Another graphics card question.Follow

I'm going to buy a new graphics card. I've looked up the types I want, but now I just don't know about the manufacturer. ASUS, Gigabyte, Sparkle, EVGA, etc. They seem to vary by about 100 dollars.

Recommendations, pros/cons, etc?

I'm pretty much brand loyal as long as that brand hasn't let me down. I typically use PNY, but have heard good things about EVGA as well.

I've been using EVGA cards for years with zero problems. When I replace the card (Sapphire) that came with my new computer it'll be with an EVGA.

For Nvidia EVGA all the way.

For ATi Sapphire is the way to go.

I have a Sapphire ATI Radeon HD5750 and it works great, so throw in another vote for Sapphire. PNY also worked really well when I had an Nvidia card.

Both. but they are cheap.

Some PSUs only take a 6-pin, others take an additional 8 pin , so at most there will be two. I actually chose my new GPU based on the fact that it didn't require any external power and was low-voltage.

Edit: Actually, not sure of the voltages of the 6-pin and 8-pin connectors.

Edited, Mar 19th 2011 10:42am by catwho

Saw a convert for a 6-pin from two Molex connectors (just randomly sitting on a friend's coffee table.) So if your video card doesn't have em coming off different rails - although honestly if it doesn't that's really ****** design - you can probably get around it with the molex converter. I also had to snag a molex to sata last week, and the part was around $5 at the local PC shop.

Well, it died this morning. Tomorrow my new card will be in and I'll be happy. I'm running my old computer from 2002, with a Geforce Ti4200 I believe. It can go online, that's about it.

So, what is the point of the 8 pin PCIE connector if the added two pins when compared to the 6 pin PCIE connector are just a Ground connection, which already exists on pins 4-6 of the 6 pin PCIE? Just curious.

I was reading up on it a bit more last night, and read in a couple places that the 6 pin PCIE connector standard only required pins 1 and 3 to be powered with 12V (which explains why the double Molex to 6 pin adapter that came with my card didn't power up pin 2). The 8 pin standard had 1, 2, and 3 powered with 12V, which they said is why it was capable of 150W instead of 75W. And that users had run tests by putting 150W load on both the 6pin (with 1,2, and 3 at 12V) and 8pin and noticed no difference. All the 6 pin connectors on my PSU have 12V on 1, 2, and 3. Given that my PSU is capable of the load, and the pins are all there... I don't see any issue with me powering up the 8pin with a 6pin to 8pin/6+2pin adapter.


Edit:
I finally got my adapter today and it's the wrong one... they sent me a 6 pin PCIE to 8 pin plug that's on the motherboard (EPS?) instead of 8 pin PCIE. They said they'll refund the price, but now I have to get another one. If I could find a small enough knife/file I'd be able to make this one work and end up with a free adapter. But I'm struggling to find a way to file off the corners of this inside pin.

Edit2:
Cut/Filed the corners and it fits now. Powers up ok, everything working fine.

Edited, Mar 25th 2011 7:23pm by TirithRR

I looked up the pinout of the plugs and made sure the correct wires were going to the right areas. It looks like they made the adapter right for the PCIE 8pin, but used the wrong style 8 pin connector.

I started up Dragon Age (first one) just to put it under some load to see how things went, make sure my power supply wouldn't drop when the card was actually doing work. Everything seemed to work just fine. This card is a lot quieter than my 8800s were. So far everything seems OK. I couldn't see spending the money on a new power supply when mine is a 750W supply, as far as I can tell the only reason it doesn't have an 8pin or 6+2pin connector is because it's from 2007, before they were used a lot.

I'll keep an eye on the temperature of the card, but I'm not too worried about it. I am going to get a correct 6 to 8 pin adapter to replace my file/knife job on this one. Not that anything is wrong with it, just that I don't like the whole idea behind it, and don't want it to be permanent.

Edit:
Got a good connector in yesterday, so I swapped it out with my hand-crafted one.

Edited, Mar 27th 2011 3:57pm by TirithRR