Posts by Bryan Taylor6

For that graph, you're looking at a target temperature of about 158-167 degrees Fahrenheit... basically just normal operating temps. Once it hits those levels, the fan should kick into high gear... I'm assuming you've only got one installed right now? It would be a good move to pop a 120mm fan on the side to blow directly onto the card. If your case is open, it’ll definitely shave a few degrees off...

Maybe try some older drivers

Amy Vaughn12 said:Wouldn't it just be easier for you to grab everything from a single retailer?
The RX 550 isn't really a great value proposition, especially when you consider $267. You could probably get better performance out of a GT 1030 for less money, or maybe look at an RX 460, which is significantly more powerful than both of them while only costing a tiny bit more

The GT 1030 is actually stronger than an RX 550???

http://hwbench.com/vgas/geforce-gt-1...-radeon-rx-550

I’m with you, crimsonstag84... that RX 460 is going to crush it in 3DMark.

http://hwbench.com/vgas/radeon-rx-460-vs-radeon-hd-6870

The GTX has a slight edge on DirectX 11, but once you switch over to DirectX 12, the RX 460 pulls way ahead... am I missing something here? Hope not...

http://hwbench.com/vgas/geforce-gtx-...-radeon-rx-460

The AMD Radeon RX 460 only pulls about 70W. Honestly, even my old card didn't draw more than that...

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 is a much better card, especially if you can track down an overclocked version...

http://www.gpuzoo.com/Compare/Sapphi...orce_GTX_1050/

Power draw is basically the same at 75W.

http://fsp-europe.com/hexa-400500w/

It should be just fine...

The AMD Radeon HD 6870 is a card you can find for $100 and it absolutely crushes a GT 740GS

http://www.gpuzoo.com/Compare/AMD_Ra...26018336-3279/

I just wanted to show that the AMD Radeon HD 6870 is actually very close to an AMD Radeon RX 460, looking at 300 vs $333$

http://www.gpuzoo.com/Compare/AMD_Ra...hire_11257-00/

I have a similar rig—a Phenom 965 with DDR2 6GB and an AMD Radeon HD 6870—and you can still game quite solidly on medium or low settings...

Games load entirely into the RAM, and once they're there, it doesn't matter much if it's slow or fast, whether it's DDR2 800 or DDR3 1333... obviously, DDR4 is a different beast altogether

If you need a better GPU immediately, an investment of about $100 will make that machine fly... or just pick up an AMD Radeon RX 460 or an AMD Radeon RX 470

Here is the performance gap between your CPU and mine

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/655...125W__BE).html

I even ran some games on an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 at 3GHz with 5GB of RAM and an AMD Radeon HD 7770 at 1280x1024 on an old 19-inch 4:3 monitor, and it actually performed pretty well...

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/337...Duo_E8400.html

That one really pulled ahead.....In single-threaded applications, the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 has 47% better performance.

It's fine on an Intel Pentium G4560, but that setup really needs at least an AMD Radeon RX 470, which is a lot of money to drop all at once... and if you're just running it on that old GT 740GS you already have, you haven't really gained anything

cosmiclynx57 said:AMD Athlon 2.90 GHz

I'm looking at stuff like Alien Isolation or Assassin's Creed Rogue... basically things from back in 2014 or 2015 since I'm sitting here with only 4 GB of RAM, so if I ever want to touch Grand Theft Auto V or Watch Dogs, I'm definitely gonna have to cough up some cash for more RAM.

At the end of the day, I really don't care if it looks amazing or anything, I just need to be able to actually launch them and play, even if everything is cranked down to the bare minimum settings.

Look for used cards with GDDR5 and DX11 support. Two 1GB cards are better than one, but honestly, for $300—$133 you might find something newer with 2GB, so even a single card is fine. Check Craigslist to see what's out there. For that budget, I'd suggest an HD 6870, maybe a slightly weaker HD 7770, or an older HD 5770... or an HD 5850. Just watch the power draw; make sure your PSU can handle it. There are some decent Nvidia cards too.

Use this link if you're comparing models:

http://www.gpuzoo.com/Compare/AMD_Ra...Radeon_R9_380/

Pay most attention to the single Precision performance (GFLOPS)... that's basically the raw power of the card. Use that as a baseline. Obviously, reading full reviews is much better, but this is good for a quick comparison. Those GFLOPS matter more than the VRAM size. There are tons of terrible cards with 2GB of memory that people think are great, but they really aren't.

Here is the difference between the Nvidia GeForce gt 710 and the HD 6870...

http://www.gpuzoo.com/Compare/ASUS_7...adeon_HD_6870/

The difference is massive. But keep in mind, one pulls 19W while the other pulls 150W...

Maybe a little, but it doesn't really matter. If it isn't much more expensive, you might want to consider the GeForce GTX 1050 instead. It's a bit stronger, more capable...

Of course it makes sense. The RX 460 is nearly twice as powerful... just buy it.

fadedorca66 said:So, what are you actually doing on that PC? If you’re gaming, grabbing a new GPU is a solid move since you can just port it over to your next build later... But if you aren't gaming, then there's really no point in getting one!

You could just grab a new case and an SSD. Honestly, messing around with the RAM, the processor, or anything else isn't worth the headache... that platform is ten years old now. Maybe add another 2GB of RAM if you really have to... $33I'm not entirely sure how much RAM you actually have available right now. It’s reporting 2.5GB, but there's a chance your graphics card is hogging some of it... Plus, you installed the 32-bit version of macOS, when switching to 64-bit would definitely be the smarter move.

With 32-bit macOS, you're capped at addressing 3 gigs of RAM. If you aren't planning on upgrading to a 64-bit OS, there’s really no point in buying more memory... unless you just want a cheap 500MB stick of DDR2 just to have it.

