I wouldn't recommend it. It may work fine especially if the capacitor right next to it is in parallel (which it may or may not be; they could be on different rails). But you can damage ICs with ripple, so it's best not to try. Especially if you're using this on an old PSU that will probably have more ripple than it did when it was new.

The good news, though, is that you don't need a tantalum replacement unless you insist on all of the caps looking the same. Tantalum capacitors behave very much like electrolytics, and you can put an electrolytic there. Tantalum caps were a little bit higher quality than some early electrolytics. One downside of them is no vent; if they die they often explode from pressure (not a huge explosion, but you'd better not have your face right over the board when it happens!)

In fact some of those cards came with other capacitors (including actual surface mount caps) originally.

Tantalum caps are not recommended for general purpose use anymore. You can still get them but they've become more of a specialized type of thing.

Thanks... As you might be guessing. I am really looking forward to test it, in order to see if it was money out the window or not. 😀

Might actually be worth replacing all of those tantalums with electrolytics really. Probably should've said such before. They're cheap enough and shouldn't take much more time (or labor cost) to do them all. You can do the one first and then check it, do the rest if it works just to keep it working.

Also after you do that, when it's running, check if any of those chips run hot and heatsink them if so. Heat is often a reason caps fail. And try to leave the adjacent expansion slot open if possible.

If you do end up heatsinking, use actual name brand thermal adhesive or double sided thermal tape (3m is good, and I can't prove anything but I don't trust Ebay sellers who claim they use 3m adhesive)

I think an ET6000 is worth the effort personally.

Remove that cap before you test.

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

Remove that cap before you test.

Yes. I am fully aware of it. This is what I wrote in the first place.

You only wrote about replacing. You can remove it without replacing to test the card.

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

You only wrote about replacing. You can remove it without replacing to test the card.

This...

brostenen wrote:

Or do I have to wait untill I can buy a new one?

I just thought that this was obvious. Anyway. I meant that if I needed to wait with testing untill I got a new capacitor. Sorry for not making it clear enough.

I doubt that a test run will harm the card significantly, but it's ultimately going to have to be your judgment on the risks associated.

Hah! I've been in this situation a couple of times, always a problem for me:

Curiousity always wants me to test first and see if the card even works. But i don't want to kill it because of a missing cap.... But.... i don't want to recap it when it doesn't work anyway.... 🤣

Best decision: recap first. Too bad if it doesn't work, you did your best and it will not cost an arm and a leg to place a cap...
What i always do: test first! 😎 🤣 😈 😵 curiousity always wins here....and that isn't always a good thing.