GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

The processor is going to be a massive bottleneck here, but honestly, this is probably your best bet. It’s low on power consumption, and you can actually repurpose it later if you decide to upgrade your rig—maybe to something like a Celeron G1820 with 4GB of DDR3 RAM.

http://www.diskont24.com/product.php...cat=390&page=2

If that’s still pushing your budget too far, I guess you could look for something used, like an HD 6670 or an HD 5670. Anything lower than the cards in the link above is basically just overpriced junk.😁

crimsonstag84 said:The processor is going to be a massive bottleneck for you, honestly. But if we're talking about what actually makes sense to spend money on right now, this is really your only viable move. It’s low power consumption, and it gives you a foundation you can actually build on later. If you decide to upgrade the rest of the rig down the line—say, moving up to a Celeron G1820 paired with 4GB of DDR3 RAM—you won't have to start from scratch.

I took a look at that listing on the discount site—specifically that second page of hardware deals. It’s an interesting mix, though you have to look closely at what you're actually getting. For anyone hunting for budget components or older parts to keep a legacy build running, there's some stuff here worth noting, provided you know exactly what the specs are.

If that price tag feels like too much for you, just look into the used market. Grab something like an HD 6670 or an HD 5670 instead. Honestly, anything lower than the cards I linked above is just overpriced junk that isn't worth the investment. 😁

Does having two processors actually make a difference here? I’m planning on picking up another 1 GB of RAM—I’m sitting at 1 GB currently—so I wanted to lay out my full system specs for you all. Sorry to bother you with the technical clutter; I just really want to know if I can swap out this current graphics card for something else, maybe something a bit more modest.

General topics.
Operating system: Microsoft Windows 7 home
Central Processor: Intel® Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Username: HOME
Graphics.
Video adapter: Intel ( R ) 82945 G express chipset Family
Video memory: 256.00 MB
Screen resolution: 1024 x 768

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Processor and Mainboard.
The CPU.
CPU Name: Intel® Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Codename: model 4, Stepping 3
Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
Current clock speed: 2992 MHz
Max clock speed: 2992 MHz
Voltage: 3.3V
Motherboard.
model D2151-A1
FUJITSU Siemens products
Serial number B0278D14
BIOS Version 5.00 R1.07.2151.A1
A1 BIOS Vendor FUJITSU Siemens // Phoenix technologies Ltd.
SMBIOS version 5.00 R1.07.2151.A1
BIOS Date: November 17, 2005

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Memory Device
Memory resources.
Total memory capacity comes out to 1014.49 MB.
Memory usage sits at 711.19 MB.
Free memory: 303.30 MB
Memory usage sits at 70%.

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Display
Video adapter.
Intel ® 82945 g express chipset Family 128
Graphics Processor: Intel ( R ) 82945 G express chipset Family
Intel Corporation products
Video architecture: VGA
A quick word on the DAC if anyone needs it.
Memory capacity: 256.00 MB
Memory Type: Unknown
Display resolution: 1024 x 768 with 4,294,967,296 colors.

If you aren't planning on moving your GPU over to a new build, just grab the cheapest option available, like an ATI Radeon HD 5450 DDR3 (assuming you're buying new). The PC will still basically be a paperweight, but at least GTA san Andreas and The Sims 2 will actually run.

Hey everyone—I've decided to pull the trigger on a small PC upgrade, so I'm curious to hear your thoughts or any advice you might have. I'm planning to swap out my old graphics card (Radeon hd 5850 Black edition). Based on the reviews and benchmarks I've been digging through for this budget...$500~+/-$33 I was actually thinking about picking that up myself. This is it.

And now—I’m all ears for your "valued" opinions.
Here is the rest of the specs—for those keeping track.

Processor:
Intel i5-750 @ 2.66
Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3—an old classic, I suppose.
Power supply:
XFX Core edition Pro 550 w RAM—just another component in the machine.
RAM: — just another variable in an endless equation.
4GB—hardly enough for anything these days.

EDIT: I'm wondering—does Nvidia actually offer anything better in that same price bracket?

Look, $33 you've already got the 270x card, so picking up a standard 270 doesn't really make sense—it’s just not worth the cash at this point:

If you want to jump up to a GTX 760, you’d need to shell out an extra 100 bucks or so--$50, but honestly, the performance leap is massive enough to justify it.

http://diskont24.com/product.php?pro...cat=390&page=4

I’ve read a few people complaining that those Dual-X coolers are too loud. Honestly, they might just be being picky, but I used to always opt for MSI Gaming cards—even something like an r9 270 (the non-X version). It actually makes sense when you look at the specs: MSI Gaming uses 95mm fans, whereas the Sapphire Dual-X uses 74mm ones. Plus, the Sapphire card is physically smaller click. One guy even went as far as claiming that even the Vapor-X models are noisy
.

I've been reading in PCMag and scanning various global forums—apparently, the OCana R9 270 actually outperforms the OC-ane R9 270 x.

