Videocard help

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makare

I was hoping you guys would know something about half-height video cards. Apparently that is what I need in this small case for my mom's compy.

I am trying to find something about the same power level as my ati radeon hd 4800. Hopefully not too expensive up to $130.

I don't have any other specs for the computer case so just general info would be helpful. Thanks.
 
M

makare

yeah it has pci-express... i think that is what the guy said. It's about 5 years old i think.

Sigh. I wish i had never touched that stupid compy...
 
M

makare

thanks. I will have to ask the tech guy that is looking at it. I am kind of at his mercy because I don't know much about hardware... or software. I am pretty much computer incompetent. lol,
 
Browser crash took my first reply (thank you, Flash!), but just dropping in to say that the 9800 mentioned above is the best I could find, too. It's about on par with the lowest member of the ATI 48xx family, the 4830, which puts it right around the performance of the popular 8800 GT. That's good enough to play just about anything these days, though of course not at full quality.

--Patrick
 
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makare

ok now the guy said that low profile and half-height are not the same thing. i dont know. thanks for the help though.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
ok now the guy said that low profile and half-height are not the same thing. i dont know. thanks for the help though.
Did he tell you what the difference is? Best I can tell "half-height" isn't a standard, and may come with a full size bracket. Low profile, however, is a specified standard, and will definitely have a smaller mounting bracket. (some cards with come with interchangeable brackets)
 
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makare

he said i think that low profile meant that the elements on the card where flatter i guess. more of a side to side thing than height.
 
I'm gonna go with FP up there. If you can't get anything definitive, just measure whatever card you have in there right now and get one that's the same height. Usually, like FP says, the biggest differentiator is the height of the bracket itself.

--Patrick
 

figmentPez

Staff member
he said i think that low profile meant that the elements on the card where flatter i guess. more of a side to side thing than height.
Well, the PCI standards group (or whatever it's called) defines all sorts of size requirements for "low profile" cards. I can't remember for certain if width is one of them, but I know height and length are, so it would make sense. There definitely are cards out there that have heatsinks that are large enough to cover an adjacent PCI slot, and others that have a double-wide mounting bracket to allow room for both a DVI and a VGA connector. I'm guessing extra large heatsinks and double-wide brackets don't meet the "low profile" specs. If this will be a problem for your system depends on it's layout, though.
 
M

makare

Thanks so much for the help but I honestly have no clue what you are talking about. I'll try to get some measurements sometimes and maybe that'll help.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Thanks so much for the help but I honestly have no clue what you are talking about. I'll try to get some measurements sometimes and maybe that'll help.
Okay, here's as simple as I can make it. The term "half height" does not have a set definition or standard, as best I can tell. Any short card can be called half height, regardless of how it measures in other dimensions.

The term "low profile" is defined by the group that makes the standards for PCI connectors. There are certain measurements that have to be met to be considered "low profile".

I'm not sure how best to describe what is height, length and width without an illustration, so I'll try and skip that for now.

The mounting bracket is the angled piece of metal used to screw the card to the back of the case. Mounting brackets can be of two heights, and some are double-wide. A double-wide bracket will cover the opening for the slot next to it, and won't fit in cases that have that slot full with an existing card, or where there is no space for another slot at all.

If the slot next to your video card is empty, you don't have to worry about how wide card you get. If it's occupied, or if you don't have a slot there at all, you'll have to make sure the bracket is single wide, and the heat-sink on the card isn't too large.

Does that make sense?
 
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