GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

I wouldn't trust the Corsair VS series much; honestly, you're probably better off skipping it altogether.

As for a bottleneck, I guess it might happen since that Athlon 3600+ is pretty slow.

HD7750 or HD7770, I guess.

urbaneagle4 said:A little more context wouldn't hurt regarding why you'd pick one power supply over the one I mentioned. Also, you didn't actually answer my question about which of those three GPUs would be bottlenecked by my CPU... Honestly, this processor is perfect for what I need. Thanks for the reply, but I really want to dive into the details here. It isn't easy for me to drop over a thousand bucks when I'm planning to grab a GPU, RAM, and a PSU all at once.

It’s definitely going to bottleneck the 6670. I can't tell you if it'll be a massive hit or just a minor drag, but it will happen. From what I recall, you're running that old, entry-level AMD dual-core, right?
For the 6570, you should be fine.

If I were you, I'd go for the 6670 if the budget allows. You might end up upgrading your whole setup (motherboard, CPU, DDR3 RAM) down the road—whether that's a choice you make or because a motherboard suddenly dies on you—so you might regret not grabbing the better card now.

Timothy Kim60 said:It’ll definitely bottleneck a 6670. Honestly, I have no idea by how much—it could be a minor nuisance or a total disaster—but it’s going to happen. You’re essentially running one of those ancient, bottom-tier dual-core AMD chips if I recall correctly.
for a 6570, you should be fine enough.

In my humble opinion, just grab the 6670 if the budget allows. You might find yourself wanting to swap out the whole platform later anyway—motherboard, CPU, DDR3 RAM—whether that's because you actually want to upgrade or because your current motherboard decides to give up the ghost one morning. It's better to overbuild slightly than to regret it later...

Thanks for the input, haha. I think I'll just save up until I hit that $300-$400 mark and pick up a decent machine. It'll last me a lot longer than trying to keep patching up this junk. 😛

urbaneagle4 said:Thanks for the input! Honestly, I think I’ll just save up about 3 or 4 grand and pick up a decent machine from scratch. It’ll last longer than trying to keep patching up this junk. 😛

That’s exactly what we were trying to tell you—investing in a sinking ship is a losing game long-term.
You might not even need to spend that much if you hang onto your drive and power supply since they're still good, and you can keep the case too. Everything else? Just sell it for pennies on the dollar just to get it out of your sight.

Timothy Kim60 said:which is exactly what we were trying to warn you about—long-term, this is just a recipe for disaster.
Honestly, you might not even need to part with everything. You could probably hang onto the hard drive and the power supply since they're still good, and maybe the case too. Everything else? Just sell it off for pennies on the dollar just to get it out of your sight.

Well, damn. I have the itch to play right now, and who knows if I'll even feel like it later, right? 🙂Anyway, thanks for all the input, everyone. Peace out. 😁

Is there some kind of app out there to stress test a graphics card?

So, I recently picked up a new rig—it’s running an NVIDIA GeForce 2GB—and I went ahead with the drivers that came bundled with the machine. Everything runs smooth enough when I'm gaming, but here's the kicker: whenever I try to watch high-res movies, I start seeing these weird blocky artifacts... usually right when I'm scrubbing through the timeline on my media player.
It never used to do this on my old laptop, even with the exact same files. And it isn't just the big stuff either; it happens with 720p MP4s too.

Let me try to describe these blocks better,
they look like the resolution just drops suddenly, like the whole movie turns into a low-res mess, and then it takes a few seconds for the picture to snap back to normal...

Andrew Peterson2 said:Is there an app to stress test a graphics card?

I recently picked up a new PC featuring an NVIDIA GeForce 2GB. I installed the drivers that came bundled with it, and while games run perfectly, I'm running into issues when watching high-res movies. I see pixelation—little blocks appearing on the screen—most often when I skip forward in the video player.
I didn't have this issue on my laptop using the exact same files. It’s happening with other movies and series recorded in 720p (mp4) as well.

