GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

You could find some old HD 4850s for that kind of money, but honestly, they just pull more power without offering any meaningful performance boost. If you want something sensible, maybe look for a GeForce GT 730 that actually comes with a warranty.

northernraven2 said:I need some advice on finding the best graphics card possible for under $133. I'm looking for the absolute best bang-for-your-buck option for gaming since my current setup isn't cutting it anymore. My power supply is an OCZ 500W, the GPU is a GeForce GT 640, and here is the rest of my build...

What exactly do you mean by "not cutting it"? Is the card actually failing, or are you just unhappy with the frame rates? Just so you know, you won't find anything better than a GeForce GT 640 for $133, even if you look at the used market. A 7750 would perform about the same, maybe even slightly worse

It’s not actually torn—the image is just shaking—and I had this exact same issue with my old monitor, and now it's happening on the new one too. Plus, whenever a light switch gets flipped, it’s like the HDMI signal just completely drops out for a second.

Which light are you flipping when you turn things on or off?

My PC is hooked up to an extension cord that also powers my TV—so whenever I flip the light switch in the living room, it triggers this weird issue

What if I bumped the limit up to $267? At that point, what would be the best GPU choice? Right now, I've been looking at this one, but I'm honestly not sure if my processor is beefy enough to keep up with the card—what do you guys think?

The GeForce GT 730 is a solid pick, and the CPU should be able to handle it just fine...

I'm just not convinced the GPU is actually the culprit here. Have you tried swapping in a different card yet?

Yeah, I figured that was a solid choice—I’m actually going to try swapping in a friend's GPU this Monday just to test things out. If that one runs without any issues, then I know the problem is definitely on my end; if not, I'll just head over to a repair shop and let the pros handle it.

northernraven2 said:My PC is plugged into a power strip along with my TV, and whenever I flip the light switch in the living room, this happens.

Does it only happen then?

If so, just grab another power strip and rearrange your setup so you don't have everything crowded into one single outlet.😬

Also, screen flickering can be caused by the video cable connecting the monitor to your graphics card, or even electromagnetic interference from speakers if they are crammed too close to or right behind the monitor.

I picked up another high-quality power strip—now my PC is plugged into this one while everything else stays on the old one. I also swapped out the cable, so the speakers aren't sitting quite so close to each other anymore.

It could even be an issue with the wiring...

Honestly, I didn't run into any of these issues back when I was running my old rig—everything worked just fine then—but we'll see how things shake out this Monday. Just wanted to check in with you guys first: do you think that graphics card will be compatible with my motherboard?

Maybe

R7 265 (the successor to the HD7850)
http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-rade...-265_135733/10
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ew,3748-9.html

According to Tom's Hardware, this card is roughly 8% faster than the 7850 on average.

The GeForce GTX 980 should serve as the logical replacement for the HD 7950—expect crypto miners to absolutely strip the shelves bare the moment these hit the market. There’s been a massive gap in the lineup between the 270x and 280x ever since the 7950 was discontinued.

Think of the R7 250x as the direct substitute for the GeForce GT 730.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ew,3747-3.html

It is high time NVIDIA released something competitive in the budget segment, like a GeForce GTX 750 Ti.

I guess the GeForce GTX 750 and GeForce GTX 750 Ti on Maxwell architecture should be dropping in a few days, though they’re still stuck on 28nm—so maybe we're looking at Maxwell v0.9 for now.😁

AMD is going to offer some really beautiful graphics card options soon. Honestly, for every single one you consider, you'll find yourself thinking, $17 why not just pay a little more 😬 to grab something even better?

possible 🤣

Generally speaking, nothing has actually changed; they’ve just rebranded things. We'll likely see the 265 sitting where the 7850 used to be, probably priced around $1100-$1200. If it ends up being cheaper than that, it'll be a solid deal.

In all honesty, the only truly "new" stuff in this generation is the high-end cards. One silver lining in this transition is that the 7970 GHz—instead of the usual three separate models—is now available for $2300-$800 under the name 280x. This move actually forced Nvidia to drop the price of the GTX 770 by about a hundred bucks.

It seems to me that crypto miners (Bitcoin miners and such) are messing with the market regarding the 280x, which is pretty scarce right now. It might not be as big an issue here in the States as it is overseas, which is where our suppliers pull their stock from. I didn't realize it had become such a massive trend 🤷. Because of that, prices aren't even dropping since everything that hits the shelves gets snapped up immediately due to high demand. We’re going to see the same thing happen with the R9 280 (which will likely make the GTX 760 a bad value by comparison).

EDIT

750Ti
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/gra...50-ti-review/1
http://www.techspot.com/review/783-g...radeon-r7-265/
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ew,3750-7.html
http://www.slashgear.com/nvidia-gefo...view-18317248/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/di...-750-ti-review
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/N...ce_GTX_750_Ti/

On average, it's more powerful than a 260x and slightly weaker than a GTX 650Ti Boost (though sometimes it beats it), but it only pulls 60w TDP and has great overclocking potential. I think those high-end Nvidia Maxwell cards are going to be absolutely massive, provided the pricing isn't ridiculous...

Prices will probably adjust soon once the current stock clears out, but the R9 270/270x will likely end up being the best buy for your average everyday user, since you'll have to pay significantly more to step up to anything better...

fadedorca66 said:It could honestly be an issue with the house wiring itself...

Still, I'm leaning toward it being a power delivery issue—my PC was just at a repair shop where they tested every single component, and everything worked perfectly there. That said, would a UPS actually help solve this?

Maybe try moving it to a different room just to test things out there?

Yeah, I actually used three different power supplies for that—but the PC is still acting up like this :/