They’re essentially the same cards. Both are just rebranded versions of the 7870. Think of it this way: the 270 is an underclocked 270X, while the 270X is just an overclocked 270 (which is effectively a 7870). Most of the initial reviews for the 270X featured the reference cooler. For instance, if you look at brands like MSI, the main difference might be power delivery—the 270X often uses 2x6-pin connectors, whereas the 270 typically relies on a single 6-pin. Though, I wouldn't say that's a universal rule everywhere.

That’s tough... since they’re using the exact same chips, I'd assume their max overclock would be pretty much identical. Where did you actually run into that info?

Hi everyone.
I was wondering if anyone could suggest a used and budget-friendly graphics card that I might be able to find on sites like eBay for maybe around $30 (which would be roughly 25-$67).
Right now, I'm using a Radeon HD 4350 512mb, but I've been having some issues with it, so I really need to swap it out.
My power supply is a Trendsonic 500 w and my screen resolution is 1280x1024.
I suppose I'm looking for recommendations for cards that fit those specs, but something that can handle watching GTA san Andreas on High settings reasonably well—nothing too heavy beyond that. I'd definitely like something better than my current Radeon HD 4350 512mb, since right now I can only manage to run GTA san Andreas at that resolution on low settings.
If there are any cheap options that meet these needs, I think they would really help me out, as I'm pretty broke at the moment.
Thanks in advance.

Some pages just keep looping through errors—from what I can tell, there's some stuff wrong with the EVGA 9600GT listed for 31 miles..

Oh, I guess I should probably mention that I really need something that doesn't require its own extra power supply, and it definitely needs to have a VGA output, so maybe the one mentioned above isn't quite the right fit after all.

Look, man... high-end graphics cards pull way more power from the PSU than what you're dealing with now. Your best bet is probably just picking up a card that's roughly on par with what you have currently—especially since you mentioned having trouble with that old HD 4350. As for the VGA output, you could just grab a $5.00 VGA to DVI adapter and call it a day. Problem 😉 solved
.

Yeah, I completely blanked on the VGA adapter part, so I don't think that's going to be much of an issue for me, but I am wondering about this extra power supply thing. I guess I'm just curious if there needs to be a specific dedicated spot on the power supply unit to plug that cable in, or if it works some other way.

To be honest, I have no clue which power supply you’re running—I haven't heard of that one before 😁 It sounds like a bit of a "wild card," if you know what I mean. As far as connecting everything goes, your PSU should ideally have a connector labeled "PCIe," though that really just depends on what kind of unit you've got under the hood... Could you grab the exact model for me? Just pop the case open and type out the specs from the sticker on the power supply itself so we can be sure

Regarding that PCIe connector, here is what it looks like...

Try to get one of these cards down to 44 miles: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=5670&id...sort_by=price
Alternatively, see if you can find something like this for 31 miles: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=4670&id=&category=154

crimsonstag84 said:Unlikely... they use the same silicon, so their overclocking ceiling should be roughly identical—where exactly did you see that?

Check out this monthly Bug if you can! Even the GPU and memory clocks on the GTX 750 Ti (the reference model, mind you) were pushed higher than what was possible on the GTX 750 Ti

EDIT: Let me correct myself
According to the Bug, the EVGA GTX 750 Ti hit 1150MHz on the CPU and 6000MHz on the memory, whereas the EVGA GTX 750 Ti sits at 1200MHz CPU and 5800MHz memory!

And looking at the chart comparing all the overclocked cards—the GTX 750 Ti actually pulls better results than the 750 Ti, plus it ran cooler. Of course, at stock settings, the GTX 750 Ti wins, but only by a hair—just a few FPS.


Here’s the video as proof. 🙂

Ronald Myers81 said:Check out this monthly Bug if you can! Even the GPU and memory clock speeds on the GTX 750 Ti (the reference model, too) were pushed higher than what they could achieve on the GTX 750 Ti (again, reference model).

EDIT: Let me correct myself
According to the Bug, the EVGA GTX 750 Ti hit 1150MHz on the core and 6000MHz on the memory, whereas the EVGA GTX 750 Ti hit 1200MHz on the core and 5800MHz on the memory!

And looking at the graph comparing all the overclocked cards, the overclocked GTX 750 Ti actually performs better than the 750 Ti, plus it ran cooler. Of course, at stock settings, the 750 Ti still takes the win, but only by a tiny margin (just a few FPS)!

Here is the video as proof! 🙂

Like I mentioned, they are essentially the same cards, and how much overclocking you get really depends on the specific unit you have in hand.
Regarding the link you posted—Linus Sebastian included a comparison table there for the overclocked GTX 750 Ti gaming card versus the reference 750 Ti click

Timothy Kim60 said:Like I mentioned, they're essentially the same cards—though how much overclocking you get really depends on the individual silicon lottery.
That link you shared—Linus Sebastian used a table there comparing an overclocked GTX 750 Ti gaming model against a stock GTX 750 Ti click

Fair enough, but what about those results from the Bug? Both were EVGA models there—and both were stock!