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What do I need to know to upgrade a graphics card?

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
My new editing programs are eating themselves. I've got plenty of processor, plenty of ram and plenty of space.......the only thing left is the card. It's about half the speed of the recommended cards so this has to be it.

What do I need to know about switching out one of these beyotches? And what to buy too I guess.

Working on a PC with a dual core processor.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
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With dual-core, it's ALMOST certainly a PCI Express x16 card. I seriously doubt you can even buy a dual core machine with an AGP card.

In that case, the only thing you really need to make sure is to to buy a card that's PCI Express x16. What are the recommended cards for your applications?

Oh, and do you currently have an add-on card now or is it part of the motherboard? Your monitor jack will be either sticking out horizontally from the side of your case, or will be mixed in with all the USB ports and sound jacks and stuff.
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
Yup. Everything you said is correct.

http://kidwoo.com/images/current_card.JPG



Here's what's 'supported' so I can only assume recommended.

ATI Radeon X1950 PCI-Express Full Support
ATI Radeon X1900 PCI-Express Full Support
ATI x1900 PCI-Express Full Support Mac only
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 PCI-Express Full Support Mac only
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 PCI-Express Full Support Mac only
NVIDIA Quadro FX 55/5600 PCI-Express Full Support
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 PCI-Express Full Support
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500 PCI-Express Full Support
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500 PCI-Express Full Support
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 PCI-Express Full Support
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 PCI-Express Full Support

Looks like the first ATI options are the cheapest but there are quite a few variations on that description.

What do I look for to make sure I can get the thing in my compooter and functioning?

Still running the original card with the computer but running dual monitors......which I think is also causing some of this.
 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
no that is a 5150

Can you check for a black or white label on the top side or back. I need the service tag - its 7 alphanum characters. It pentium D series dual core I know
 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
6896K91

You need credits.......here
Danke, those are quick hookers, eh?

Looks like a P4 3GHz, not dual core - you sure?

Teh own3d joo and looked inside your system:

System Summary
Service Tag: 6896K91 Change Service Tag
System Type: Dimension 5150/E510
Ship Date: 2/25/2006
Dell IBU: Americas
Quantity Parts # Part Description
0 149DF INFORMATION..., PREPARATION MATERIAL..., DEVIATION..., PRECISION WORKSTATION..., INCREASE..., #2
0 4X388 INSTRUCTION..., PREP-MTL, DEVIATION..., DIMENSION..., INCREASE..., NUMBER...
1 W8400 PROCESSOR..., 80547, PENTIUM 4 PRESCOTT DT..., 630, SKT-T, MALE...
1 W7658 KEYBOARD..., 104, UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS..., UNITED STATES..., ENTRY..., NMB..., LEAD FREE...
1 X7636 MOUSE..., UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS..., 2BTN, LEAD FREE..., ENTRY..., LOGITECH..., MIDNIGHT GRAY...
2 D6492 DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE..., 256, 533, 32X64, 8, 240, 1RX16
1 M9753 ASSEMBLY..., DVD+/-RW..., 16X, IDE (INTEGRATED DRIVE ELECTRONICS) ..., PHILIPS..., CHASSIS 2005...
1 Y8365 CARD (CIRCUIT)..., GRAPHICS..., X300, SERVER ENHANCED..., MRMGA9A
1 CJ281 DISPLAY..., FLAT PANEL DISPLAY..., 19, E196FPB, MIDNIGHT GRAY..., DELL AMERICAS ORGANIZATION..., FLAT PANNEL IN BOX...
1 XD673 HARD DRIVE..., 80GB, S2, 7.2K, 8M, LEAD FREE..., SAMSUNG...
1 CD940 KIT..., SOFTWARE..., WORDPERFECT..., 12, PLUS-TRIAL
WTF does the bolded section mean :huh: :D
 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
Oh yeah, email the company about supported graphics cards just to double check - 8800 series has various models.

