While installing new hardware is normally a seamless, and happy experience, sometimes stuff happens. Make sure you have a backup of your C:, before installing the new card. If you have regrets later, you'll have something to restore with, and try again. I use Drive Image from.... http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/index.htm I normally uninstall the existing driver, shut down, unplug the old card, plug in the new card, then use the new installer CD to do the job. (That way, you don't have ATI files still running on your Nvidia machine, or vice versa.) I do the same, but also use Drive Cleaner.... http://www.drivercleaner.net/index.php ....that puppy can even clean various factory install files for ATI/nVidia from MS .cab files! Thanks for your help! |
#6
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Need to upgrade an old GeForce 8500GT w/256ram
On Mon, 17 Jan 2011 11:18:23 -0600, a1pcfixer
wrote: I'm needing to upgrade an old GeForce 8500GT w/256ram, which came stock on a Gateway Desktop GM5632E, and running Vista Ultimate, on a 24" LCD monitor. I'm thinking the solder joints are starting to fail on this old one. After being on a couple days, the display starts to disintergrate, then BSOD's to needing a cool down & reboot. It's old, outdated & time to go! I'm an old gamer (Unreal Tournament & Quake) and sometimes run my R/C flight sim (RealFlight 4.5 which likes 512MB vid RAM or more). So, top of the line vid card really isn't needed, but I'd like one with 1GB RAM, no extra PS connector required, and similar sized to what it came with would be good (about 6 3/4" Long x 4" deep). I have a little room in length before running into things....say NO MORE than 9 1/2" long. Stock PS is rated as follows; 400W max +5/+3.3 max 140W +12v(1) and +12v(2) max 30A NVidia has so many choices, I'm needing some suggestions. So; 1GB-RAM, short card preferred, NO extra PS connector on card needed, PCIe 16, NVidia ONLY (sorry, no ATI for me). Suggestions please? You kind of limit yourself with the "no extra PS connector". Your ideal card would probably be the GTX 460, which is virtually silent, sips power, runs cool and eliminates the extra connection to a sound card for the HDMI audio. |
#7
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Need to upgrade an old GeForce 8500GT w/256ram
Foke,
You kind of limit yourself with the "no extra PS connector". Your ideal card would probably be the GTX 460 That's intentional, as I'm limited by the stock P/S and size of the card, not to mention money;-( |
#8
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Need to upgrade an old GeForce 8500GT w/256ram
On Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:44:35 -0600, a1pcfixer
wrote: Foke, You kind of limit yourself with the "no extra PS connector". Your ideal card would probably be the GTX 460 That's intentional, as I'm limited by the stock P/S and size of the card, not to mention money;-( Most GTX 460's come with adapters (my EVGA card had two) to convert two 4 pin Molex connectors to the 6 pin power connector required for the card. Of course you would need 4 spare Molex connectors... It's not a very large card either, but I can see where the $100 price difference could be a show-stopper. Good luck with your search! |
#9
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Need to upgrade an old GeForce 8500GT w/256ram
Paul,
This is the card I ended up getting, which you recommended; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814261056 Ran DriveCleaner.net to TOTALLY clean out ALL old drivers and reg entries, installed card, updated to latest drivers, and all is much better now! I needed to reset the GPU fan speed. Dynamic, it didn't speed up as I felt it should during 3D gaming, and got too hot. Used vTune to set to 61% manual, and it now runs perfectly. Noise is minimal. Vista System rating overall went from 4.8 -to- 5.6 (big jump!) 3D score in that went from 5.6 -to- 5.8 Thank-you very much for your help! Jim L. |
#10
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Need to upgrade an old GeForce 8500GT w/256ram
a1pcfixer wrote:
Paul, This is the card I ended up getting, which you recommended; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814261056 Ran DriveCleaner.net to TOTALLY clean out ALL old drivers and reg entries, installed card, updated to latest drivers, and all is much better now! I needed to reset the GPU fan speed. Dynamic, it didn't speed up as I felt it should during 3D gaming, and got too hot. Used vTune to set to 61% manual, and it now runs perfectly. Noise is minimal. Vista System rating overall went from 4.8 -to- 5.6 (big jump!) 3D score in that went from 5.6 -to- 5.8 Thank-you very much for your help! Jim L. If you decide to update your Nvidia driver at a future date, continue to monitor fan operation. As long as these fans are software controlled, there will always be a danger the fan can shut off completely. You don't have to do that daily or anything - just check things after each Nvidia driver update (which shouldn't be too frequent). I can relate a little story about the fan on my Nvidia card. I dual boot Windows and Linux. For Linux, the dual boot might be a Linux LiveCD (rather than a hard drive install). The LiveCD uses a generic driver by default, and the Nvidia specific driver (as you download from Nvidia) is not included. To update the driver in a LiveCD environment, requires a reboot, after which the changes are lost. When I boot Linux that way, the video card fan runs at 100% speed. For the entire Linux session. The fan on my card, sounded like a vacuum cleaner. To fix that, I disconnected the fan from the header on the video card, and made my own control circuit for it. This isn't a solution for everyone, and I'm not advocating you do that. But that was my solution, on a low end card. You don't have to do that, except to note that purely software control of these fans is a dumb idea (when the software needed is potentially missing). I could have lived with the product unaltered, if I stayed in Windows, but I wasn't going to listen to that vacuum cleaner, because some idiot designer thought it was a good idea :-) My fan now runs at a constant speed, whether in Windows or Linux. And I no longer have to pay attention to drivers, as the fan is no longer under software control. I profiled temperatures before making the small mod, and keep within the temperature range as was implemented under software control. Paul |
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