Alexander Moore67 said:I found this graphics card listed online... looking at the specs now. It seems interesting, but I need to dig deeper into whether it’s actually worth the price tag. Might be worth grabbing if the performance holds up under stress tests. Still deciding...
That card is going to be a bit of a bottleneck, but you won't need to swap out your power supply. Honestly, the jump from your old one... it's night and day.👍

Doesn't matter. For that kind of money, you could grab a much newer, way more powerful RX 460 if we're talking about buying something new...

Actually, it really depends on which direction you want this upgrade to go. What do you actually need from this machine? I don't think you're a gamer... nobody tries to play anything serious with an N210 graphics card...
Maybe it would be better to just grab a G4400 processor for around a hundred bucks... $167 Just grab a motherboard with 4GB DDR4 RAM and you’ve got a solid new PC... You can find decent cases for about $25 around here too...

If that’s getting too pricey, just look into the C3900 or C1840 processors along with their matching motherboards and RAM... the latter uses DDR3.

Every single one of those processors absolutely crushes your...

Now that you mention it, you're talking about a kid... In that case, just head over to a local shop and look for an APU with decent integrated graphics... Something like an Intel Core i5, a motherboard, and some RAM...

Let’s be real, your CPU is probably junk, and that motherboard isn't much better. Plus, DDR2 RAM is getting pricey... What you've got there is fine if you just want to browse the web. You could always throw in a used graphics card to get a little more out of it without spending much, especially if you're local to the Bay Area...

I found this listing for a graphics card online. Looks like a decent deal if you're looking to upgrade... checking out the specs now.

You don't need to swap out the power supply for her. It doesn't pull much power and the unit itself isn't bad... honestly, it’s fifty times better than what she’s running right now.

This build is going to need a beefier power supply... especially since that GPU is such a beast...

I’m looking at this listing for a graphics card on Craigslist... wondering if anyone here thinks it's a decent deal. It seems okay, but I can't quite tell if the price is right for what you actually get. Any thoughts?

Robert Rodriguez2 said:I’d go with the AMD route. It's a more balanced build.

Build - AMD

Stronger CPU, slightly better cooler. If you want to play something heavy down the road, you just swap out the GPU. No need to mess with the processor.😁

I like this one, Core i3-8100... 🙂 It would be worth stretching out for that build...

Not that I’m exactly bragging about it (kind of becoming a total nerd)... 🙂

But you just can't look at those graphics cards and call it even... if you're looking at FPS, then everything becomes subjective because some games are just better optimized for, say, Nvidia....so I still think there's a real difference between 1600 GFLOPS and 2150....

driftingdrifter88 said:Look, I have to admit I lean toward the green team...
Built two rigs within three months
One has a gtx 1080, the other an rx460....

Aside from them being different classes, the rx460 was way more of a headache to get running properly.

I'm not really sure what kind of problems you mean... You grab the card, install the latest driver, and you're good to go. And obviously, they aren't comparable because an rx460 is cheap, whereas a gtx 1080 is well over $300 $1333

In that specific bracket, $300 Nvidia literally has nothing to offer. The gtx950 is overpriced and the gtx750 is just too weak for me.

http://www.gpuzoo.com/Compare/AMD_Ra...750TI-OC-2GD5/

Forget everything you just said and just go for the rx460.......$20 It's a much, much better card

http://www.google.com/search?q=rx+460

I don't want anyone thinking I'm talking nonsense here

http://www.gpuzoo.com/Compare/AMD_Ra...on_R7_360_OEM/

That comparison uses the strongest card on the list, but here is how it looks against the gt730

http://www.gpuzoo.com/Compare/AMD_Ra...F730-1024D5H1/

Absolute misery

The rx460 OC is an even better version of that card, and it's only about 20 bucks $10 more than the standard rx460

The real headache with HP and Dell desktops is that the motherboards rarely have standard power connectors. You're basically stuck using their proprietary 200W power supplies, which means you can't just pop in a beefier graphics card... You also run into walls when trying to upgrade the CPU; for instance, certain Xion chips won't work in a 775 socket chassis... It all runs fine as long as you stick to the stock setup, and honestly, the internet experience feels a bit smoother if you grab a used card from $33 or maybe a new GT 710 or GT 730...

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/p...r_na-c01570344

crimsonstag84 said:I’m not sure what kind of budget you’re working with, but maybe check this out:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08C1W5K9X

On a monthly payment plan, it’s about $87/mo. I picked one up about a month ago; the speakers are definitely a letdown, and the keyboard feels a bit cheap. Still, I doubt you'll find better specs for this price point, and you can always upgrade the RAM or maybe pop in an SSD later.

It's a solid choice for the money, but even though that processor is an i3, it’s still nowhere near as powerful as an i3 3220.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i...l-Core-i3-3220

That processor is honestly garbage. You can browse the web, though it won't be fast, maybe stream a movie, and that’s about it... forget about ever running Photoshop, Illustrator, or Dreamweaver on it.

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/44/...eleron_N3050.h

What kind of games are you planning to play?










It's pretty obvious you could game on this too if you just add more RAM, overclock it, and pick up a decent GPU... That CPU can be pushed to 2.7 GHz if you try...

For basic web browsing, this setup is totally fine enough...

Do these programs (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Dreamweaver) actually need 4 cores?

For multi-threaded workloads, there's only a 6% bump with the Intel Core i3, but for single-core performance, they say the Intel Core i3 is 47% faster than the Core_G4400...

My assumption is that you'd get way more utility out of that 47% single-core boost than just a measly 6% in multi-threading.

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/168...Core_G4400.htm

If I'm reading this right, gaming isn't really an issue here, so any upgrade to a better GPU would just be minor...