GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

Can an EVGA 570W PSU handle a GTX 260?

With only 16A on the 12V rail—yeah, good luck with that.

Hey there!
I'm looking for some advice on which GPU I should pick up. My power supply tops out at 300W, so I can't go overboard. I'm mostly just looking to run stuff like Modern Warfare 3, Crysis, Madden NFL 12, or NBA 2K at 1024x768 on medium settings. I’m strictly looking for something brand new—no used cards for me. If you could drop a link to where I can actually buy it from a legit retailer, that would be awesome!🙂
Thanks!

For my brother:

Looking for a PCI-E graphics card

PC build specs:
CPU: Intel Pentium Dual-Core at 2.61 GHz
RAM: 1.5GB DDR2
PSU: Logitech 460W
Monitor: Dell. He’s probably playing at 1024x768, but don't quote me on that—I'm not really sure if he runs things on low, medium, or high settings.
He used to have an NVIDIA GeForce (256-bit, 256MB DDR3), but it finally kicked the bucket. Right now, he's just getting by on integrated graphics.
He mainly plays Madden NFL 12, Football Manager 2012, and Madden NFL 12.
Budget is up to $100, though he could potentially stretch to $17 if needed.
Does my brother have any hope of finding something decent for around $300 (maybe $350) in this market?
Thanks!

http://www.craigslist.com/video-cards-listing-5117381
http://www.craigslist.com/video-cards-listing-5060929
http://www.craigslist.com/video-cards-listing-3995012
http://www.craigslist.com/video-cards-listing-4868588
http://www.craigslist.com/video-cards-listing-5014664
http://www.craigslist.com/video-cards-listing-5139490
http://www.craigslist.com/video-cards-listing-5052510

Honestly? It's going to be tough to find anything better than this. Just make sure you double-check everything first. I mean, it's used gear, right? You don't want to end up regretting it later. 🙂

Hey everyone! So, I'm looking at my options here—should I go with the Radeon 4850 or the 4870? I definitely need a quick sanity check on this one before I pull the trigger. Also, does anyone know if there are any other smart picks out there that I might be overlooking?

@Jason Fisher59/">@@Jason Fisher59 Just grab a 4870... absolute beast of a card... a buddy of mine has one and says it performs beautifully... only catch is it pulls a lot of power, so if your PSU is weak, you might run into trouble...

I've got a few questions myself:
1. Is getting a PowerColor Radeon actually worth it, or is there something better in that price range?
2. Should I stretch my wallet by another $60 to go for the EVGA version (I heard the cooling is way superior to the standard PowerColor model) or am I better off just picking up a 6770 at that point?
3. What kind of PSU should I be looking at?

I'm trying to be as cheap as possible here, so ideally I'd just grab a basic 6750 for $223 along with a budget-friendly power supply, but then again, I'm second-guessing myself... why not just invest in a beefier unit now that could potentially handle running two of those 6750s in Crossfire a year or two down the road?

How am I supposed to know if my GPU is actually fried or if I'm just losing my mind? 😢(The monitor just cut out on me, and then when I tried messing with the color settings, the screen turned into a mess of lines—you can barely see anything, it's totally trashed. Does this mean the card is officially dead, or what??🙂

It died on me.

CPU - Intel Core i5
Motherboard - ASUS Intel P35/G33/G31
RAM - 4x1GB Kingston DDR2 1333 MHz (I'm planning on an upgrade soon)

I'm looking for a GPU capable of handling Battlefield 3, Diablo 3, and a few other newer titles. I'd be interested to hear what you all would recommend in my situation. Thanks. 😉

http://www.newegg.com/p/products/9350

+

http://www.newegg.com/pc-components/motherboards

I guess you should probably overclock the processor past 3GHz, because if you don't, it might end up being a bit too weak to keep up with the graphics card...

Jeffrey Peterson said:I’ve got a few questions myself:
1. Is getting the PowerColor Radeon actually worth it, or is there something better in that price range?
2. Should I stretch my wallet just a bit more $60 to grab an EVGA model? (I heard the cooling is superior to the standard PowerColor version, but then again, would a 6770 be a smarter play at that point?)
3. Which PSU should I go with?

I'm trying to be as frugal as possible here, so the plan was to just grab the basic 6750 for $223 along with a budget power supply. But now I'm second-guessing everything... why shouldn't I just invest in a beefier unit now? Something that might actually handle this 6750 in a Crossfire setup a year or two down the road...

Is anyone out there? Come on, hardware experts, help me out! 😁

I'd probably grab the 6770 if you have the option. As for the PSU, it really depends on where you shop, but maybe look at Silverstone Strider, Corsair Redwing, ASUS, or the LC Power GP3 series. I wouldn't bother getting one way more powerful than necessary, though; I guess too many people aim for Crossfire and then realize they can't handle the noise, heat, and power draw when it actually happens.

As for the graphics card, I’m still weighing my options and seeing how things shake out... I’ll likely end up grabbing a Radeon HD 7750 because of that passive heatsink; I have a soft spot for those silent builds. Once that's sorted, I'll probably hunt down a quiet PSU to match... maybe something like an EVGA 460W unit...

Passive cooling and performance are inversely proportional. Figure out which one you actually care about more.

Well, look, if we aren't talking about massive performance gaps here, I’d honestly rather just go with passive cooling... anyway. Besides, I’m going to run into a bottleneck regardless; that Intel Pentium Dual-Core isn't exactly built to push things hard, so I won't even be utilizing the full potential of the card...

The Radeon HD 7750 is basically an HD 6770, except it pulls about half the power—only 50W under a full load, I think. 😉

Got a quick question—my GPU just kicked the bucket... so now I'm looking at picking up a new one. What's the verdict on the GTX 260??

casualfox22 said:I've got a question... my graphics card just kicked the bucket... so I'm looking at getting a new one, what do you guys think about the GTX 260??

First things first, how much cash are you actually looking to drop on a GPU?

crimsonstag84 said:The Radeon HD 7750 is basically just an HD 6770 in disguise, except for one thing: it’s actually efficient. It pulls about half the power—only 50W even when you're pushing it at full load. Honestly, it's a massive difference if you aren't trying to melt your power supply. 😉

So, I was actually going back and forth on this with a buddy at school today. We were debating performance specs, and according to Game Debate, the Radeon HD 7750 is about 6% more powerful than the 6770. Just one of those little technical deep dives that turns into a whole thing when you're just trying to kill time between classes. 😁 ...anyway, I’m curious—how much of a performance hit am I actually taking if my motherboard only has an x4 PCIe slot? (Look, I know, I know... the board is absolute garbage, don't even start with me). It feels like my frame rates are just tanking because of this bottleneck, regardless of how mediocre the rest of my gaming rig actually is.