Best Low Profile Card?

[bluemax]

Originally posted by: Selbatrim
The egg has listened to you http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102829 Currently at US$54.99 which probably makes it worth my while getting one in from overseas...

The wait does at least seem to be over... or nearly over...

GAH! And as if to taunt me.... it's in Newegg USA but not Canada. Oh well... soon. Very soon.

 

[northtexan95]

I've been following this thread for a few weeks since I ordered a Dell Vostro 220s (slim). I've always built my computers in the past but since I do enough of that at work I wanted something small and quiet that I could use for a few games.

I wanted to let y'all know that I've just ordered the 4650 from Newegg using the link from Selbatrim. I should have it up and running this weekend. If anyone has any questions about it or would like me to do some kind of testing I'll be glad to help out.

Unfortunately I don't have any of the latest games (except for the XBox 360). Probably the most taxing game I have would be FarCry or Total War Rome.

My new Vostro is a dual core 2.8 with 2GB of ram (which I'll upgrade later). It's replacing a Quad Core 2.4 which I'll be using for other purposes.

 

[soghol]

Originally posted by: bluemax

Originally posted by: Selbatrim
The egg has listened to you http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102829 Currently at US$54.99 which probably makes it worth my while getting one in from overseas...

The wait does at least seem to be over... or nearly over...

GAH! And as if to taunt me.... it's in Newegg USA but not Canada. Oh well... soon. Very soon.

Here you go: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/P...x?Item=N82E16814131151

 

[bluemax]

Originally posted by: soghol
Here you go: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/P...x?Item=N82E16814131151

Oh suuuure... You Americans get the awesome Sapphire card while we Canadians get the crappy PowerColor one!

 

[L1mit]

I've been following this thread for a week or so myself, and am very intrigued by some of your responses.

I've had the Galaxy 8600GT LP for over a year now, and it's served me well. I'm looking for an upgrade and the only thing I can find that seems to be without b/s with wattage etc is the 4650 HD by Powercolor/Sapphire.

I'm Canadian too(and proud) so the sapphire is out for now. Is the Powercolor worth it? They have it on newegg in stock and I could get it but I'd like at least one solid review if possible.

If you have any questions about the performance of my 8600gt let me know. There's plenty of people out there with LP machines and plenty of people who want to run games among other things on them without having to get new cases and power supplies.

 

[exar333]

Originally posted by: Selbatrim

Originally posted by: ExarKun333

The "Logical" choice would be to grab an Nvidia card instead of ditching the case.

Your "experience" is saying not to get the 9600GT....

Thank you ExarKun333. That was extremely helpful. While we are nitpicking it I'd contend that it is logical to me as my experience is less than satisfactory with Nvidia chips and the fastest way for me to get a 4670 (which was the one I really wanted) would be to get a new case. Anyway, please, buy Nvidia chips till your hearts content. I'm not really a fanboy of either as previously stated.

But no, I'm hanging on to my Antec Minuet and my next card will not be Nvidia. In fact, I'm picking up a 3450. Then it's off to see the wizard of oz and hope I can get hybrid crossfire to work properly. Getting the card used and cheap and then I'll do as Bluemax suggested and wait. They might even release a 4670 at some point. Then happy will I be.

I feel your pain bluemax... hope the card arrives soon!

I hope you don't plan to game with that 3450; that is a very slow card (since this is a low profile/GAMING thread).

 

[northtexan95]

This was my goal: get a small, quiet PC for the office that can that will handle the light office work and browsing but also be able to play most games well.

Last week I received my Vostro 220s. It's small, it's quiet, and at 2.8 it's quick for light office stuff at home. Here's what's amazing: the computer is located in a small cabinet with little airflow but it doesn't get hot. In fact, the rear fans still blow out kinda cool air. By 2.4 Quad computer I built would be roasting hotdogs if I put it in the same cabinet.

