GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

I haven't the slightest clue. I just picked up this rig from a buddy, and all he said was that he’d probably swap out the GPU for something better if he were me. 😁 Should I be looking at moving the RAM to a different slot or something?

swiftridge29 said:No clue, I just picked up this rig from a buddy who said he'd probably just swap out the GPU for something better. 😁 Should I be moving the RAM to a different slot or what?

The card you've got in there is decent enough for 1080p gaming; you can run most modern titles on medium settings. Your CPU is actually pretty beefy and could handle basically any GPU you throw at it, but it really comes down to what you need and what you're willing to spend.

A GTX 1060 would be a solid upgrade, though it's not going to be life-changing. It’s just a case of you get what you pay for—the more expensive you go, the less bang for your buck you usually get.

I'd suggest deciding how much cash you actually want to drop on this. You've got a great setup, and if you dropped money on a GTX 1060 or better $767 (or higher), you could probably push for a higher resolution, which is a massive step up from 1080p if you're ready to sink a few hundred bucks into it.

On the flip side, if you're struggling to run specific games on your current card, then just swapping it for something like an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or similar fixes the issue immediately.

Regarding the RAM, it's likely just a matter of which slots are being used. Best bet is to pop the side panel off and see how they're seated.
Or just pull up CPU-Z and check under the "Democratic Party" tab to see which sticks are in which slots. It's pretty straightforward.

Bottom line... if the games you play aren't giving you trouble, don't touch a thing. I'm running a card in the same ballpark (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660) and it does everything I need. I've put plenty of hours into Red Dead Redemption 2; it runs great on medium and still holds up fine on high.

Thanks for the deep dive on the graphics card info. As for the RAM, I downloaded the utility and checked... slots 3 and 4 are filled up.

swiftridge29 said:Thanks for the deep dive on the GPU! As for the RAM, I downloaded the software and slots 3 and 4 are filled up.

That’s why you're stuck in single-channel. You probably need them paired up in 1+3 or 2+4. Most motherboards color-code the slots—like one pair is yellow and the other is red—just so you don't have to guess which ones to use for dual-channel mode.

Hey everyone! So, just a few days ago, I finally pulled the trigger and picked up a new rig for... $800Man, I tell you, that graphics card absolutely killed my wallet! Seriously, I was staring at the receipt like, "Are you kidding me right now?" It felt like I was paying a mortgage payment just to get some extra frames per second. My bank account is definitely feeling the sting from this one, haha! $100 So, I’ve been staring at this INO3D Geforce 210 1GB card, and man, let me tell you—it is absolutely pathetic. It's basically a paperweight if you actually want to play anything decent. I actually just struck up a conversation with this guy online about doing a little swap, and I told him I’d hit him back once I did some digging here on the forums to see what everyone thinks. Here’s the deal I’m looking at: I’d trade him my Corsair Vengeance DDR4 (512 GB) along with that weak-ass INO3D Geforce 210 1GB, and in return, he’d hand over an EVGA GeForce GTX Series 1GB GDDR5. The only catch is that his card is about three years old. What do you guys think? Is this a win or am I just throwing good money after bad?
Hey guys, I could really use some advice here—should I pull the trigger on this or pass?
You got it! Thanks!

Eh... I guess you should have done a bit more digging before buying the whole rig. If you'd picked out individual parts instead of a pre-built, they probably would've put together a much better setup for you.

The Radeon HD 5850 is a seven-year-old card at this point. It was last available around mid-2011, so it's definitely way older than three years.

I'm not sure if it's worth it... personally, I’d hang onto the Radeon HD 3870 for a while longer since it blows that GeForce G210 out of the water. I'd probably sell it to save some $200, which might get you a pretty decent used card, like a GeForce GTX 660 or an HD 7850.

P.S. What exactly did you end up getting? What else is in the build? You can run Speccy to check out the rest of your components.

crimsonstag84 said:Man, you really should’ve done a little more digging before dropping the cash on a pre-built rig! If you had spent some time researching parts individually, you could have put together a custom build that would totally blow this current setup out of the water. You'd definitely be getting way better performance for your money if you'd gone the custom route instead of just picking up a ready-made machine!

