Graphics card - easy to change?

WilliC

Although seeing the rest of the PC spec, having anything over a 7xxx GFX card would be a little pointless as it would bottleneck at the CPU?

Mobeer

WilliC wrote: »

Although seeing the rest of the PC spec, having anything over a 7xxx GFX card would be a little pointless as it would bottleneck at the CPU?

Tom's Hardware considered this very processor and with a similar graphics card:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/radeon-4650-agp,review-31659.html
General finding was that the 4650 did help compared to using an old graphics card, but that going much beyond this was going specification of graphics card would become CPU limited.

secret_tramp

Thank you everyone for your replies so far - you have certainly provided some food for thought.

I understand very little, but was hoping to surprise him for his birthday.

I'm wondering whether or not this is outside of my capability and I should get my son to read all the info and make the decision himself.

For what it's worth I have already managed to upgrade the memory to 3036mb.

secret_tramp

I have re-read the thread and tried to make some sense of the links. One or two may as well have been written in Chinese. :eek:

I will try and double check that the PSU is 300 and that there is a spare slot before going any further. Thanks once again everybody - I will report back in a day or two.

secret_tramp

I have had a quick look into the Radeon HD4670.

Couple of quick questions:

Ebuyer's site - when you search HD4670 and click on it the HD4650 comes up instead. This may be a stupid question but that's different isn't it?

Scan hardware failed to find it

Dabs - has got various. 1gb at £56.25, but then I got really confused because there were 3 versions of 512mb at £53.96, £53.19 and £57.43. What would be the most suitable?

Sorry everyone, I told you I was hopeless.

Alternatively if anyone can suggest a better graphics card for the money.

JasX

secret_tramp wrote: »

I have had a quick look into the Radeon HD4670.

Couple of quick questions:

Ebuyer's site - when you search HD4670 and click on it the HD4650 comes up instead. This may be a stupid question but that's different isn't it?

Scan hardware failed to find it

Dabs - has got various. 1gb at £56.25, but then I got really confused because there were 3 versions of 512mb at £53.96, £53.19 and £57.43. What would be the most suitable?

Sorry everyone, I told you I was hopeless.

Alternatively if anyone can suggest a better graphics card for the money.

Yes, 4650 is different but Ebuyer does have a few 4670s:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150861
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/171659
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169491
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169039
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161825
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150349
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151908

There will be several listed, this is beacuse 'HD 4670' is just the base design/specification the major graphics card designer sets (ATI in this case, Nvidia do the same for their cards)

The cards are then actually made by various other graphics card design companies each adding their own set of tweaks/features for example some will add a cooler with a fan (better cooling but noisier) some will add one without, some may try to 'factory overclock' the base design card clock speed, there may be differences in warranty offered and general customer service levels if you do need to return direct to manufacturer.

Important thing is generally at this level the differences will be small and not critical unless a particular company has really messed up with their specific implimentation (which hopefully reading the reviews or googling the specific card name with the word 'problem' will warn you of)

financequest

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512Mb-Sapphire-HD-4670-DDR3 £54 Scan Computers

-TangleFoot-

Alternatively, £51.75 @ Kustom PCs. Or £52.92 @ Ebuyer with free delivery... provided there's enough room in the case.