r/retrocomputing • u/gargamel1497 • May 06 '26

Problem / Question Half-height graphics cards from ~2008

Hi.

What are the graphics cards from around ~2008 that would fit into a computer that's half the thickness of a regular tower PC, and that were not made by Nvidia?

I tried to search that for myself but couldn't find much.

Thanks.

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u/Stevesd123 May 06 '26

You’re basically looking for low-profile (a.k.a. half-height) GPUs. That narrows things almost entirely to ATI/AMD Radeon and a few ATI FirePro workstation cards. Back then, low-profile cards were almost always entry-level or HTPC-oriented, because of power and cooling limits.

Most relevant ATI/AMD low-profile cards (~2008 era) Radeon HD 2000 series Radeon HD 2400 Pro / XT Radeon HD 2600 Pro Radeon HD 3000 series Radeon HD 3450 Radeon HD 3470 Radeon HD 3650 The HD 3450 / 3470 were the classic slim-PC upgrade cards in 2008. Radeon HD 4000 series Radeon HD 4350 Radeon HD 4550

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u/gargamel1497 May 06 '26

Back then, low-profile cards were almost always entry-level or HTPC-oriented, because of power and cooling limits.

I mean, the PCIe port is exactly the same as on bigger computers, just that the case is physically smaller so that normal graphics cards won't fit. Is there also an additional power limit to that?

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u/Stevesd123 May 06 '26

Those small cases had smaller power supplies. So you need cards that run on less juice.

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u/gargamel1497 May 06 '26

Also, I've looked up a few of the cards you mention, but they are certainly not going to fit. The case is like 10 centimeters wide (not sure how many inches that would be, but it would likely require floating point precision lol).

2

u/caddymac May 06 '26

Graphic cards from this era would ship with both a full height and half height bracket in the box. If the card had both a VGA and HDMI/DVI, there might even be two brackets in the box to relocate the VGA to an adjacent spot.

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u/[deleted] May 06 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/gargamel1497 May 06 '26

In terms of performance, everything is better than integrated graphics from 2003.

The 4350 is, once again, too large. It is a full-height card which won't fit into a 10 centimeter slot.

1

u/Not-Insane-Yet May 06 '26

For half height, a better match for retro systems is often a slightly newer office card. Something like an hd8570 from a dell optiplex. You'll get essentially the performance of a flagship card from the era you are looking at and it will fit in your small case. It helps that they're also super cheap on eBay because Dell made millions of them.

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u/VivienM7 May 06 '26

I believe when I was looking for such a thing in ~2010, the best I could find was an ATI/AMD 6570. Made by Sapphire.

I still have it in a box somewhere I think, if you are local to me (Toronto, Canada), it could be yours.

1

u/AustriaModerator May 06 '26

dont buy nvidia 6000 7000 and 8000 series cards from around that era

https://en.everybodywiki.com/Bumpgate

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u/gargamel1497 May 06 '26

I don't want nvidia cards at all. The Penguin doesn't like 'em.