Hardware replacement. Badly need help!

[Thoragoros]

Okay, I am updating my graphics card, and being a coder/programmer, I figured 'Hey, no biggie,' wrong

Okay, I opened the side pane of my comp, and 'wrestled' my old card out, for whatever reason, it was really jammed in there. Called support, techie said 'Just pull.' Pulled, now it's out. But some black plastic thing flew in my face from inside the computer.

Shoved the card back in, pwered up the computer, everything is running right, so I have no idea what flew in my face.

Anyway, here is where I need help. My old card, a GTS 250 connects to two 6-pin PCI power cable from my powerunit. Now how the heck does one remove these cables? I don't want to 'just pull' but for goodness sake, they won't come out.

Please help. I really don't know how to remove these cables.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

theres a little clip push the clip and pull

that little black thing that flew into your face was a support clip to make sure the GPU stays seated in the slot you basically just broke a failsafe plastic holder to keep the card in place when moving the PC around etc. nothing to worry about unless using super huge GPUs like the GTX 590 or AMD 6990 etc.

Image of PCIe 6pin power cable

[Thoragoros]

theres a little clip push the clip and pull

that little black thing that flew into your face was a support clip to make sure the GPU stays seated in the slot you basically just broke a failsafe plastic holder to keep the card in place when moving the PC around etc. nothing to worry about unless using super huge GPUs like the GTX 590 or AMD 6990 etc.

What if I'm upgrading to the GTX 550Ti?

EDIT

Also, am pressing down on that clip as we speak, it is seriously not budging. I removed one of the two clips from my card, but the other won't move.

How much pressure should I apply?

[Crazyeyesreaper]

wrap a finger under the plug or over it for support then put pressure on the clip to pop it up then pull,

for a 550Ti it wont make much difference

as far as gpu choice your honestly far better off with a GTX 460 768mb or GTX 460 1gb avoid the SE versions like the plague, but a 460 768 beats out a 550Ti in everything and last i checked if you shop around can be found at similar prices





Looking at lowest possible prices in USD
Nvidia
550TI $134
460 768mb $149
460 1gb $174

ATi / AMD
5850 $139

[Thoragoros]

Oh man, seriously? All this and it won't make much difference?

Read it was 2X as fast as what I had, and the guy in the store said for the computer I had that this would be a decent upgrade. Ugh, I really need to brush up on component solutions.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

GTS 450 = GTS 250 in DX9 in DX10 the 450 has the edge, this means the 550Ti is a single step up from a GTS 250 in DX9 in DX10 is gets a bit more of an edge DX11 well GTS 250 cant do that so yea but even then a 550Ti cant do DX11 at good frame rates.

basically it takes a GTX 460 1gb or ati 5850 to get double the performance

the main difference is efficiency in getting that performance

a 5850 uses less power then a GTS 250 but offers greater then double the performance

460 1gb if overclocked will do the same thing

the 550 tho yea no its weaker then the 460

GTX 460 1gb = GTX 275/280 in DX9 it beats them in DX10 and offers DX10.1 and DX11 on top
ATi 5850 is roughly 15% faster then a 280/285 and uses less power then the 460 etc, its not a huge issue but basically 460 1gb 5850 and or 6850 are the minimum to get for performance gains

another way to look at it is if your GTS 250 offers 50fps in a game a 460 1gb will offer around 80fps if overclocked it will hit 100fps
the 5850 will offers 100fps and if overclocked 115fps its an extremely general example

but compared to the 550Ti both the other cards are far better value in terms of performance cost power heat and noise,

a good way to look at the chart above is

any 460 1gb can be overclocked to match the GTX 470s performance
and any 5850 can be overclocked to match the 5870s performance

now since both cards are extremely close in price to that 550Ti for roughly same cost your getting 50% more performance in DX10 / DX11 and compared to the GTS 250 its about 80-125% gain depending on the game or benchmark compared.

The below link is a good place to check the GTS 250s performance is smack dab the same as the ati 4850 / 5750 now compare that to the other GPUs above in your price range
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU/88

for those to lazy to check before posting there own information or suggestions
Crysis Warhead High quality + very high shaders 4xAA 1920x1200

HAWX 1920x1200 max

Mass Effect max settings 1920x1200

[Devilmaypoop]

Just get the Sapphire 5850 Xtreme, it's simply the best possible deal out there. Nothing else comes even close to it.

[Thoragoros]

Just get the Sapphire 5850 Xtreme, it's simply the best possible deal out there. Nothing else comes even close to it.

Well, already got and opened the card, my plea for help is installing it.

[ROFL Copter]

Well, already got and opened the card, my plea for help is installing it.

Push it in the slot. That is if you've already re-attached the clip that you broke off before.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

well it does depend a bit if he uses Photoshop like CS5 or w.e or adobe premiere pro the Nvidia cards offer hardware gpu acceleration where as AMD / ATi havent really gotten that stuff figured out yet lol, that and as a programer well cuda is far easier to use and program for then ATi AMD stream is.

[Ishan]

Fit in the PCI-ex slot and attach the power cable from your PSU to the graphics card then insert the DVI cable from your monitor into the backside of the graphics card or if VGA then use the converter that comes with it and then fit the monitor cable onto it, start the PC, install the latest ATI drivers and you are good to go.