video card help?

[Sarlon]

So the fan on my video card, ATI radeon HD 4800 series, is making a huge racket and slowly dying (gets hot just turning on).

This was a custom built rig a friend built for me 6 years ago. But this is my motherboard exactly.

my current video card has 2....I don't think they are VGA since they have a white connector....just looked it up, its a DVI cable, look like this, but the connecters are white rather than black (as in the picture).

I only have one monitor, I'd REALLY like to have an HDMI connector on the video card, rather than a slot for a second monitor (which my computer desk won't hold).

I'm not unhappy with my current card graphics wise, I play games like World of Warcraft and my current card keeps up with those graphics fine. I do not do digital drawing or anything intensive like that.

Can someone help me get pointed in the right direction of what I need to replace my current card? (hope I gave all the correct/pertinent information).

[EricKei]

Per your mobo link: You have a PCIe x16 slot, which should be able to handle, well, pretty much any PCIe card made in the last several years -- Just check the card, and your power supply cables within your comp, first before buying anything. Many modern cards require an extra power lead, so, if your PSU doesn't have one, that will restrict your choice of cards somewhat. Make sure to verify that your PSU can handle the extra load, if you move to a beefier card, too. IIRC, you don't wanna let the total "average" power consumption of the entire system exceed 75% or so of the unit's rated capacity.

Simplest thing to to is just to check prices on NewEgg or a similar site -- Replacing the current card with basically the identical model looks to be around $100, which is the price point at which many cards tend to hover until they go to clearance pricing. A safe bet would be to find the best card you can, that your system will use (and which has HDMI on it), for around that price (many sites allow you to filter by price range); many cards that came out more than two years ago will be close to a hundred. The 4800's are from mid-2008, so a card that first came out 3 years ago (the 7000 series) would likely be a significant upgrade for about the same price as a straight replacement.

[ComputerNecromancer]

So the fan on my video card, ATI radeon HD 4800 series, is making a huge racket and slowly dying (gets hot just turning on).

my current video card has 2....I don't think they are VGA since they have a white connector....just looked it up, its a DVI cable, look like this, but the connecters are white rather than black (as in the picture).

I only have one monitor, I'd REALLY like to have an HDMI connector on the video card, rather than a slot for a second monitor (which my computer desk won't hold).

Well, as a stopgap measure, a DVI to HDMI adapter costs about $6 at the local shop I buy parts at.

[lordlundar]

I only have one monitor, I'd REALLY like to have an HDMI connector on the video card, rather than a slot for a second monitor (which my computer desk won't hold).

A lot of the modern cards (my Nvidia GTX 650 for example) tend to have an HDMi port that serves as either a replacement for the DVI or in addition for secondary monitor duty or to output to recording/streaming devices.

This one for example which is in the series that Erickei suggested has 2 DVI, one HDMi, and a DisplyPort output. I would say it would be pretty tough to actually find a video card made in the past 3 years that DOESN'T have an HDMi port.