[RESOLVED] Advice on a graphics board

[Znupi]

I currently have a Asus ATI Radeon X550 (512MB DDR2) graphics card. It's getting a bit old (2-3 years) and new(ish) games are having problems (not only they only work with everything turned down, they also flicker and show black areas and things like that) -- for example Need for Speed Undercover. Thus, I'm thinking of getting a new graphics card. Here's one I have found so far: Gigabyte GeForce 8400GS (the site is in Romanian, but you can understand what the specs are. I know it's not top-of-the-line, but I'm hoping it will work better than this one and that it will better support some of the newer games.

Also, another concern is Linux compatibility (as I use Linux for daily activities). I'll look this up myself, but if anyone has any experience with this card and Linux, please share.

[Midknyte]

Start by checking out this article:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...card,2387.html

Tell us your system specs also.

[Znupi]

Thanks for the article, I'll read it after some sleep (it's 1 AM over here).

My system specs:
Intel Pentium DualCore @ 2.80Ghz
2.5 GB DDR2 (1x 512MB, 1x 2GB)
Gigabyte 945GCMX-S2 Motherboard
Western Digital 160GB HDD WD1600JB-00R (looking to get a 1TB Caviar Green)

Anything else you need to know, let me know.

[Znupi]

Reading through your article, I found a new one, a Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB DDR3. It's certainly better because it is double the price (around $88). Is it good for that price? Will newer games work on it?

Edit: This one looks much better, and it's only $85.5: Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 512MB GDDR4. I didn't even know there was such a thing as GDDR4, I thought the latest was 3.

Let me know what you think, please.

[glussier]

The hd4670 is much better than the 8400gs, and you should be able to play all current games with it.

The hd4670 with gddr4 is faster by roughly 5%, than the model with gddr3.

[Znupi]

Thank you for your responses. I'm currently waiting for an e-mail from my motherboard vendor to let me know whether it supports PCIe x16 2.0 or not. Anyway, I found the HD4670 with both PCIe 2.0 and 1.0 versions with 512MB DDR3 (for PCIe 1.0) and 512MB DDR4 (for PCIe 2.0). From what I understand they are both as good?

Again, thanks for all your advice.

[glussier]

The card with ddr4 is better. Note that the Sapphire hd4670, even if it's a pcie-2 card would still work on a pci-e 1 slot.

[Znupi]

The card with ddr4 is better. Note that the Sapphire hd4670, even if it's a pcie-2 card would still work on a pci-e 1 slot.

Really? I thought only PCIe 1 cards worked in PCIe 2 slots, but not vice versa. Interesting, thank you!

[glussier]

Contrary to nvidia most pcie-2 cards are backward compatible to pcie 1.

[Znupi]

Just for the heck of it, here's an exchange of e-mails with Gigabyte Support (bear in mind it's a Taiwanese company). I'm still unsure whether my motherboard has a PCI-E 2.0 slot or not, as their last e-mail is very un-clarifying. Read from the bottom up:

[glussier]

Your motherboard has pcie-x version 1 slots, but, like I said before, both ATI cards will work fine on it.

[Znupi]

Your motherboard has pcie-x version 1 slots, but, like I said before, both ATI cards will work fine on it.

Now that's more clear :P thank you for all your responses. Thread solved.

[glussier]

Tell us what you think of the hd4670, I think you'll be amazed at the performance vs the cost of these cards.

[Znupi]

Tell us what you think of the hd4670, I think you'll be amazed at the performance vs the cost of these cards.

I will, but there might be a while until I get it, as I'm currently broke, but I should be getting a part-time job soon as a developer and system administrator (I'm 18, so nothing is certain right now ).