The new 8800 GT and GS have an updated G92 core vs the G80 in the old 8800 series cards...
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
Roger on the power supply.

Thanks man. I owe you.

I've been having to restart my compooter multiple times just to use premiere pro.


It's saturday. Now go get drinky. I am.


Hear that BV.........syadasti just pwnt jooos!!!



Wait....one more thing. I should be okay with this card even though it's not on that adobe list of supported models right? That list is just ones that they've tested probably?

Email sent regardless to adobe


http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/search_result.html?manuSearchVar=1&modelSearchVar=0&supportSearchVar=0&brand=&dataFormat=&version=CS3&device=graphic&format=
 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
I had crappy new berry weis from leuik's (or whatever that weird beer company is called) and a newcastle already.

I have guiness, beamish, and corona in the beer fridge.

I haven't bought beer in months...since 2007. Sometimes I just stop drinking it for no reason at all...
 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
One thing I noticed in the pron shots of your computer is that the x16 slot is pretty close to the CPU cooling setup. Since the 8800GS is single slot cooling clearance will be good:





Dual slot requires trimming like e13 (the Asus is a dual slot cooler setup):

I have a Dell 5150 (basically an inexpensive Dell workstation). I upgraded the 305W PS with an off the shelf (From CompUSA) Antec 550W Trio power supply. No problems

...

ASUS X1950PRO that I added into the computer (btw you have to trim the vid cards fan casing if you get this card and use it in the 5150. The stock CPU heatsink's fan shroud gets in the way as the PCIE slot is placed a bit too close to the PCIE slot.
 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
No it says 8800 full support but there are two versions of the GPU core its based on. The 8800GS has the newer G92 which is mostly just a die shrink so I think you should be good. It also has PureVideo 2 engine for video playback goodness over the old ones [GPU assisted decoding of the H.264 and VC-1 codecs] and PCI Express 2.0 Support (meaningless for your system).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_8_Series#GeForce_8800
 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
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syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
It means nothing to you since your hardware is old. It means nothing now as no system can use the extra bandwidth anyways...

PCI-SIG announced the availability of the PCI Express Base 2.0 specification on 15 January 2007.[4] PCIe 2.0 doubles the bus standard's bandwidth from 2.5 Gbit/s to 5 Gbit/s, meaning a x32 connector can transfer data at up to 16 GB/s in each direction.

PCIe 2.0 is completely backwards compatible with PCIe v1.x. Graphic cards and motherboards designed for v2.0 will be able to work with v1.1 and v1.0, and vice versa.

The PCI-SIG also said PCIe 2.0 also features improvements to the point-to-point data transfer protocol and its software architecture.[5]

In June 2007 Intel released the specification of the P35 chipset which does not support PCIe 2.0 only PCIe 1.1.[6] Some people may be confused by the P35 block diagram[7] which states the Intel P35 has a PCIe x16 graphics link (8 GB/s) and 6 PCIe x1 links (500 MB/s each), for simple verification one can view the P965 block diagram which shows the same number of lanes and bandwidth but was released before PCIe 2.0 was finalized. Intel's first PCIe 2.0 capable chipset is the X38 and boards are already shipping from various vendors (Abit, Asus, Gigabyte) as of October 21, 2007.[8] AMD started supporting PCIe 2.0 with its RD700 chipset series. NVIDIA has revealed that the MCP72 will be their first PCIe 2.0 equipped chipset.
 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
Also you can probably go 3650 if you like too without a PSU upgrade. Its basically the updated version of the 2600. It doesn't quite have the same processing power as the 2600 XT but its on par, however the drivers might not be as mature. It cost slightly more since its the newer release - only consider the DDR3 version. So basically the 2600XT I mentioned earlier or if you check the Premiere forums and they give a good reason for 3000 series, this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102725

http://www.hothardware.com/articles/ATI_Radeon_HD_Refresh_3650_and_3450_Arrive/?page=2