GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

Just picked up the CX500. Thank you!

Could someone please point me in the right direction regarding where to pick up those small memory heatsinks for a graphics card? I noticed the one I just bought has an Accelero S1 installed, but it only covers three of them. That means five are still missing

So, what can we do with this card? Can it actually pull its weight?
EVGA GeForce RTX 3060, 2GB GDDR5

That’s basically just a beefed-up version of the older 7870.

Yeah, it’s pretty much comparable to a 7870 running a Tahiti chip
It really depends on what you're looking at; if you can snag it for around 1400--$500 then it's a solid deal purchase—but if the price tag gets too close to a GTX 760, you're definitely better off just grabbing that instead.

Could someone please provide some assistance regarding my NVIDIA SLI configuration?
My brother is running a rig with two graphics cards—an NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 setup—and we've run into a frustrating issue. After switching between NVIDIA SLI and single-card mode about ten times, the entire operating system on his Windows 7 64-bit machine just crashes. Why does this keep happening?

A Blue Screen of Death simply manifests during the black screen phase—specifically while the system is attempting to determine whether the user has toggled the CF option to enabled or disabled. Consequently, I find myself completely locked out of the AMD Catalyst Control Center, as my Windows 7 64-bit OS repeatedly reports an AMD driver crash. This leaves me with no choice but to strip the graphics cards from the entire system entirely, only to begin the tedious process of reinstalling the AMD drivers all over again.

A colleague of mine decided to implement an MSI bridge to connect two graphics cards, opting for that specific setup rather than using an AMD bridge for whatever reason.

Could this potentially be the root cause of the issue? I’ve noticed that when running in an NVIDIA SLI configuration, the processor seems to struggle significantly more than usual. Instead of handling the workload with the seamless ease one would expect from a single graphics card, the CPU appears to be fighting an uphill battle against two separate GPUs simultaneously. Given that I am working with an Intel Core i5 2320, is it possible that the overhead required to manage both cards is simply overtaxing the system?

If anyone here possesses a deep, comprehensive understanding of NVIDIA SLI, would you be so kind as to explain this particular mystery to me? 🤔

Hey everyone, I have a quick question for the group. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been a total tech novice since I was a kid, especially when it comes to navigating forums and digging up info online (so please bear with me if I’ve accidentally broken any community rules here!)

In my current setup—which I actually inherited from my son—I'm running an NVIDIA GeForce GT 730!! I was wondering if it would make any sense to pick up two more of those identical cards (roughly $433) to try and boost my performance, or if I'd be much better off just putting that same amount of money toward a single, different card instead?

To give you the full picture, I'm running a 500W Corsair power supply (ATX2 v2.3) with a 120mm fan, an AMD FX-4350 Quad at 4.2 GHz, an ASRock 970 Extreme4 motherboard, and 12GB of DDR3 Skill memory (running at 1333MHz) paired with that ATI HD 7700 series card

Sorry again for being such a newbie🙂

It’s probably better to just grab one decent card, like an NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 or something, instead of trying to make multiple weaker ones work.

Why did you go with 12GB of RAM? 😬

http://www.diskont24.com/product.php?productid=116716

Maybe grab this if you can swing the extra $33. I guess the CPU will probably end up being a bit of a bottleneck.

Well, a massive power surge hit and basically took out half my rig. Luckily, two of the 2GB RAM sticks managed to pull through. I ended up scoring a motherboard and some 2x 4GB sticks from a buddy of mine, and he was kind enough to handle the whole installation for me.
I really wish I’d had a bit more breathing room in the budget back then to grab a much better graphics card! Now, my kid is constantly pestering me because his new Call of Duty sessions are lagging like crazy—it's like a constant negotiation over every cent spent!
Still, he's doing great in school and actually listens to me, so I can't complain too much about the extra stress. Thanks for getting back to me so quickly!

redcrane50 said:Yeah, a lightning strike basically fried half the rig. The RAM barely survived—just 2 x 2GB left. A buddy of mine hooked me up with a motherboard and some 2x 4GB sticks, and he got everything installed for me.
Man, I really wish I had more cash on hand to grab a better GPU back then!!! Now my kid is constantly bugging me because his new game (Call of Duty) keeps lagging. It's a total waste of money, and I'm setting some ground rules!
Luckily, he's doing great in school and actually listens to me, so I don't feel too bad about it! Thanks for the quick reply.