Friday I added the Sapphire 4650 slimline card. The card is small and very quiet. I've heard it rev up a few times but I think that's gone away since I installed the latest drivers.

I don't have any of the latest computer games that most sites use for testing and I didn't have a lot of time to play with it. However, I logged onto my machine for work this morning (slow day) and installed the Passmark Software (www.passmark.com) Performance Software (free eval).

Let me know what you think of the results. I hope this info is helpful.

***********************************

PassMark(TM) PerformanceTest 7.0 Evaluation Version (http://www.passmark.com)
Results generated on: Monday, March 30, 2009

Benchmark Results

Test Name: This Computer
CPU - Integer Math: 261.1
CPU - Floating Point Math: 973.1
CPU - Find Prime Numbers: 722.3
CPU - Multimedia Instructions: 6.7
CPU - Compression: 3053.3
CPU - Encryption: 8.6
CPU - Physics: 122.9
CPU - String Sorting: 1630.4
Graphics 2D - Solid Vectors: 3.5
Graphics 2D - Transparent Vectors: 3.4
Graphics 2D - Complex Vectors: 89.4
Graphics 2D - Fonts and Text: 108.0
Graphics 2D - Windows Interface: 116.1
Graphics 2D - Image Filters: 319.4
2D Graphics - Image Rendering: 196.3
Graphics 3D - Simple: 427.4
Graphics 3D - Medium: 177.8
Graphics 3D - Complex: 48.1
Graphics 3D - DirectX 10: 3.0
Memory - Allocate Small Block: 2121.4
Memory - Read Cached: 2065.7
Memory - Read Uncached: 1332.5
Memory - Write: 1540.4
Memory - Large RAM: 524.1
Disk - Sequential Read: 76.4
Disk - Sequential Write: 75.5
Disk - Random Seek + RW: 4.1
CPU Mark: 1956.2
2D Graphics Mark: 441.4
Memory Mark: 575.3
Disk Mark: 564.3
3D Graphics Mark: 391.2
PassMark Rating: 949.7

System information: This Computer
CPU Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
Number of CPU: 1
Cores per CPU: 2
CPU Type: Intel Core2 Duo E7400 @ 2.80GHz
CPU Speed: 2438.6 MHz
Cache size: 3072KB
O/S: Windows Vista (32-bit)
Total RAM: 2046.3 MB.
Available RAM: 1001.8 MB.
Video settings: 1680x1050x32
Video driver:
DESCRIPTION: ATI Radeon HD 4650
MANUFACTURER: ATI Technologies Inc.
BIOS: 11X-2E109000-02A

 

[exar333]

Look's like a nice setup. It would be great to see some real-world benchmarks once you get your hands on a few games. That 4650 should be able to game pretty well at your resolution of 1680x1050.

Nice system.

 

[Selbatrim]

Originally posted by: ExarKun333

Originally posted by: Selbatrim

But no, I'm hanging on to my Antec Minuet and my next card will not be Nvidia. In fact, I'm picking up a 3450. Then it's off to see the wizard of oz and hope I can get hybrid crossfire to work properly. Getting the card used and cheap and then I'll do as Bluemax suggested and wait. They might even release a 4670 at some point. Then happy will I be.

I feel your pain bluemax... hope the card arrives soon!

I hope you don't plan to game with that 3450; that is a very slow card (since this is a low profile/GAMING thread).

Originally posted by: Selbatrim

O await derisive comments aplenty as I didn't get my hands on the 3450 after all.

ExarKun333... Didn't plan on doing much gaming on it no... didn't plan on using it alone either. The only reason I considered the 3450 as an interim solution (which I hope I made clear) is that it can do hybrid crossfire. Now, on a 1440x900 resolution you'd be surprised that you can happily play the likes of half-life 2 on the integrated 780g alone with fairly high settings. Anyway, not sure why you feel like picking on me but no matter. I have received the same 4650 as northtexan95 from Sapphire It's sitting on my desk in my office... taunting me... telling me to fake an illness or something so I can leave work...

