Looking to Upgrade from an a Geforce 8600GT (512mb)

I'm looking to upgrade a Nvidia Geforce 8600GT 512mb single slot PCI-e on my Acer Tesco Box.

I've been reading lots of posts about the 9800 being a good upgrade choice and it kinda fits my £100 budget.

I have a double slot potential

An comments would be welcome..

The HD4770 is faster than a 9800GT and has lower power consumption so you maybe able to run it off the PSU you have already although you maybe pushing it:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?ASU-4770

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?XFX-4770

You maybe able to get away with one of the few bus powered 9800GT cards:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166184

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168738

However even this may strain the PSU in the Acer as they tend to be built to spec. If it has similar power requirements to your 8600GT then go for it. The only card I could reccommend safely would be an HD4670 and this would be much faster than an HD4670 and will have similar power requirements:

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?sort=pr...imit=10&page=1

9xxx series cards are essentially the same as the 8xxx also.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Terbinator

9xxx series cards are essentially the same as the 8xxx also.

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True,but the bus powered 9800GT cards have reduced clocks when compared to the standard cards which need a PCI-E power connector which most budget PCs probably don't have. Also most of the cheap pre-built PCs have very low wattage PSUs too which barely do the job at hand.

To the OP you could always get a better PSU so you can get a better graphics card.

For example I would get the following:

Silverpower 400w PSU ~ £29

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/400w-...ed-cooling-fan

Silverpower is part of Tagan and make solid budget units.

Scan also have free postage for Hexus members with over 20 posts on orders over £20 excluding VAT.

I would also get the following HD4850:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?SAP-4850VX

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

Silverpower 400w PSU ~ £29

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Luckily It's already got a 400w PSU...but it has got 2 HDDs and 2 Optical drives (incl Blu Ray)

Thanks

Can I ask whicc one of these you'd got for and what sort of boost I'd get (just rough %age)

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?sort=pr...imit=10&page=1

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aeonf242

Luckily It's already got a 400w PSU...but it has got 2 HDDs and 2 Optical drives (incl Blu Ray)

Thanks

Can I ask whicc one of these you'd got for and what sort of boost I'd get (just rough %age)

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?sort=pr...imit=10&page=1

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I would have to know the make too as not all 400w PSUs are created equally and many cheaper ones can be quite ropey.

If you have good ventilation in the case I would get the following:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158546

Some of the HD4670 cards have slower DDR3 RAM and not the faster GDDR3 RAM!!

If noise is not an issue then this card will do the job:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158995

These reviews compare the 9500GT to the HD4670:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...review-10.html

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3405&p=7

The 9500GT is basically a rebadged 8600GT with lower power consumption.

Thanks for all the advice, I went for the £79.99 PowerColor HD 4850 PCS 512MB from ebuyer in the end.

Didn’t realise my previous 512mb card was actually a 256mb card stealing 256mb of system RAM!