Questions regarding PC upgrades.

[KOOLLAYDTAC]

Hey mates. I had a few questions. I have a Dell Optiplex 755 with 7 gigs of ram that maxes out to 8 gigs. Processor is Intel (R)Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz. The video card is an AMD Radeon HD 5450 with 1 gig of vram. I am assuming it's the default standard stock card that came with the PC because it's just a flat card and nothing else on it like there would be if you purchased it separately.

Now I was debating on upgrading the card because I spend most of my time on this computer and I was looking at VisionTek AMD Radeon HD 5450 2GB DDR3 Graphics Card because I wanted to play it safe and just stick with the same model as the card I already have installed. However in my search I noticed a ton of other brand names for the same card. So my question is what exactly is the difference between them all?

Also because this rig has only one central fan I had to rig an additional fan to it explained in this video here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBd1skY3rlA

So my next question would be how much more would upgrading to this card effect any heat being generated in to the computer? If at all.

For the most part the computer runs most of the games I play with out any problems. There is only a few titles I have where upgrading would make a massive improvement. That being said all the bugs are long gone so I am just trying to decide if getting a refit on my OG Enterprise rig would be worth it or not. lol Thanks in advance.

[Illusion of Progress]

If you're "upgrading" to the same video card (with the same GPU chip on it), no extra heat will be generated, as it's the same chip, and thus it's not an upgrade simply because it has 2 GB more VRAM.

I have a different OptiPlex model as my HTPC (OptiPlex 380), but same LGA 775/Core 2 era mode and mine has the same CPU in it. Mine is also maxed out on RAM at 8 GB with a GT 1030 in it. It's the desktop form factor though (low profile). Even with the single stock fan/heatsink in it, it doesn't come close to overheating.

Also, that second fan probably isn't necessary for most GPUs, but if it's already there, there's no harm either. My nephew's old PC was the desktop form factor you have (only it was a 760 or 780 model; I forget which) and it worked fine with a GTX 650 in it. The PSU was also upgraded. The bigger issue with those PCs regarding GPUs is the BTX form factor, making dual I/O slot cards tricky as they won't fit natively (he simply removed it).

[Nabster]

'Upgrading' to the same card with 2gb will get almost identical performance.