DELL AMD Radeon HD 8570 1GB video card has compatibility issues
The DELL AMD Radeon HD 8570 1GB 128-Bit DDR3 Video Card is generally NOT a good choice as an upgrade for your older computer. Although its performance is generally comparable to the stock AMD Radeon HD 8570 2GB version, it suffers hugely from Windows 10 compatibility issues.
Dell discontinued support for this video card after Windows 8, so I attempted to download the Windows 10 software drivers directly from the AMD site thinking the card was pretty much the same as the stock 2GB version. Not true. I have two older desktop computers I wanted to try this out on. My first attempt was with my Dell Inspiron 531. The AMD scan utility could not find a compatible video card on my Dell computer. Instead, I chose to download the Radeon HD 8570 2GB software from a pick list and try to install the software onto Windows 10. Although it did install the software and video driver, it did not install the AMD High Definition Audio Device Driver. I don't know why the installation does not install the audio driver with the Dell version of the video card, but it doesn't and that is were the compatibility problem exists with Windows 10 on an older Dell computer.
I did find a work around, but my solution will not work for everyone. Fortunately for me this 8570 was to replace an AMD Radeon 6450, so I could get the necessary High Definition audio driver from that previous installation, and it does work with the Dell Radeon 8570 video card. Just make sure that you do not chose the RESET option when installing the AMD 8570 software because it will wipe out the AMD HD audio driver from any previous installation. I got lucky with my Dell installation, but only because I had a previous installation of the AMD Radeon 6450 card with the older AMD Catalyst software and drivers. If you do have access to an older AMD video card like I do, you probably will not be able to achieve audio functionality with this Dell version of the 8570 video card unless you are able to somehow find a stand-alone HD audio driver for it.
However, my luck ran out when I tried the same installation technique on my other older HP Pavilion Elite HPE-310t desktop. The system recognized the video card, and the AMD software and drivers installed without error, but that's was the extent of my success. With the HP the best I could achieve was 1280 x 720 resolution, but that's pretty much it. This video card does not work properly on my HP, and I suspect it won't work on other non-Dell computers as well.
Is the Dell 8570 a good value? Maybe, and only if you can get it to function properly. Is it quiet? Yes, somewhat quiet, but you can still hear some fan noise. Does it perform well? Yes, if your expectation is limited to decent performance on a 10-12 year old computer. I don't use my older desktop computers for gaming, and I don't expect that there are any video card solutions to bring computers like these up to modern specs for gaming. If you are big on gaming, my advise is to purchase a newer computer and stay away from these older video cards.
In conclusion, I purchased the DELL AMD Radeon HD 8570 1GB 1 in order to achieve 4k resolution from my old desktop computer to my new 4k TV. I achieved this along with the help of a new 4K DisplayPort to HDMI cable. Was it worth the combined $50 investment for both card and cable? I succeeded in achieving my goal, but only with the help of a 2nd video card, and only on my old Dell computer. Was it worth the investment in time and money? Probably not, since I will be streaming to my new 4k TV mostly via other sources, but it does give me another option in case I find some Windows 10 apps that can take advantage of a nice 4k display. Time will tell.
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