Two99Point80
New member
In trying to upgrade the graphics in my HP dx2250 tower (AMD64, 2GB RAM, XPSP3) I chose the Radeon HD 5670 for its low power draw and reasonable price/performance. The particular model was the Gigabyte GV-R5670C-1GI as sold by Newegg. That turned out to be a bad choice... here's why:
This is a pretty new card, and it apparently has compatibility issues that Gigabyte didn't sort out before releasing it for sale. My computer would not even display the BIOS boot screen - it just sat there with the CPU fan revved up to full speed, the disk activity light on, and a black screen. Thinking it was a sample defect, I RMA'd the card to Newegg and got a second one. Same result. Gigabyte is pointing its finger at the BIOS, although it's the newest available. My hunch is it's a backward-compatibility issue - the computer is PCI Express x16 and the card is PCI Express 2.0 - although the two standards are supposed to mix-and-match between slots and cards.
The previous card in the computer was a GeForce 8400GS which was completely overwhelmed by TS2009 (and -2006) but at least worked. Last evening I bought a GeForce 9800GT card locally which is also PCI Express 2.0 and which works just fine in the computer (tweaking and frame rate results to follow at some point). And while Newegg did agree to a refund (which is beyond their "exchange-only" graphics card policy), I may still be out two $10+ shipping charges to return the first and second Gigabyte cards.
All in all, a couple of weeks' frustration and delay and (so far) extra expense. Not worth whatever "buy online!" savings I might've anticipated. Gigabyte and Newegg did not have my permission to use me as an unpaid beta tester!
Okay, that's enough ranting. As always, buyer beware...
This is a pretty new card, and it apparently has compatibility issues that Gigabyte didn't sort out before releasing it for sale. My computer would not even display the BIOS boot screen - it just sat there with the CPU fan revved up to full speed, the disk activity light on, and a black screen. Thinking it was a sample defect, I RMA'd the card to Newegg and got a second one. Same result. Gigabyte is pointing its finger at the BIOS, although it's the newest available. My hunch is it's a backward-compatibility issue - the computer is PCI Express x16 and the card is PCI Express 2.0 - although the two standards are supposed to mix-and-match between slots and cards.
The previous card in the computer was a GeForce 8400GS which was completely overwhelmed by TS2009 (and -2006) but at least worked. Last evening I bought a GeForce 9800GT card locally which is also PCI Express 2.0 and which works just fine in the computer (tweaking and frame rate results to follow at some point). And while Newegg did agree to a refund (which is beyond their "exchange-only" graphics card policy), I may still be out two $10+ shipping charges to return the first and second Gigabyte cards.
All in all, a couple of weeks' frustration and delay and (so far) extra expense. Not worth whatever "buy online!" savings I might've anticipated. Gigabyte and Newegg did not have my permission to use me as an unpaid beta tester!

Okay, that's enough ranting. As always, buyer beware...
