help choose graphics card

[masterofinsanity]

Can someone help me with graphics card selection please, i had a 9500gt 1gb installed giving a windows base score of 4.9 & furmark score of 203, i thought a HD 5450 would be better but the windows base score and furmark scores dropped to 4.3 and 142 ? i have the option of a HD4870 also

what are your opinions, specs are in my sig and i use it mainly for the internet.don't play games.

 

[oneseraph]

Can someone help me with graphics card selection please, i had a 9500gt 1gb installed giving a windows base score of 4.9 & furmark score of 203, i thought a HD 5450 would be better but the windows base score and furmark scores dropped to 4.3 and 142 ? i have the option of a HD4870 also

what are your opinions, specs are in my sig and i use it mainly for the internet.don't play games.

Any of the cards you mentioned are more than up to the task of surfing the web. If you use windows vista or windows 7 the 5450 has the advantage of being DX 11 compliant. Unfortunately it is the least powerful of the cards you mentioned. Of the cards you mentioned the the 4870 is by far the most powerful. If my options were truly limited to the cards you have mentioned that is the one I would choose.

May I make a suggestion, if you have 75-80 GBP or about 110 US dollars to spend. The Radeon HD 6770 is very attractive for a variety of reasons. First it has Blu-ray 3D decode support plus a full implementation of the "unified video decoder" . Second it is fully DX 11 complaint so all of windows vista / 7 UI acceleration features are supported. That should improve your windows base score quite a bit. I suppose in your case as an added bonus is if you want to try a game, it will give Good 1920x1200 performance in most games, some with lowered detail. If your display is 1680x1050 you should get excellent performance across the board.

Hope this helped

 

[masterofinsanity]

thanks thats great , i was looking at gpureview.com when trying to make a decision and thought the 5450 seemed the best but don't really know what i'm looking at when comparing, think i will get the 4870 and try that.

 

[oneseraph]

thanks thats great , i was looking at gpureview.com when trying to make a decision and thought the 5450 seemed the best but don't really know what i'm looking at when comparing, think i will get the 4870 and try that.

My pleasure, Glad to be of help.

 

[masterofinsanity]

Oh dear ! bought the HD4870 now its gonna cost me as i need to buy a new psu lol think i should have stuck with the 9500gt

 

[S_I_N]

ur 550watter should be fine as long as it has 2 6pin pci-e cables if not the card should come with molex to pci-e adapters. Power req's for the 4870 is 500 watts

 

[masterofinsanity]

aaaah i only have 1 x 6 pin power connector, can i get a molex adaptor then cool!!

 

[yassarikhan786]

An adapter is not recommended, but with the 4870 I'm sure you won't have a problem, although I'm not certain.

 

[alienware]

It would all depend on the way the PSU distributes its amp load.

Put it this way.

Your PSU has one PCIE connector for a reason. Not because they were too tight to put another one on there and want you to go and get an adapter to use the molex power plugs.

It's most probably because that is how much ampage your PSU feels safe putting out.

 

[S_I_N]

did a quick google of ur psu and its only 30amp on a single 12v rail might look at something a tad beefier.

 

[masterofinsanity]

Put it this way.

Your PSU has one PCIE connector for a reason. Not because they were too tight to put another one on there and want you to go and get an adapter to use the molex power plugs.

and they sell molex to pci-e adaptors for a reason eh lol

it will suffice until i buy a new psu, at the worse i guess the psu will die

 

[masterofinsanity]

i'm pretty bloody chuffed with this HD4870, cheers for the help guys!!