Help me pick the right card

[Werne]

Alright, I found a low-profile card plugged into the Acer Aspire X1300 (also with a 220W PSU), which gives us the approximate card size we should be looking for and how much room there is for the card.

 

With the card inserted:

http://icrontic.com/uploads/features/2012/08/SAPPHIRE-Low-Profile-HD-7750-in-a-Mini-ITX-case.jpg

 

Without the card:

http://icrontic.com/uploads/features/2012/08/Sapphire7750review_0757.jpg

 

The card in that thing is the Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 I linked in my first reply, it fits in perfectly. There's not much room there it seems, and judging by what I can see it's true that only the low-profile ones can fit, that doesn't give much room in the way of upgrading.

Edited October 18, 2013 by Werne

[Ironman5000]

That is the exact mobo setup I have there werne and it has 220w PSU, so this 7750 would be best for me then? I'd be happy to pay for this (£63 for me) if it is the best I can get. Do I need a specific type of card with specific specs or is the one linked suitable?

 

Like I said I know I have some tight restrictions but i'm not looking for anything amazing or top of the range, just want to give it a boost which i'm happy with :and If I want the latest games i'll go for a PS3 :) I use this mostly for modding any and I have utilities and mods to help my games runs well enough.

[Werne]

As I said, I can't think of any other low-profile card matching the speed of Radeon 7750, there's one model of Zotac GeForce GTX 650 that's a single-slot card but the heatsink seems too big to fit in there. So the 7750 is pretty much the best performing card you can fit inside that thing. There's a GT 640 which cuts close but it draws 10W more, on a 220W PSU 10W is a lot so I wouldn't risk it. Now, the PSU is still kinda iffy with an AMD CPU and all, but seeing as how my PC didn't go over 250W with a 125W FX 8320 and 80W 7770, your PSU should provide enough power for a 95W CPU and 55W GPU, even Thor's calculator says a 220W PSU is adequate.

 

Just don't expect to run ultra graphics settings with HD textures and ENBs in Skyrim on that thing, though I think you kinda figured that out already. :wink:

 

No special specs needed, only requirement is being low-profile, meaning that the heatsink shouldn't exceed the height of the front metal cover, exceeding it by 1-2mm is acceptable. Low-profile 7750s all have the same power draw, except the OC ones and latest chip series, but the one I linked is a 55W TDP card. The Sapphire one seems the best in my opinion, there's also a VisionTek, Diamond and PowerColor 7750s but those manufacturers are unknown to me, Sapphire is generally a good manufacturer in my book.

 

Performance-wise, 7750 should be quite the boost over 4250, around 400% over the 6450 so I'd say it'll bring some 500-550% over your current graphics. :smile:

 

 

 

Also, and I have to say it, there's a lesson to be learned here - don't buy a PC with a damn small case next time. :tongue:

Edited October 18, 2013 by Werne

[Rennn]

 

Performance-wise, 7750 should be quite the boost over 4250, around 400% over the 6450 so I'd say it'll bring some 500-550% over your current graphics. :smile:

 

Also, and I have to say it, there's a lesson to be learned here - don't buy a PC with a damn small case next time. :tongue:

 

After seeing how tight of a fit the case is, I'm inclined to retract my suggestions and agree with Werne. A GTX 650 or GT 640 GC might be too wide.

The Sapphire HD 7750 that Werne linked to in his original post performs surprisingly well. That specific model of 7750 benchmarks somewhat better than a GTX 550 TI with a very low power draw, and will likely be your best option.

 

And yes, a 7750 would be a pretty big increase in performance over your old card. Sapphire is a reliable company as well.

 

 

 

As for general driver optimization if you get a 7750...

I'm sorry if you already know this, it's just some people don't really understand what provides the best IQ/performance ratio on medium-grade cards, so I usually give some advice on threads like this.

 

-AMD allows driver MLAA now, right? That'll be your best antialiasing solution on a mid-range card like the 7750. 2x MSAA also isn't a big framerate hit in most games. I imagine you're not used to AA anyway, since your old card isn't strong enough for any in most games.

 

-You should be able to keep mipmap detail in your AMD drivers at 'Quality'. Even I had the performance for that when I had a 512MB HD 5440.

 

-I'd recommend 8x driver Anisotropic Filtering in games as well, for the ideal mix of performance/quality.

 

-Keep vsync disabled. Use a free program called D3DOverride for vsync.

