GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

Look, I’m giving you this advice as seriously as I can—you’re trying to run a fourteen-year-old game on a relatively modern machine when the thing was built to run on an original Pentium I, 32 MB of RAM, some ancient graphics from back in the Franjo Josip era, and Windows 98—and then you actually have the nerve to wonder why you're running into issues?!? Seriously?! And what does the graphics card even have to do with... $167 What's the deal with that Blood stuff?

How can I figure out which slot my graphics card needs? And what kind of specs should I actually be looking at when picking up a new one?

So, what kind of motherboard are you running? It’s most likely just a standard PCIe x16 slot.
What resources? Honestly, that doesn't really matter; what actually counts is how much cash you're planning to drop on this.

Motherboard Chipset: Intel 945G (Lakeport-G) + ICH7
Motherboard Slots: 2xPCI, 2xPCI Express x1, 1xPCI Express x16

Video Card: Intel 82945G Integrated Graphics Controller [DELL]
Video Bus: PCI
Video RAMDAC: Internal

Is this right?

I was wondering about the resources the graphics card uses—like, how much do the RAM and CPU actually matter when upgrading to a new card? Since I'm currently running Intel integrated graphics, would I be able to swap in something else, maybe an ASUS or NVIDIA card?

Right now my integrated graphics is set to 256MB and it's pretty much useless...

Roger Chase3 said:Right?

I was wondering about what kind of resources the graphics card actually looks at—like, how much of an impact do the RAM and the processor have when you're upgrading to a new GPU? Since I'm currently running on Intel integrated graphics, can I just swap in something else, like an ASUS or an NVIDIA card?

My current integrated setup is sitting at 256MB and honestly... it's useless.

Yeah, integrated graphics are definitely no good for gaming.🙂 You can plug in pretty much any card since you've got a PCIe slot on your motherboard. Why don't you let us know what your budget looks like? That way we can give you some solid recommendations.

Just tell me what processor you're running and what kind of power supply you've got, plus what you actually plan on doing with that GPU (I'm guessing gaming?)

Yeah, I was actually just about to say the exact same thing.

How exactly do you think I can just shove any of them in there? As for the budget, I don't want to overspend, but I don't want to cheap out either—maybe suggest something middle-of-the-road. 🙂

I'm only getting this for football, and I've got an Intel 3.2 processor, though I'm not sure about the power supply.

Roger Chase3 said:...and I've got an Intel 3.2 processor, but I'm not sure about the power supply.

🤦

We really need to nail down the exact model, though it's probably just that Pentium D... maybe try running Speccy and let us know what it says. As for the power supply, just pop off the side panel of the case and check the label. You might as well blow out the dust while you're at it if it's been a while. 😛

You gave me a bunch of info, but I’m really hoping that processor is actually dual core.

Just off the top of my head, grab an HD 6670 with GDDR5 if you're trying to save some cash; if you don't mind spending a bit more, maybe go for the HD 7750.

I guess we'll see if your power supply can actually handle it, though these things shouldn't pull too much juice.

How long does it usually take for admin.com or any other online retailers to actually get an item delivered to your doorstep via USPS?

crimsonstag84 said:🤦

We really need the exact model, even if it's just some old Pentium D... maybe download Speccy and let us know what it says. To check the power supply, you'll probably have to pop the side panel off the case and look at the label. Might as well blow out the dust while you're at it if it hasn't been cleaned in a while. 😛

It's not a dual processor, and I guess it doesn't matter much whether we know the power supply specs or not, right? :d

Processor Name: Intel Pentium 4 640
Original Processor Frequency: 3200.0 MHz
CPU Brand Name: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz

fadedorca66 said:You didn't give much to go on, but hopefully that CPU is dual core.

Just guessing here, but maybe grab an HD 6670 with GDDR5 if you want to save some cash; if you don't mind spending a bit more, then maybe an HD 7750.

I assume your power supply should be fine since these aren't exactly power hogs.

Will I even be able to use DDR5?

Thomas Wells5 said:How long does it usually take for admin.com or online stores to ship an item to my house via mail?

A day or two.

If you order and pay by, say, 3 PM on Monday, you can pretty much expect it at your door by Tuesday.

I need a graphics card for under $217

Here is my current setup:
Processor: Intel Core i3 2100 3.1 GHz
RAM: G.Skill 4GB 1333MHz
Hard Drive: 500 GB / 32 MB / SATA III
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 5570 (Sold my Phantom GTX 560, currently stuck with this ATI)
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Power Supply: XFX 450W Motherboard
Motherboard: H61M-S2PV

Monitor: BenQ FP92W

The HD 6670 with DDR5.

Anthony Morris2 said:I need a graphics card for about $217

here's what I'm running right now
CPU: Intel Core i3 2100 3.1 GHz
RAM: G.Skill 4GB 1333MHz
Hard Drive: 500 GB / 32 MB / SATA III
GPU: ATI Radeon 5570 HD / Phantom 560 GTX (sold), so currently using this ATI Radeon
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
PSU: XFX 450W
Motherboard: H61M-S2PV

Monitor: BenQ FP92W

Better save up for $33 instead—honestly, the HD 6670 is super overrated. It’d probably do a decent enough job on your 19" monitor, but I'm guessing you'll be looking to upgrade that screen pretty soon anyway.

If you ask me, go with the MSI HD 7750 0C 1GB or maybe the MSI HD 6770 1GB.

$178 Best Buy
http://www.protis.us/products/detail...i-256bit/55356

In terms of raw power? Sure, they're decent. But honestly, I wouldn't recommend them right now—when they first dropped, I put them in a few builds and every single one ended up being sent back for warranty repairs. Plus, lately, I've seen a ton of VTX-ica cards getting RMA'd because they've been acting super glitchy, so I'd personally just steer clear.

If it wasn't for all those returns, they'd be absolute beasts.

Jesse Brown90 said:..moderator, oh great moderator, you poor, miserable excuse for an administrator,..

..you hit the nail on the head, Jesse,
even though I managed to fix those high FPS issues entirely on my own without any "expert" guidance. This issue
isn't just limited to ancient titles; it pops up in modern games too. Our moderator Benjamin King2
seems to think the only solution is to go out and buy some piece of junk hardware from a junkyard, but I’m telling you,
there’s a way to have it all. You just install NVIDIA Inspector, do a little light tweaking
with the frame limiter, and suddenly your FPS drops right down to those smooth, desired levels..
The performance gain is frankly indescribable. I can play what the moderator calls "prehistoric games"—though I thought Americans referred to them as "Stone Age classics"—just as easily as if
/which I highly doubt/ I were to sit down and indulge in a more recent release for my own enjoyment.

Hey everyone.

So, my GTS250 with 1GB of VRAM finally kicked the bucket. Now I'm on the hunt for something new that can actually match its performance levels.

I’ve been looking through this link and—honestly—there’s so much stuff listed that I can't make heads or tails of it. I'm a bit out of the loop, so I'm struggling to figure out what I actually need. I tend to prioritize cards with higher VRAM rather than raw processing power—I have a few specific reasons for that, I guess—but I'm definitely not looking to break the bank. When I picked up my current card, it cost me about $300, and there's just no way I'm dropping that kind of cash on a GPU again. At most, maybe half that amount? So, I wanted to see what you guys think. Thanks in advance!