GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

mellowraven8 said:PCI-E XFX AMD Radeon HD 6870 graphics card, 1GB DDR5, DualDVI, HDMI, miniDP
$428

560W Power Supply, LC POWER Silent Giant GREEN POWER LC6560GP3 V2.3, 140mm fan.
$117

TOTAL:

$545

Portio

I suspect you are going to notice a significant difference compared to what you currently have 🙂

Could you just tell me where on earth you found those components at those prices? I did some digging on Google and found the exact same graphics card listed for about $220.>

Exactly (so I actually wrote down the store name 🙂 )

I've got a 512MB DDR2 card right now—if I'm picking up a new 1GB one, does it have to be DDR2 too, or can I jump to DDR3?

Jonathan Jones4 said:I have a 512MB DDR2 card right now, so if I upgrade to a 1GB one, does it have to be DDR2 too, or can I get DDR3?

The type of memory shouldn't matter; you could even go with GDDR5. As long as the card fits the slot, it'll work, I guess.

And honestly, don't ever pick a card based on how many megabytes it has. That number is about as useful as what color the card is.🙄

So, I just finished watching this video and I’m curious to get your take—did I make a mistake picking up the 6950 2GB, or should I have just held out for the 7870? Looking at the projected price for the 7870, it'll probably be around $567, while I ended up paying $667 for mine. It's not even about the money for $100, per se—I'm more concerned about performance. Is the new card actually going to blow this one out of the water, or are they pretty much neck-and-neck? 😁

When it comes to computer tech, you can't look at it that way. Something new is always dropping, and you'll constantly feel like you missed the boat by not grabbing the latest thing. I remember being stuck in that exact loop, kicking myself for not jumping on Sandy Bridge immediately, even though waiting a few months would have been smarter. Then, just as I finally decided to pull the trigger, NVIDIA drops their new 5xx series, leaving me sitting there with my old 460. I might have the timeline slightly scrambled, but the lesson is simple: you can't think like that 😁

Where on earth did you pull a price like $567 from?

😂😂

The HD 7870 will probably sit right around the price point of the HD 6970, so there’s really no way it'll be $567. I'm guessing the HD 7850 might land just under $667...

EDIT: Usually here in the States, when you're looking at tech pricing, you should probably factor in about $1 = $2.75
.

So, I guess this site isn't exactly the most reliable source then

It’s a solid choice, but those are US prices. Once it hits our local market, expect a massive markup.

I just love America <3

PCI-E
400W power supply
1360x768
up to $167
I need to be able to run Call of Duty 2 and WoW without any issues. Ideally, I'd prefer buying from local shops in a major metro area like Chicago or Detroit so I don't have to deal with long shipping delays.

Here is the rest of my current setup if that helps:

Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit SP1
CPU
AMD Athlon II X2 250 46 °C
Regor 45nm Technology
RAM
3.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 401MHz (5-5-5-18)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-MA770-US3 (Socket M2) 43 °C

Graphics
W1943 (1360x768@60Hz)
ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series (MSI) 95 °C - pay close attention to that temperature. That's the real issue here. My GPU fan died on me. If you could also look into finding a replacement fan, I'd appreciate it; I really like this card.

Hard Drive
Western Digital Hard Drive 488 GB western Digital WDC WD5000AADS-00S9B0 ATA Devica (SATA) 40 °C

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

I'm not entirely sure what the specific differences are, but all I know is that I need DDR2.

What do you mean DDR2? System RAM and video memory are two totally different things, I guess.

I might have mixed up my specs, but it doesn't really matter... I'm looking for some cooling solutions for this NVIDIA GeForce GT series (MSI) card.

Hey, I could use some advice. I'm looking at picking up an NVIDIA GeForce GT 440, but my power supply is giving me pause. The specs say it needs 24 amps on the 12V rail, but I only have 19 amps available
Here’s the rest of my build
PSU: A generic 460W unit
CPU: AMD 4400+
RAM: 1GB
Motherboard: Something like this
Do you think this card would actually work with my setup???

You’d probably get more out of adding another 1GB of RAM... maybe see if you can find some used 1GB DDR2 800MHz sticks. As for the power supply, it'll likely handle the graphics card, assuming you didn't just pick up some cheap junk recently 😬

Yeah, I know that power supply is total garbage... I'll probably just pick up some RAM a bit later once I've saved up enough cash.

If that GT 440 wasn't an option, I'd probably just grab a GT 430 instead...