Radeon 5750 a good buy at ~$129?

Right now my Radeon 4670 is beginning to show the beginning stages of heatstroke like my old Geforce 7900 GS did years ago - funny pixels being here and there where they ought not be, going away, etc. Not happy making for me.

Anyhow, I've found Powercolor Radeon 5750 w/1g vram for $109 after rebate at Newegg, and $124 at Amazon. Sadly, Newegg does not offer me free shipping since I live in Hawai'i (Maui specifically), but I think Amazon will. There are NO stores on-island that sell video cards worth a hoot.

Right now I think the 5750 is about twice the power of my 4670 which runs COH beautifully for me. A little power boost would be nice, obviously - I don't want to buy another 4670 or even a 5670 - paying a little more for the boost seems okay. If it wasn't for the impending heatstroke I'd likely not bother upgrading since I'm running everything (COH, Prince of Persia 2008, Batman, etc) quite well.

Trying to do this on the cheap.

PSU: Dell OEM 375w.

edit: The house has NO air conditioning! Hence "lower power but cooler" is fine by me. I know the 5850's are utterly drool-worthy, and I figure the 5750 runs cooler than the 4850.

edit2: Or maybe this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-236-_-Product

OK

The HD 5750 is a little bit faster than the HD 4850 (3-4%) however the HD 5770 uses 30-35% less power (only in the 75-80 watt range). Less power means lower heat generation, etc. However the HD 5750 still draws around 30 watts more than your HD 4670. And yes the HD 5750 is roughly twice the performance in games, in general, compared to your HD 4670.

Second, will your Dell 375 watt PSU be able to handle it. IIRC that Dell PSU does come with a 6-pin PCIe video card power connector and can provide most of that power at 12 volts where it counts. But I would suggest you take a look at the sticker affixed to the PSU that specifies the amps available at 12 volts and if it does have a 6-pin PCIe video card power connector. If it does and since the HD 5750 is such a power miser, then I don't see why not.

For comparison purposes, the HD 5670 doesn't need an external power connection, uses a lot less power than the 5750 (even less power than your current HD 4670) but is still 30% faster than your HD 4670. But I'm sure je_saist will be along to point out that the UM possibilities of the HD 5670 is borderline at best.

I was actually playing in Ultra Mode with my 4670 - not all the way up, obviously, and my frame rate went from silky-smooth to playable. Biggest thing for me is replacing the card at a reasonable price. I'll check my PSU sticker as soon as I can then, thank you

Yea, that's what I remembered, 360 watts at 12 volts (30 amps x 12 volts = 360 watts). I think your PSU will be fine for an HD 5750.

Next question is will it fit. Dells tend to use what's called BTX motherboards, which are upside down and backwards when it comes to expansion slot locations. Sometimes that means there isn't a spare slot for double bracket, double wide video card. If you don't have an adjacent slot there are HD 5750s that don't have a double wide bracket, then the only question is if there is space for the fan/heatsink since that will still stick beyond a norm of a single slot.

Of course if your current video card is double wide with a double bracket this concern is moot but if that isn't the case, well, might help if you would share which Dell model you have. Should be listed in a CoHHelper report.

There's another slot there, thankfully. A friend of mine just emailed me this, though:

Went ahead and ordered that Seasonic you recommend in your build guide.

Which is rated at, surprise, maximum combined power on +12V1 and +12V2 is 30A, just like the Dell. Yes the Seagate does have a higher maximum power output and any practical 3.3 volt or 5 volt power use won't steal from the wattage at 12 volts, I don't believe it'll make a difference (meaning I believe your Dell PSU shouldn't have a problem).

I have no idea where your friend got 32A requirements from, and from the look of it, you are quoting some other card because of the two 6-pin connector requirement, the HD 5750 and 5770 only have one. Officially ATI and XFX only list a 450 watt with one 6-pin video card power connector or two PATA drive power connectors to use with an adapter as requirements, nothing on 12 volt wattage minimums. Also video card manufacturers quote inflated requirements to compensate for cheap or older PSUs that don't have as much wattage available at 12 volts as newer efficient PSUs designed to the latest standards.

I seriously doubt your system with an HD 5750 would crack 250 watts, closer to 200 unless you stuck a bunch of lights and hard drives into your system or have a ton of USB powered devices (I'm talking about fans, soda coolers, nerf missile launchers).

http://xfxforce.com/en-us/products/g...es/5750.aspx#4

Thank you for the help. I'm looking forward to the new card.

Well, was flying around Faultline at 1920x1200 at Quality settings with /graphfps 7 being green pretty much the whole time. I'm happy. My other games perked up a bit, too. And no more worrying about my card dying on me.

Great news.