I'll see if I can post some benchies myself soon.

 

[northtexan95]

I downloaded the BioShock demo to test my Sapphire 4650 (my computer specs are a few posts above this). I used FRAPS (fraps.com) to measure the fps.

First of all, I have been unable to use the ATI Overdrive to overclock the card. I've seen several reviews where guys have been able to overclock the full size 4650 to 650 gpu / 100 memory but I was unable to.

It defaulted to 600 gpu / 400 memory. I used the auto tune and it changed to 765 gpu / 485 memory and it seemed to work fine until I started BioShock and the screen went crazy and the computer rebooted. I tried several combinations and sometimes BioShock would run for a few minutes but would eventually crash. So I would up leaving it at the defaults. I'll be interested to see if someone else has better luck overclocking.

BIOSHOCK - all graphics turned up to high
1680 x 1050: averaged about 25 fps.
1440 x 900: averaged about 30-35 fps.
1280 x 1024: averaged about 35 fps.
1280 x 720: averaged about 40 fps.

So the fps isn't what I would like but even at 25 fps I didn't really notice a problem. For the amount I played it was still pretty smooth.

One other note ... the card is quiet all the time.

 

[L1mit]

Do my eyes deceive me?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/P...x?Item=N82E16814102829

ITS ON CANADA'S SITE NOW!!

WOO!

I actually e-mailed them and said "Why isn't on Canada's site? lol. Guess it worked.

 

[bluemax]

Originally posted by: L1mit
Do my eyes deceive me?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/P...x?Item=N82E16814102829

ITS ON CANADA'S SITE NOW!!

WOO!

I actually e-mailed them and said "Why isn't on Canada's site? lol. Guess it worked.

I've been pushing for a while, too. The more voices, the more we get what we ask for. Good price, too!

 

[Selbatrim]

Originally posted by: northtexan95
First of all, I have been unable to use the ATI Overdrive to overclock the card. I've seen several reviews where guys have been able to overclock the full size 4650 to 650 gpu / 100 memory but I was unable to.

It defaulted to 600 gpu / 400 memory. I used the auto tune and it changed to 765 gpu / 485 memory and it seemed to work fine until I started BioShock and the screen went crazy and the computer rebooted. I tried several combinations and sometimes BioShock would run for a few minutes but would eventually crash. So I would up leaving it at the defaults. I'll be interested to see if someone else has better luck overclocking.

Hi northtexan95.

The autotune is a bit... optimistic I think. It gave me GPU 765 and mem 500. This couldn't complete a 3dMark06 run. So back to what I normally do which is manual tweaking. I'd recommend you try memory first. Leave the GPU at the default 600 and see how far the ram can go. If autotune said 485 you might start ram at 440 then move up 10 by 10 until it fails then bring it back down 10-20 which should be pretty much rock solid. Then do GPU. this is going to be less important (from my findings) but something is something.

Mine is currently GPU 660 (work in progress) and Ram 485. These settings complete a 3dmark06 run but as my life is not my own I haven't had time to put it through longer stress testing yest. I'm at work so haven't got my results, but have lifted my 3dmark06 score by about 1000 points by overclocking so far (ram overclocking giving the best results).

Good luck and let us know how you go.

 

[Selbatrim]

No no no no nooooooooooo.... For me that is.... http://www.apollovcard.com/Pro...-HD4650_512MB_DDR3.htm

Low profile 4650 with DDR3 Ram... Ok, so I'll admit to not knowing much about Apollo as a manufacturer but here it is... a better one. I suppose the 1400mhz ram is in fact 2 x 700mhz and the Sapphire and Powercolor are 800mhz or 2 x 400. Anyone who's game to get the Apollo please let us know how it runs.

 

[IndigoAtaxia]

Yes Newegg has it. $20 extra for DDR3 ram, seems resonable. Stinks if you've already ordered the DDR2.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814140107