Man, let me tell you, that Radeon HD 5850 is a total relic! We're talking about a card that’s easily seven years old at this point. If I remember my tech history right, it was last seen on shelves around the middle of 2011, so there is absolutely no way it's only three years old. It's definitely a seasoned veteran from a much different era of gaming!

I’m honestly not so sure if it’s even worth making the jump right now... If I were in your shoes, I’d definitely hang onto that Radeon HD 3870 for a bit longer. It’s leagues ahead of a GeForce G210, seriously! I actually ended up selling my old card to pocket some extra cash, so it felt like a smart move at the time. $200Honestly, for that kind of money, you can actually snag some pretty beefy used cards! I’m talking about stuff like a GeForce GTX 660 or even an HD 7850. You get way more bang for your buck that way!

P.S. So, what exactly did you end up picking up? I'm dying to know what the rest of your build looks like! If you aren't sure about all your specs, just fire up Speccy—it'll give you the full rundown on everything else inside that rig.

Man, everyone already told me I totally botched this one, but honestly, it’s like they think I actually care! $800 Man, you could definitely get some decent playtime in with newer Call of Duty titles or Battlefield! I actually have an old Asus card sitting in my previous rig right now, just gathering dust. I was wondering though—is there anything else out there that might be worth picking up? Man, there are some massive differences here! If I were to swap that Radeon HD 3870 into a brand-new build instead of sticking with that old GeForce G210, man, what a difference! It’s like switching from a tricycle to a muscle car. Honestly, putting a G210 in a modern machine is basically just paying for a paperweight that can barely render a desktop icon, haha. If you've got that Radeon HD 3870 lying around, it might be a little dated by today's standards, but it'll still give you a much more decent experience than that tiny little card. Just make sure your power supply can actually handle it—I learned that the hard way when I tried to cram an old high-end card into a budget rig back in the day and nearly tripped my breaker!
So, I was just thinking—if I were looking to offload my old GeForce G210, what kind of price point would actually make sense? I'm trying to figure out if it's even worth the hassle of listing it online or if I should just toss it in a drawer and call it a day! $200Man, I can't even remember—back when that thing actually had a price tag on it! $100?😁
So, here’s the rest of the breakdown for my current rig! I'm rocking an Athlon AMD Hyper X 152 with 4 cores, ticking along at about 2.1 GHz each. For memory, I've got 8 GB of DDR3 RAM under the hood, plus a massive 1 TB SATA3 hard drive for storage. As for the foundation, I'm running on an ASrock AM1 motherboard. And yeah, I think that pretty much covers everything!

I’m assuming you mean this processor:

https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Athlon-X4-5350-Processor/dp/B00C6P4NTC

Unfortunately, it isn't really built for much more than web browsing and Office 2000 work.😬

For $667, you could put together a decent base without a GPU, then maybe grab a used card for $167 and you'd be able to play most modern titles on 1080p low/medium settings quite nicely.

The GeForce G210 is basically just there to output a signal; it's honestly garbage for anything else. I suspect the integrated graphics on the Athlon 5350 might actually outperform it.
The Radeon HD 3870 is way stronger, sure, though it's also pretty weak by today's standards. You might be able to get a playable experience in newer Battlefield or Call of Duty: Black Ops II titles at 720p/low.

By the way, I was thinking about selling my new G120 for $150-$67 to save up about $200. But now you run into the issue where the CPU is too weak to keep up with cards like the Radeon HD 7850 or GeForce GTX 660, so you're kind of stuck, unfortunately.

crimsonstag84 said:I’m assuming you’re looking at this processor here:

https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Athlon-X4-5350-Processor/dp/B00XXXXXX

Sadly, its main purpose isn't much more than browsing the web or running some Office stuff. 😬

With $667, you could actually build a pretty decent foundation without even needing a dedicated GPU. If you toss some cash toward a used $167, you’ll be able to play most modern titles quite nicely on 1080p low or medium settings.

Honestly, that GeForce G210 is basically just there to show an image on your screen—it's total garbage for anything else. I’m pretty sure the integrated graphics on the Athlon 5350 are actually stronger than that thing!
The Radeon HD 3870 is way more powerful, yeah, though even that is a bit weak by today's standards. You might be able to get a decent frame rate on newer Battlefield or Call of Duty games if you stick to 720p on low settings.

