I’d say pass on that recommendation—if the EVGA 550 W feels like too much of a stretch for your budget, just grab the EVGA 450 W. al
But honestly? I’d try to scrape together that extra bit of cash for the 550W version. You won't regret it, and you'll save yourself the headache of worrying about your power supply down the road.
Don't even bother grabbing that—you've already got $167 to work with.
Honestly, just grab a high-quality PSU that can actually handle future upgrades, or maybe just build another budget rig... spending money on junk is never worth it.
In terms of raw power? Sure, they're decent. But honestly, I wouldn't recommend them right now—when they first dropped, I put them in a few builds and every single one ended up being sent back for warranty repairs. Plus, lately, I've seen a ton of VTX-ica cards getting RMA'd because they've been acting super glitchy, so I'd personally just steer clear.
If it wasn't for all those returns, they'd be absolute beasts.
Anthony Morris2 said:I need a graphics card for about $217
here's what I'm running right now CPU: Intel Core i3 2100 3.1 GHz RAM: G.Skill 4GB 1333MHz Hard Drive: 500 GB / 32 MB / SATA III GPU: ATI Radeon 5570 HD / Phantom 560 GTX (sold), so currently using this ATI Radeon OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit PSU: XFX 450W Motherboard: H61M-S2PV
Monitor: BenQ FP92W
Better save up for $33 instead—honestly, the HD 6670 is super overrated. It’d probably do a decent enough job on your 19" monitor, but I'm guessing you'll be looking to upgrade that screen pretty soon anyway.
If you ask me, go with the MSI HD 7750 0C 1GB or maybe the MSI HD 6770 1GB.
Grab XFX 550W—it’ll serve you well for a long time, plus it supports way beefier setups than what you're running now, so you won't have to sweat it when you eventually want to upgrade your components.
I'd say the LC Power GP3 is the better pick here—plus, both of them are non-modular. Just a heads-up though, with the LC Power one, the cables are pretty short. If you're rocking a massive case, your cable management might end up looking a little messy.
Forget about that 125 dollar guy... just tell me exactly how much cash you've got to work with and I'll give you a solid recommendation for a used GPU.
Also, let me know what kind of power supply you're running, what resolution you play at, or basically—how big is your monitor?
If we're talking about the 1GB version of the HD 5670, then sure—but since they're basically the same card, this MSI model actually wins out because it has a better cooler and a longer warranty.
As for the CPU—if you're looking for something that doesn't pull too much power but still performs well enough to push this GPU and maybe even a bit more, the Intel G530 is the way to go.
Honestly, this setup is better than yours, and it'll run the games you actually want just fine—but you’re gonna need a decent power supply, at least 400W, to pull it off. Also, $125 is way too steep... maybe $200 if we're talking about used gear, though I honestly have no clue where you'd even find a new one for that much.
Nvidia is definitely the way to go when it comes to photo editing—plus, if he wants to squeeze in some gaming on the side, this MSI Radeon HD 6850 is a killer choice.
You can definitely snag a decent graphics card for that kind of cash—it really just comes down to what kind of power supply you're running and if your CPU can actually keep up with it without bottlenecking.
For $100, you could probably find some used ATI HD 4850 cards lying around. Honestly, those things still hold their own and can run most games pretty smoothly on medium or high settings, depending on your resolution.
edit: if your PSU is actually decent, my vote goes to the XFX 9800 GTX