Low profile video cards, pros and cons?

starship7

United States18 Posts

April 09 2011 16:45 GMT

Sup all, Im prolly gonna buy a new desktop and im gonna get a vid card for it. It requires a "low profile" video card due to the small design of the comp. Anyways I was wondering if there are any serious downsides for gaming using a low profile card. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Any thoughts?

Myrmidon

United States9452 Posts

April 09 2011 16:49 GMT

Not particularly, except that you're restricted to only relatively low-cost, low-power, low-performance GPUs. The best you can get is about a HD 5670. The hotter, more powerful GPUs need larger cooling solutions that wouldn't fit on such a narrow card.

Also, a low-profile card generally has to use a smaller, noisier fan.

Phayze

Canada2029 Posts

April 09 2011 16:53 GMT

I wouldnt recommend it. The low profile cards do not have the power to display higher resolutions in 3d enviroments. Most people I know use a lowprofile case to display blurays on their 1080p TV and thats it--- and It does that great; if you want to do any sort of gaming with today's games it just wont perform well. I too have also noticed the noise the fans generate.

starship7

United States18 Posts

April 09 2011 16:55 GMT

Ok great, thanks!

Tokadub

United States168 Posts

April 09 2011 16:55 GMT

My recommendation would be don't get a small computer case. They really do suck honestly.

What kind of budget are you on? If you are a heavy gamer I would really avoid a small computer case and "low profile" video cards at all cost.

Here is a list of pros/cons for a small computer case (I'm assuming prebuilt?):

Pros:
Easy to carry around
Takes up less space

Cons:
Can't fit good video cards
A serious pain to install ANYTHING (Graphics card, power supply, fans, hard drives, cpu coolers)
Crappy motherboards that have extremely limited overclocking capabilities
Can't fit a good cpu cooler even if you could overclock
Poor airflow (wires take up practically whole case) = higher heat = less stable = shorter life span

Basically you don't want a computer like that unless you don't care that your computer sucks compared to what it could be.

starship7

United States18 Posts

April 09 2011 16:59 GMT

By gaming I mean only sc2 lol, and the whole point is a budget comp for sc2 and everyday use, im not really going for a power house comp. Its a very good deal computer for the price I found on slickdeals plus 3 yr warranty

Myrmidon

United States9452 Posts

April 09 2011 17:04 GMT

Yeah you can play SC2 on medium settings easily with something at the HD 5670 level. What's the price and specs?

vennike

Estonia29 Posts

April 09 2011 17:10 GMT

There is a low profile GTX 460 out. It's called the Galaxy GeForce GTX 460 Razor 1GB.
You might have other issues with fitting it in though (length).

starship7

United States18 Posts

April 09 2011 17:13 GMT

Pentium Dual Core E5800/3.2GHz,2M
4GB,Non-ECC,1333MHz DDR3,1X4GB
320GB SATA 3.0Gb/s and 16MB Data Burst Cache
Windows 7 Home Premium 32b

Some other small stuff for 343$, free shipping and 3 yr warrenty, it still might be on slickdeals, its a dell

Myrmidon

United States9452 Posts

April 09 2011 17:23 GMT

#10

Can you get Windows 7 elsewhere for significantly under $100? If you're a student or knows someone with a .edu e-mail address, you should be able to get Windows 7 for $30 or less. If that's the case, you can actually get an equivalent computer (without the low-profile restriction) for less money than that.

starship7

United States18 Posts

April 09 2011 17:37 GMT

#11

Okay yea, didnt know that... thanks

kajba

Sweden16 Posts

April 09 2011 21:44 GMT

#12

A 5670 is good enough for SC2 and if you play it on 4v4, you will still get about 30FPS and that is playable. the cheaper 5570 is not as good but will also do the job.

Runek

17 Posts

April 09 2011 22:41 GMT

#13

On April 10 2011 02:10 vennike wrote:
There is a low profile GTX 460 out. It's called the Galaxy GeForce GTX 460 Razor 1GB.
You might have other issues with fitting it in though (length).

Pretty sure that is a single slot card not a low profile. Single slot has to do with width low profile has to do with the height of the card. As far as the most powerful low profile gpu I am pretty sure the hd5670 is the best you could get. It is the most powerful card you can get that doesn't require external power and considering the restrictions on power supplies in those types of cases I dont think they make any cards that would take external power.

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