Replacement for MSI NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT

[dugiehowsa]

After 2.5 years of great performance, my MSI NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT has started to head south.  Looks like its time to replace it, but this model isn’t available any more.  Could some one recommend a comparable product?

My requirements are:
Driver support for Windows 7
DVI Output
Low Profile Form Factor
PCI Express x16
Drive a 60″ DLP TV.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[dugiehowsa]

A friend said he has had good experiences with EVGA adapters.  It appears that EVGA produces a GeForce 210 that could meet my requirements.  Has anyone heard anything good, bad or otherwise about this adapter?

[mikinho]

EVGA manufacturers my preferred NVIDIA cards.  They have several newer G210 cards that are low profile and will perform at least as good as the 8500 GT.

A few of the G210 they offer are passively cooled but I actually prefer their single slot cards with fans since the fans are only on when needed.

In terms of NVIDIA cards the GT220 or GT240 would be a better card but I believe are only a few low profile GT220, none of which I particularly like.

I had a MSI G210 and currently own an EVGA G210, GT220 and GT240.  My own experience with them started off poor with some color space issues and poor performance but they have fixed almost all the issues and the latest drivers have been very stable.  The upside to their cards is CUDA and 3D support but unlike the ATI counterparts they do not support HD Audio bitstreaming.

You should also look a mid-range ATIAMD 5xxx series.  I believe you have a few more choices for low profile cards.

[Naylia]

I like my HIS low profile fanless Radeon 5570 – $74 from Newegg. Bitstreaming, and games look pretty solid – although I still need to tweak my game settings and do some fps testing at different settings.

[dugiehowsa]

The EVGA 210 arrived today.  I was very excited to install it, and then I ran into a small road bump.  The EVGA requires a 300 W power supply and 18 A on the +12 rail.  My power supply was only 250 W and 17 A on the +12 rail.

Unfortunately, the HIS Radeon 5570 requires even more power, 400 W.

Any suggestions with regards to these lower power requirements?

[htpc_user]

Did you actually try it, or are you just going by what it says?  I have a Dell slim PC in my youngest son’s room, and I needed to put a low profile card in it.  I bought a 4550 card and put it in, and it’s working fine.  I can’t remember what the power requirement was, but I know it’s more than what is in the Dell.  If I was going to put a card in it, I didn’t have much choice.  Most all cards, if not all, require more power than is in the Dell.  And I can’t find any power supplies of this type to upgrade the power supply.

[dugiehowsa]

I put the card into chassis.  The PC did not even post when I booted the machine with the new card in.  It may be possible that I just got a bad card.  I will do more testing and provide a status update.

[Andrew Van Til]

[quote=”dugiehowsa”]
The EVGA 210 arrived today.  I was very excited to install it, and then I ran into a small road bump.  The EVGA requires a 300 W power supply and 18 A on the +12 rail.  My power supply was only 250 W and 17 A on the +12 rail.
[/quote]

FWIW – I’ve used a 210 in my 150W pico PSU powered HTPC w/o issues.

[Author]

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