By the way, I was thinking about selling my new G120 for about $150-$$67 to save up towards $200. But now you've run into the snag where your CPU is just too weak to keep up with cards like the ones I mentioned, the Radeon HD 7850 or the GeForce GTX 660. So, you're kind of stuck in no man's land right now, unfortunately.

So you mean I can't put a powerful graphics card in what I have right now? Please tell me you're joking... wait, can I at least upgrade to a newer, better processor on this motherboard so I *can* install a better GPU? Please, answer me, I'm actually starting to feel a little sick over this! 🤦

Unfortunately, you can't really upgrade the CPU either... the AM1 socket won't support anything more powerful than what you've currently got. It's just one of those platforms designed for ultra-low power consumption—only about 25W—so it’s strictly meant for basic tasks, like I mentioned before.

If you're looking to actually get into serious gaming, you'll probably need to swap out both the motherboard and the processor. Plus, we already established you'll need a new graphics card too. If you ended up buying this blindly, well, I guess that happens all the time with pre-built systems, especially in the budget range up to $1000.

crimsonstag84 said:Unfortunately, you can't even swap out the CPU... there isn't anything more powerful than what you currently have for that AM1 socket. It’s just one of those platforms designed specifically for ultra-low power consumption (only 25W), meant for exactly what I mentioned before—nothing too demanding.

If you're looking to upgrade for some serious gaming, you're going to have to ditch both the motherboard and the processor. Plus the GPU, obviously; we already settled that part. If you ended up buying this blindly, hey, don't sweat it—it happens all the time with those pre-built desktop setups, especially in the budget range under $1000.

Alright, thanks! Honestly, I wasn't even aiming for anything pricey, maybe something around $767. Man, that old rig cost me about $700-$$2667 including the monitor, and I picked it up back in 2008. Some guy who knows his stuff told me that even my old dual-core 2.33 GHz chip (can't remember the exact model) actually performs better than this new 😁
.

It’s probably the Core 2 Duo E6550... if we're just looking at single-core performance, the E6550 might have a slight edge 😬

crimsonstag84 said:It’s probably the Core 2 Duo E6550... if we're looking at single-core performance, the E6550 definitely has a bit more punch 😬

Honestly, I don't know. This one guy tried to pitch me on building this "incredible" custom rig, claiming he'd just order all the parts from Canada and throw in a 3-year warranty. Like, okay, sure. So I decided to call up a local shop instead to see what their actual deals looked like. The guy at the store laid out everything I could get for $767, and the best part was that the PC would be ready and waiting for me—I just had to swing by and pick it up! I can't even remember 🤔, I was just so stoked to grab the machine. They even let me pay in installments, which was huge. It had Windows 10 pre-installed (I paid a little extra under the table for $33), and the guy even tried to convince me that both graphics cards could run together at the same time. Total reality check hit me once I installed Call of Duty: Black Ops II; I figured maybe it was just a Windows 10 issue, so I rolled back to Windows 7, but nope, still didn't work.
Man, it sucks. It feels like every single game with high fps-ov from 2007 through 2010 is just getting harder to run.

It honestly breaks my heart to see stuff like this. An AM1 build with a GeForce G210 claiming it "can run anything alive for $767." 🤦 I really wish there was a way to hold people like this accountable for spreading such nonsense.

About a year ago, I built a new rig featuring an i5 4460, 16GB of RAM, an SSD, and a Radeon R9 380 Strix—though I had to settle for the 2GB model because my budget hit a wall. Now, I'm looking to phase out the Radeon R9 380 in favor of something with at least 4GB or 6GB of VRAM. Since I'm planning on shopping the used market, I'm open to any solid suggestions you might have.

neonowl67 said:About a year ago, I picked up a new build with an i5 4460, 16GB of RAM, an SSD, and so on... plus a Radeon R9 380 Strix, though I had to settle for the 2GB version because I was short on cash for anything higher. Now, I'm looking to ditch the Radeon R9 380 and grab something with 4 or 6GB instead. Any suggestions? I'm planning on buying used.

