Graphic Cards Gigabyte G31M-S2L - Low profile card required?

K

Kneo

Adept
I have a Gigabyte G31M-S2L board. My existing 7600GS has gone kaput and hence I am looking at a new card. Because of the tight budget and minimum power requirements I've finalized a Sapphire Radeon HD4350 512 Mb card.

I need to know whether it'd fit on my board or does my board calls for a low profile card (I am not quite sure what these are, except that it'd take less real estate in the box).

I don't think I can get a better card for 'as-cheap-as-possible'. I'll use the card to watch HD movies on my Dell 2209WA and have E7300/4Gb RAM in my box. I'll play some games occasionally (NFS/Strategy/Puzzle, etc.) but can sacrifice a high FPS against low power requirement. I am using a Gold 350W Powersafe (I guess !!)

PS: The cheapest option currently online is on eBay with the ICICI 20% off. Can anyone recommend a better/cheaper avenue for buying this?
 
Kneo said:
I need to know whether it'd fit on my board or does my board calls for a low profile card (I am not quite sure what these are, except that it'd take less real estate in the box).
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It has nothing to do with your board. Graphic card size (PCB) has limitations depending upon cabinet size, hence low profile cards are better suited for HTPC cases where space is limited.

Someone is selling his HD4350 in market section, you can look into it..
 
I saw the market section but I'd rather buy a new Sapphire card for it's 3 year warranty. Any idea who handles the RMA for Sapphire? I hope to God it's not Rashi !!

After applying the ICICI 20% discount, I am getting the card for around 1950 from Ebay. Is it a good deal? Somehow the 512 Mb card are not freely available.
 
Ur onboard gpu wil handle 1080P movies without problems.... investing in a dedicated gpu is worthless... invest in a good psu instead and upgrade gpu later (for games only!)
 
I am not much into high-end games. I just play the occasional NFS/Q3/Bejeweled Twist (!!), etc. at times.

That is the reason why I am not going in for something like the 5670 which is a VFM proposition. I don't want to upgrade the PSU at this stage (budgetary limitations) and hence a low power card. I'd definitely be upgrading to the VX450 sometimes in the future but not to power my card. I'm planning to upgrade my HDDs (500Gb + 320Gb) to 1Tb each. I have a feeling that my existing PSU will not be able to handle the load.

But for now, I'd be able to live with a 4350 considering that I was quite satisfied even with my 7600GS !!!
 
From what I googled, apparently ATI is better at lowering the power consumption than nVidia and hence 4350 instead of 9600.
 
I'm running a GTX260 on my G31M-S2L.. the only thing you have to keep in mind is the cabinet size. I've got a Circle cabby and that is being able to handle the card for now, but my GTX 260 (with 3 fans on top) blocks my PCI slots. That is the only issue, apart from that its working great. It is independent of the board size.
 
Yeah - I think in my case also it may create a problem with the other PCI slots but since I am not using any of them right now, I'll be okay with it. The only time when I'll end up using the cards is when my onboard LAN or sound conks off (which tends to happen to me with all of my mobos !!)
 
Rockfella said:
Ur onboard gpu wil handle 1080P movies without problems....
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G31 cannot handle 1080p.. though his E7300 would take the lead here..

@Kneo... Go with eBay & you will get the card slightly lesser than market. Also Aditya handles RMA for Sapphire... Its a nice card with HDMI (make sure you have HDMI native since there are two models).. I have HDMI model Sapphire & it works great for HD decoding on my A64 machine. I don't play games on it though..
 
I don't have HDMI input on my Dell 2209WA - so I'll live with DVI-D. I am not going to use the 7.1 over HDMI ever!

I prefer to watch movies on my plasma instead of the 22 incher.

If one is HDMI native - what is the other one? Sorry I am a bit of a n00b here.
 
^I think he was referring to the HDMI port on the card itself. The other would have 2 DVI ports and they bundle a DVI to HDMI adapter.
 
Kneo said:
I don't have HDMI input on my Dell 2209WA - so I'll live with DVI-D. I am not going to use the 7.1 over HDMI ever!

I prefer to watch movies on my plasma instead of the 22 incher.

If one is HDMI native - what is the other one? Sorry I am a bit of a n00b here.
Click to expand...

There will be following ports...

  1. HDMI
  2. DVI
  3. D-Sub

on the card I am recommending.. While on the other one there will be no HDMI but an S-Video out port which nobody uses... Of-course you can use DVI-HDMI connector but what if your DVI conks off. at least then you can have HDMI for digital & D-Sub is always there...

Its my personal opinion only & its in no way that non HDMI would not be better... You can directly connect your plasma to your gpu anytime (provided your plasma has HDMI)...
 
I am not going to connect my PC to my plasma ...ever.

Plasma is in the drawing room with WDTV and the PC is used just as a PC (to surf, play the occasional game and manage my photo collections).

I do understand your advice though. Thanks for the same. But since I've already ordered it, I don't think I'll be able to demand the HDMI native now. Let me check though.
 
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