Look, from what I've been reading online, that COD title was poorly optimized. There’s actually an official patch out meant to fix those issues.
— tell him to hunt that down and install it first (or find someone who knows how).

Maybe someone tech-savvy can test this out too (it looks like it applies if he's playing multiplayer).
Currently, Ghosts will stutter When set to “ high Priority ” — alter The settings with Thes steps : open Task manager -> System performance optimization guide

Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del).
Scroll and find iw6mp64_ship.exe
Right click on iw6mp64_ship.exe, then Set Priority: Normal.

He should also try turning off anti-aliasing and "sync every frame" in the advanced video options. After that, he can try this:

Alter these settings to improve FPS:

Distortion: No
Motion Blur: No
Graphics settings configuration
Graphics settings configuration

If he's still not happy with the performance, you could pick up another NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 for him, or just sell the current one and upgrade to the beastly card crimsonstag84 linked earlier.
If that's out of budget, there are some cheaper options available:
URL link
URL link

Hey, quick question for you guys. I’m looking for a GPU that actually works with my current setup. I’ve got about $133 - $167 to spend, and honestly, that’s my sweet spot. If there’s nothing decent in that range, let me know what you suggest, but please don't come at me with insane prices. Thanks in advance.

Here’s the specs:

PSU: Corsair VS Series 450W, CP-9020049-EU
Motherboard: ASUS P8B75-M LX
CPU: Intel Core i3 3220
RAM: 4GB Kingston HyperX Blue DDR3 1600MHz
HDD: 500GB Hitachi GST Deskstar 3.5" 7200RPM 16MB SATA II

Personally, I’d probably aim for either an NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 or a Radeon R7 250, but those are usually priced around $217. Honestly, you might be better off hunting for a used one on eBay—just make sure it comes with some kind of warranty. If you drop 400-$167 at a big-box retailer like Walmart, you aren't really getting much to play around with.

NVIDIA GTX 650 GS Maybe ask the seller if they can ship it via FedEx 🙂

Thanks for the quick reply. Honestly, I’d rather buy something brand new from a store instead of picking up used gear—it feels too much like buying a pig in a poke when I don't really know what I'm looking at. That Radeon R7 250 looks good to me, though. Now I just need to shop around different retailers to see who's got the best price. Any advice on which brand to go with? Should I grab an ASUS, Gigabyte, or something else?

Thanks, man. Maybe they'll throw in another discount now, but I still need to grab this for my basement setup anyway.

gentlehawk342 said:Thanks for the quick reply! I’d definitely prefer buying something brand new from a store rather than used; I don't want to end up with a pig in a poke since I'm not an expert on this stuff. That Radeon R7 250 looks good to me, though I need to shop around different retailers to find the best price. Any specific brand recommendations? Should I go with Sapphire, ASUS, or Gigabyte?

If you're going for new, I'd suggest the NVIDIA GeForce GT 730, but make sure you grab one with DDR5—it should perform better than the Radeon R7 250, which honestly just costs more because it's a newer model.

A friend of mine recently picked one of these up at Best Buy and actually got Far Cry 3 included, even though the listing didn't mention any freebies.

But if you're looking to push your budget a bit further, this option might be worth it too:
http://www.nabava.net/trazilica.php?tp=0&q=hd7770+ddr5

Look, I don't know the first thing about graphics cards. I have zero clue what specs you even look at to figure out which one is better than the other. Honestly, just give me a specific model name and I'll go grab it and be done with it. Right now, I’m stuck because I can't tell if yours is better than the one Timothy Kim60 mentioned or whatever else someone else is posting online.

gentlehawk342 said:I honestly don't know the first thing about graphics cards. I have no clue what specs you even look at to determine which one outperforms the other, so to be truthful, I’m a bit lost here. I'd love it if someone could just give me a specific model name so I can head down to Best Buy and grab it. Right now, I can't tell if yours is better than the one Osmanko mentioned, or whatever else someone else might suggest.

Look, the difference is marginal. You aren't going to make a catastrophic mistake regardless of which one you pick, but in most scenarios, the 7750 pulls ahead by a hair—and it actually costs less, too.

Znači ovu

You have the exact same one in that link. $225 What did I link above? (Assuming you aren't from NYC, but you have the links.)

Here’s the only comparison I could find based on the games.
http://www.bitsandchips.it/9-hardwar...-oland?start=6
A longer chart is always better. 🙂

The 7750 might have a slight edge in raw graphics performance—but why would I suggest going with the newer model instead? Honestly, it's just because it's brand new. 😁