Look, it doesn't really make sense to buy a card in the exact same performance tier just to get more VRAM. If you're looking at something newer, getting a Radeon RX 480 or something in that ballpark would actually be worth it—but you aren't going to find those cheap on the used market. Maybe a GeForce GTX 970 if you stumble upon a good deal on eBay, though even then, it's not a massive leap.
What exactly is making you worry about the VRAM capacity? Sure, modern games can utilize more than 2GB, but is it really such a huge issue that it forces a GPU upgrade? Are you trying to play at resolutions higher than 1080p, or are you just unhappy with the raw performance?

Steven Stewart3 said:I don't know. Some guy offered to build me a killer rig, saying he’d order all the parts from Canada and throw in a three-year warranty. Sounds fine, right? But I decided to actually call a local shop instead to see what they could offer. The guy at the store started laying out everything I could get for... $767Still waiting on my PC build, too. Just need to go pick it up now that I've finally unboxed it.

Adam Moore3 said:It honestly breaks your heart seeing stuff like this. An AM1 build paired with a GeForce G210 and claiming "it can run anything modern"? Give me a break. $767". 🤦 It would be great if we could actually slap some real penalties on people like that.

Hold on a second, guys. This guy says he just picked up this PC a few days ago. Sounds like he didn't walk into a store to buy it but ordered it over the phone instead. That means he can easily send it back within 14 days without even giving a reason. It’s called a unilateral rescission of a distance contract, and under the Consumer Protection Act, that's exactly how it works—it protects buyers like him who purchase things remotely and don't get a chance to see what they're actually getting before the deal is done.

The right to unilateral contract termination.

General provisions.

Article 72.

Under the law, consumers have the right to unilaterally cancel any contract made remotely or outside of business premises within 14 days—no questions asked and no excuses required.

Once the sales contract is signed, that deadline mentioned in paragraph 1 kicks off the moment the goods are actually handed over. This applies when the consumer—or someone else they’ve designated (just not the actual carrier)—takes physical possession of the items.

Look, if you ordered the thing over the phone or some other way outside the actual store, you’ve gotta put it in writing—send an email or a letter—telling the merchant you don't want that junk and you want your money back. I'm assuming you kept the receipt.

Adam Moore3 said:Look, there’s no logic in buying a card from the exact same tier just because it has more VRAM. If you're looking to actually upgrade, getting a Radeon RX 480 or something in that class would be a sensible move, but you aren't going to find those sitting around cheap on the used market. Maybe a GeForce GTX 970 if you stumble upon a decent deal on eBay, though even then, it isn't exactly a massive leap forward.
What exactly is driving this obsession with VRAM capacity? While modern titles are certainly hungry for more memory, the jump isn't typically so extreme that it necessitates an entire GPU overhaul. Are you planning to push beyond 1080p, or are you simply dissatisfied with your current frame rates?

I can't say for certain; I just know the requirements are ballooning constantly. Whether I truly need the extra headroom is something I likely won't know until I see how the next Battlefield handles my setup. 😁

What's the budget?

wiredotter14 said:Hold up a second, guys! This guy mentioned he just picked up this PC a few days ago. It sounds like he didn't grab it from a physical storefront but ordered it over the phone instead. That’s huge because it means he can totally return it within 14 days WITHOUT even giving a reason! In the US, when you buy something remotely like that, consumer protection laws are pretty clear about letting you back out of the deal since you couldn't inspect the gear in person before handing over the cash.

Right to Unilateral Contract Termination

General Provisions

Section 72.

(1) A consumer has the right, without providing any reason, to unilaterally terminate a contract entered into outside of business premises or via remote distance within 14 days.

(2) In the case of a sales contract, the period mentioned in paragraph 1 begins once the goods are delivered into the possession of the consumer or a third party designated by the consumer (who isn't the carrier).

Basically, if you ordered your gear over the phone or some other way away from the shop, you just need to hit the seller up in writing (like an email or a letter) to let them know you don't want this junk and want your money back. I'm assuming you kept the receipt, right?

Ugh, whatever. I actually finished law school, so I can see that you're only quoting the part about the termination itself. I'm sure the actual legal code includes specific reasons why a contract might be voided too (like if the parts in the PC don't match what's on the invoice, or if the paperwork wasn't signed correctly, etc.). Plus, they didn't scam me—they told me exactly what I was getting, and I said "deal." But hey, it's in the past now.