Let me describe the artifacts better:
the blocks are large, making it look like the movie dropped to a much lower resolution, and it takes a few seconds for the picture to stabilize again.

Are you streaming these films online or playing them from your hard drive? If it's via the web, it might not be a big deal—internet connections can be finicky, and various Flash players or low-quality uploads on sketchy sites can cause playback issues.

First thing's first: install some updated codecs. You might be missing a specific codec, or perhaps a filter in your media player is acting up if you're playing files locally.
Also, go ahead and download the latest drivers directly from the manufacturer's website instead of relying on the ones provided with the build.

If you start seeing constant visual glitches—like spots or lines of different colors—regardless of what you're doing, then you're looking at hardware artifacts.

Hey everyone—I'm currently shopping for a new graphics card over on Amazon, and I figured I’d drop a few links here to see if you guys could help me pick the winner... basically, which one of these is actually worth my money? Thanks a ton! 🙂

http://www.amazon.de/Sapphire-Radeon...2914772&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.de/EVGA-passiv-GeF...2914772&sr=8-3

http://www.amazon.de/Gainward-NVIDIA...2914772&sr=8-6

So, what's the verdict on these three? Are there any major differences I should be worried about, or am I just splitting hairs? Seriously, whoever can weigh in and help me out, I owe you one!

I’d personally go with option number one. Why? Because that passive heatsink 🙂 is just way more solid than what you're seeing from Nvidia in those other links—you know, links two and three. Plus, honestly, that ATI card pulls less power than my old lawnmower does 😬

You've got it all wrong. Those aren't actually graphics cards 😁 they're just thirty-dollar pieces of junk

And honestly, wouldn't you agree? It wasn't just a random choice—picking out those graphics cards for $30 was actually a pretty solid move.

Exactly. Honestly, he might just need a reliable PC for basic tasks and may not even plan on playing any games at all—especially nothing particularly demanding.

😁 My bad, sorry about that 😁 I'm actually in a total mess right now 🤣

Hey everyone, I’m looking for some advice on a GPU upgrade. Here is my current setup:
- Intel Core 2 Duo
- 4 GB DDR2 RAM
- 650W Corsair power supply
- ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 512 MB VRAM
- Dell UltraSharp 24 monitor

I mainly want to play games, though nothing particularly demanding. My budget is around $200.

Thanks for the help.

Mind if I post some classifieds here first? If you're cool with that, I actually found a couple of solid graphics cards...

http://www.craigslist.org/flea-market/graphics-card-listing-7443619

http://www.craigslist.org/flea-market/graphics-card-listing-7502064

Just a heads up—that second one doesn't come with a warranty. You might want to dig a little deeper into the first listing to see if there's any coverage left; if it's out of warranty, maybe you can talk them down to a $33 lower price.

Larry Ortiz5 said:Could we look through Craigslist? If so, here’s a solid graphics card option...

http://www.craigslist.org/graphics-card-listing-7443619

http://www.craigslist.org/graphics-card-listing-7502064

The second one doesn't come with a warranty. I'd suggest asking about the first one—see if there's any coverage left. If not, maybe they'll drop the price by at least $33.

I'd prefer buying from a brick-and-mortar shop, but I'll check out these listings. Any other suggestions?

This one is perfectly fine if you aren't planning on running anything too crazy or demanding.

http://www.newegg.com/p/details/product/vga-dual-graphics

Larry Ortiz5 said:This one is perfectly fine if you aren't planning on playing anything overly demanding.

http://www.bestbuy.com/details/graphics-card-vga-dual

Exactly. I wouldn't even be able to make use of something more powerful; as long as it has DDR5, I'm good.

Timothy Kim60 said:Exactly. I wouldn't even be able to make use of anything more powerful; the main thing is getting DDR5.

Will this be able to run L.A. Noire or maybe Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on decent settings? Sorry for asking so many questions, I just don't know much about GPUs. I could probably stretch my budget up to $233 though