Edited October 18, 2013 by Rennn

[Ironman5000]

Then it's settled i'm gonna order the one you linked Werne :smile:

Performance-wise, 7750 should be quite the boost over 4250, around 400% over the 6450 so I'd say it'll bring some 500-550% over your current graphics. :smile:

WOW! That's one hell of an improvement, never expected to be able to get this much of an upgrade *happy dancing*

Also, and I have to say it, there's a lesson to be learned here - don't buy a PC with a damn small case next time. :tongue:

Lol! Tell me about it, I knew my technical ignorance would let me down when I bought it I just got excited about the 2tb hard drive I guess. I've learned quite a bit over all this so I know better for next time.

As for general driver optimization if you get a 7750...
I'm sorry if you already know this, it's just some people don't really understand what provides the best IQ/performance ratio on medium-grade cards, so I usually give some advice on threads like this.

-AMD allows driver MLAA now, right? That'll be your best antialiasing solution on a mid-range card like the 7750. 2x MSAA also isn't a big framerate hit in most games. I imagine you're not used to AA anyway, since your old card isn't strong enough for any in most games.

-You should be able to keep mipmap detail in your AMD drivers at 'Quality'. Even I had the performance for that when I had a 512MB HD 5440.

-I'd recommend 8x driver Anisotropic Filtering in games as well, for the ideal mix of performance/quality.

-Keep vsync disabled. Use a free program called D3DOverride for vsync.

No I didn't know that, it would have been very much a case of hit and hope with the settings...my usual method until now :laugh:
Thanks for the advice I will have to bookmark and refer back this once it's all installed, can't wait to finally get some AA and AS as I normally just disable them to get my games playable to half decent fps (I bet sound like i'm from the past!)

Can't thank you guys enough this is exactly the help I needed and and more :D

[Thor.]

Your welcome :armscrossed:

[Ironman5000]

I was thanking everyone in the thread thor, but that I get that it wasn't totally clear since I quoted werne and rennn in the last post.

Edited October 18, 2013 by Ironman5000

[Werne]

WOW! That's one hell of an improvement, never expected to be able to get this much of an upgrade *happy dancing*

Yeah, AMD hit the spot with the 7700 series, budget gaming cards with relatively low power draw that can have a decent price/performance ratio. 7750 is not the very best of cards (hell, it's a budget card) but it coughs up decent performance for it's price and size, enough to play BF3 at 30FPS on medium/high. :smile:

 

Also, and I have to say it, there's a lesson to be learned here - don't buy a PC with a damn small case next time. :tongue:

Lol! Tell me about it, I knew my technical ignorance would let me down when I bought it I just got excited about the 2tb hard drive I guess. I've learned quite a bit over all this so I know better for next time.

Reminds me of the time I bought my old PC, there were two computers, one with a single-core CPU and one with a dual-core. I was like "woah, two cores :woot:" so I completely missed the fact that a single-core comes with a Radeon 4850 instead of 4350. Learned my lesson that time.

 

can't wait to finally get some AA and AS as I normally just disable them to get my games playable to half decent fps (I bet sound like i'm from the past!)

Coming from a 4350, I still keep anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering disabled, game looks too strange when those are on. :laugh:

[Rennn]

 

can't wait to finally get some AA and AS as I normally just disable them to get my games playable to half decent fps (I bet sound like i'm from the past!)

Coming from a 4350, I still keep anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering disabled, game looks too strange when those are on. :laugh:

 

 

:blink:

 

I always use 4x SSAA and 16x AF at a 1080p native res. *bragging*

I'm evidently not very sensitive to framerates because I barely see a difference from 30 fps to 60 fps, so I always cap at 30, but I am extremely jaggy sensitive. If something isn't perfectly sharp and anti-aliased my eyes start to hate me.

 

On the bright side, not noticing a significant difference from 30 to 60 fps saves me massive amounts of performance, which I can transfer into better graphics and more supersampling.

 

 

When I had an HD 5440 I always disabled AA of course. I went with 4x AF when I could run it, but usually that got cut down to trilinear or 2x AF.

Edited October 19, 2013 by Rennn

[Thor.]

Renn with Nvidia the one thing i missed about them cards was adaptive v.sync. You could play the game with the fps untouched and yet not have screen tearing. I always have max aa :yes:

Edited October 19, 2013 by Thor.