Will I benefit from a new graphic card?

[unifex]

Accidentally I came across prices for graphic cards today. Turns out, for relatively small money, I can significantly upgrade my graphic card. At the moment, I am running ATI HD 2600 XT. The question is, what happens if I replace it by, say ATI Radeon HD 4650? Not top of the line (hence small money), but clearly newer than mine. Will I actually benefit from such upgrade? For background, I don't play games and I watch my videos on my TV, so if I watch anything on the PC, it's only to make sure I understand what is actually in the file.

 

[Lunarpancake]

chances are you would not benefit much from this upgrade.

 

[mickey megabyte]

if your current card does all that you want, then there's no real reason to upgrade, apart from the fact that it's fun to upgrade!

a more powerful card would be useful if you wanted to play 3D games, and would maybe ease processor load when watching movies. you don't do either of these, so....

also bear in mind that a new card is more powerful in another way - it needs more electric power to run, and may mean that you need to upgrade your power supply as well, to supply its needs.

my advice? if you have to spend, use the money on an ssd drive - i'm sure you will notice the difference in performance a lot more than upgrading your gfx!

 

[brianzion]

ATI HD 2600 XT:ar: ATI Radeon

ATI Radeon HD 4650:ar: ATI Radeon

have a look at the specs at the above links ATI Radeon HD 4650 does it for me out of the two

 

[mickey megabyte]

there's no doubt the new card is more powerful.

the op is aking if he needs it.

 

[brianzion]

i was in the same situation this year when i wanted to upgrade my card lots of peoples opinions where great but i am glad i did and i got it at a good price i was surprised of the upgrade how the digital pictures and videos were much better and windows aero working better the whole visual change for me was astounding and i don't use games much but you pay for what you get and the feedback i get from friends and colleagues is windows 7 graphics run much better with a decent card

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Unifex,
There's a difference between wanting it and needing it.
So ask yourself the question.....Do I really need it or could the money be spent more wisely elsewhere?
It's your money so spend it wisely!

 

[Hopalong X]

ATI Radeon™ HD 4600 Series System Requirements

• PCI Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
• 400 Watt or greater power supply (550 Watt for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode) is recommended
• Certified power supplies are recommended. Refer to http://support.amd.com/us/certified/power-supplies/Pages/listing.aspx for a list of Certified products
• 1GB of system memory recommended
• Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
• DVD playback requires DVD drive
• Blu-ray™ playback requires Blu-ray drive and full 1080p display requires a 1080p-capable monitor
• To enable dual mode ATI CrossFireX™ technology, a second ATI Radeon™ HD 4600 Series graphics card, an ATI CrossFireX Ready motherboard and one ATI CrossFireX Bridge Interconnect cable (included) is required.

The power supply will be the limiting factor.

Yours is only 300 watts. You need at least 400 watts per ATI.
Web page for your PC. Click the TECH SPEC tab.
http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfh/desktops/inspndt_53x/pd.aspx?refid=inspndt_53x&s=dfh&cs=22

 

[Corpsecrank]

If it is cheap enough there is no real reason NOT to upgrade to a better card just for the sake of a longer support period etc.

Will you see a difference upgrading? Maybe.

You would see a difference for sure if you wanted to play games or something. For movies I doubt it would be much if any difference.

You have to consider the memory size as well. If you have a 512mb card and your moving to a new card you will want at least 512mb or higher.

The biggest difference you would probably see moving to the new card would be system performance. You might not see any visual improvement but you will probably notice a decent performance improvement.

Like I said if it it's cheap enough you probably should grab the newer card since it will have a longer support cycle than your current card and will increase system performance.

 

[mickey megabyte]

it's not so cheap if he has to buy a new psu as well.

again, let me say that if the op wants to spend money on an upgrade, then a small ssd would definitely result in a noticeable performance boost - no maybes there.

 

[unifex]

Thanks guys! This is very helpful. It was basically a spur-of-the-moment thing - I was looking at something else and then noticed the "other people who bought this also bought ..." and there were the graphics cards. Before I was not seriously thinking about it before, my upgrades have always been just memory and hard drives and so did no know whether I will actually see any improvement since as I said I have no time for games (at least, for video games). What you said is rather helpful to me.

 

[Lunarpancake]

it's not so cheap if he has to buy a new psu as well.

again, let me say that if the op wants to spend money on an upgrade, then a small ssd would definitely result in a noticeable performance boost - no maybes there.

I agree with you 100%

 

[mickey megabyte]

why, thank you!

 

[unifex]

Now just for my education - I seem to have a 350W power supply. The specs for the 4600 series graphics card say 400W or greater power supply recommended. It does look that this is too much for my rig, but hypothetically speaking, what would happen if I plug in such a graphics card into my machine?

 

[mickey megabyte]

BSOD's

maybe

 

[kodi]

The power supply may overheat from trying to keep up and self destruct and take your nice new card with it or your ram or motherboard.

 

[Ciara]

Looking at the tech side if you want the 4600 series you will need to up your PSU so thats two things to buy... would probably = the price of a nice new SSD Drive ?

 

[unifex]

Well, the price situation is not that simple. I could get a 4550 instead which requires 300W power supply and I got 350W. That currently sells for 38 Euros on Amazon.de. At the same time the cheapest 64GB SSD drive is around 100 Euros. There seems to be no point on having a smaller drive - my C:\ drive right now has 48GB used, with another 50 empty and I think that's a healthy ratio. A 100GB SSD goes for 160 minimum - and that's the cheapest one.

 

[Ciara]

As you say if you get the 4550, your OS space need not get any bigger if you keep your (program Files) on a second HD (depending on your type/build of computer)

 

[Hopalong X]

According to your posted specs a Dell Inspiron 530 has 300 watt PSU as I posted and linked earlier.

Mike

From Dell 530 Tech Spec page.

Chassis
300 Watt DC Power Supply

• Backup battery: 3-V CR2032 lithium coin cell

3.5" Bays: 3 bays (one external; two internal)
5.25" Bays: 2 bays