rowdyhawk212 said:Hey there! I'm looking to upgrade my old rig so it lasts a few more years and can actually handle some newer titles. I'm aiming for 1080p resolution with at least medium settings.
Current setup: motherboard - ASUS M3A78-EM CPU - AMD Phenom x4 9550 2,2 RAM - 2x2GB Kingmax DDR2 800 GPU - ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 DDR5 PSU - Gigabyte GE-R460-V1
The HD 6850 pulls slightly less power than the HD 4850. This one draws even less, though I suspect your CPU will end up being a bottleneck, even if you try to overclock it:
Upgrading to 8GB of RAM probably won't make much of a difference since you're likely not even maxing out your current 4GB. Plus, that processor doesn't seem to have much headroom for OCati, and honestly, I wouldn't recommend trying it with a power supply like that.
rapidpuma59 said:I get that the whole ATI vs. Nvidia thing is basically like Intel vs. AMD, but honestly, I don't really care which one I pick as long as the quality is decent.
There isn't really a "better" or "higher quality" brand here; that's just nonsense. 😉
If you're buying right now, assuming you can grab an R9 280 x. GTX 960, it definitely won't be more expensive than a current GTX 770. A GTX 970 should probably be around the same ballpark $1000.
Since you've already waited this long, you might as well hang tight for another month or so. The GTX 970 and 980 are dropping in three days, and the GTX 960 should be out in about a month.
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti is about $367, while the R9 270 usually goes for 1200-$417, so I'm not really sure where you're getting 1300-1400 from 🙂.
What kind of CPU and power supply (brand and wattage) are you running?
An R9 270X is roughly $450, by the way. If your processor can actually handle it, you could go for an R9 280, but that one is $533.
Roger Mitchell4 said:I think I get it now. A buddy of mine bought a rig specifically for $1333 gaming, but there isn't a single gaming bone in its body. It barely runs MW3 on medium settings, and Most Wanted 2012 is lagging like crazy even on the lowest 🙂 settings.
It’s probably because he just picked up some pre-built PC off the shelf.🙂
Roger Mitchell4 said:I was using a card from Canada. I'm from the Southern United States, so I'll be heading up north around Christmas, which is when I planned on picking it up—that's why I was pushing for a pre-built PC.
Around Christmas 🤣
Maybe just notify me a few days before you buy it then... I guess there's no point in putting a build together right now since new graphics cards and the latest Intel processors are about to drop, so prices and availability will probably shift by then.
I’d skip the R7 250 if I were you. There isn't much of a price gap between that and the one in the link, but the performance jump is huge. Maybe just hold off for another week if you really need to save the cash.
graniteharbor85 said:You both set her up with a budget build, yet she's already hunting for graphics cards 😉
Kimberly Richardson2
Intel Core i5 4460 box ASRock H81M HDS KINGSTON 8GB 1600 MHZ Intel SSD 520 120 GB SATA 3 Toshiba DT01ACA050 3,5 500 GB SATA 3 LG GH24NS95 SATA FORTRON HEXA+ 400W 80+ ACTIVE MS PHOENIX MIDI ATX
= $1345 for the GPU.
She should definitely just grab a dedicated card once she saves up a little cash—something like an AMD R7 250 DDR5 or a GTX 740 DDR5. And tell her to hang tight on the monitor situation; once she's got maybe $100-$$400 ready, she can pick up a decent Dell, AOC, LG, or Samsung with an IPS/PLS panel.
Maybe you could have grabbed an MSI board with at least a DVI port, since that would work with integrated graphics 😬
There isn't actually a 2GB DDR5 version out there; if you see it listed anywhere, it’s probably just a typo. Besides, I guess why would you even need 2GB of VRAM on a card like this? The chip and the memory are both too slow to actually make good use of it—it feels like a total marketing gimmick. You'd probably get more bang for your buck with 1GB of faster memory.
The Fortron 300 w is basically just an MS FSP 300 w, which I guess is probably the best way to go for a budget build. The latter is an SFX unit, and honestly, it seems pretty solid.