GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

http://www.itreviews.co.uk/hardware/h1714.htm

Extracted from the link above:

Surprisingly enough, the HD4870 X2 actually draws less power than running two separate HD4870s in Crossfire. I guess a dual-card setup will pull about 320W, whereas the HD4870 X2 manages to get by on 'only' 286W. Just like the single-card version, it relies on a single 6-pin and an 8-pin PCI-E power connector.

The PSU is rated for about 525W total. It looks like the 3.3V and 5V rails combined hit 270W, while the 12V rail maxes out at 360W (total combined power)

That's what it says about the power supply... honestly, I have no clue what all these numbers actually mean. 😁

Will it be enough, or am I cutting it too close? 🤷

This is the setup I need to upgrade because my current card is throwing artifacts all over the screen—if that’s even the right term.

Budget:$233
Motherboard: Asus P5PL2
Old Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 8800GT
RAM: 2GB
Processor: Intel Pentium D CPU 2.66 GHz
Hard Drive: 250GB
Goal: Play newer titles like Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Modern Warfare 3 🙂, plus I use Adobe After Effects
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I suspect I have listed several unnecessary details above.

Andrew Fox74 said:The power supply's performance is rated at 525W, where the 3.3V and 5V rails combined can handle up to 270W and 360W max on the 12V rail (total combined output)

So this is what it says about the PSU... and honestly, I have zero clue what any of these numbers actually mean.😁

Is it gonna be enough or what?🤷

360W on the 12V rail... Well, the CPU is pulling from that same pipe—let's say it draws 60W just to be safe—which leaves you with 300W for the GPU. It might work, but I really hope you've got some insane ventilation in that case, because that card runs hot enough to cook a steak without breaking a sweat. 🙂

Ronald Barnes5 said:So, here’s the deal—I really need to pick up a new graphics card because my current one is throwing artifacts all over the screen—if that's even the right way to describe those weird glitches popping up everywhere!

Budget—$233
So, I've been looking into the ASUS P5PL2 motherboard—just one of those things that stays on your mind when you're tinkering with older gear. It’s a solid little piece of hardware, though definitely from an era where you felt like you actually understood how your PC worked. Just sitting there, thinking about all the builds that probably ran on this thing back in the day. Still holds up for certain niche projects if you're into that sort of thing.
So, I was looking at this old GeForce 8800 gt—real relic, right?—and honestly, it’s kind of wild how much things change. It's just sitting there like a fossil from a different era.
Ram-2gb
Intel Pentium D CPU 2.66 GHz
Hard drive—250GB.
I'm looking to pick up some newer titles—specifically thinking along the lines of NFS Hot Pursuit or MW3. 🙂So, I'm currently grinding away in Adobe After Effects—just one of those endless sessions where you lose track of time entirely.
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I honestly feel like I’ve already dumped a massive amount of totally unnecessary info up there!!!

So, here's the deal— Something... but try to get there. GTS 450 stretch.

Joshua Garcia3 said:All that's missing is the power supply. 🙂

The PSU is a 650 W Corsair 👍

feralmarlin8 said:It’s a 650 W Corsair power supply, I guess. 👍

I don't think the GTX 580 is going to be much of a game-changer here. You've already got that GTX 470 soc, which is actually a pretty beastly card, so I guess it might not really be worth the money to swap. $1000 You're stressing over 10 FPS in one specific game? I mean, you can probably max out 98% of everything else without breaking a sweat, but I guess you really latched onto this one. 😂

Maybe dial back the details a bit... 😉

Maybe you could try overclocking the CPU with an aftermarket cooler; it’s a much cheaper way to go. From what I can see, the motherboard seems pretty solid and the Computer Case is well-ventilated... plus, the Q9550 is actually a decent little clocker, I guess. 🙂

For instance. I found this listing on an American retailer's site.

Hey everyone.
So, I have no idea where to start here. Total noob status when it comes to this stuff. My current rig is basically a glorified paperweight, but hey, my folks promised me a new one eventually—just waiting on that miracle. Money is tight right now, so we're working with what we've got. I’m assuming I need a new GPU (or at least, that's my guess since my performance is trash and I can't even get drivers to work on Windows XP without getting errors). Anyway, I'm currently rocking an Radeon x1050 512 🙄 http://www.amd.com/us/products/deskt...fications.aspx
Long story short, I'm a massive WoW player and I also dig Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty 4. I wanted to see what I could pick up that's actually cheap but decent enough to keep Call of Duty 4 running at around 100fps (fingers crossed for that) and let me play Cataclysm without it turning into a slideshow. Low settings are totally fine for WoW, honestly. Right now, with my setup, I'm playing Call of Duty 4 on absolute minimum settings at 640x480 and barely scraping 30fps. It stutters like crazy, like some cheap knockoff from a dollar store 😁
Checking the system requirements, I should be okay on RAM and the CPU should hold its own. The GPU seems to be the bottleneck here (probably, again 😕 )

I definitely need a PCI-E card.
Current specs: 1GB DDR2 RAM (planning to grab another stick soon), an ATI Radeon x1050 512mb, an Intel Celeron D at 3.33GHz (yeah, I know it's not much, but it gets by, even if it is single core), a standard 400W power supply, and a motherboard that's nothing special, but hopefully it holds up—an ASRock 775 xfire-raid. Let me know if I missed anything.
I usually play at 800x600 or 1024x768. It would be awesome if a new card could push things higher, or at least let me run 1024x768 smoothly 🤔
Budget-wise, I'm not really sure, maybe around $133 max. Money is super tight, can't afford to waste it.
Where should I look? Not sure, maybe somewhere online that ships to my house? ^^

Please, for the love of God, if you know of any solutions, let me know. 😁 I'm hoping it won't be too expensive. 😁 And please don't tear me apart—I genuinely don't understand all this graphics card and hardware jargon. 🤷

ADM-US

It draws very little power, so you probably won't need a new PSU. I guess you might want to grab 1GB of DDR2 too, since you'll likely notice the difference in performance 😉

crimsonstag84 said:A GTX 580 isn't gonna be some magic fix. You're already running a GTX 470 soc, which is actually a beast. It’s just not worth dropping cash $1000 just to squeeze out an extra 10 FPS in one single game... Honestly, you can probably crank up 98% of games to max settings without breaking a sweat, you're just obsessing over this one title 😂

Just dial back the settings a bit... 😉

You could always try OCing that CPU with an aftermarket cooler instead. Way cheaper way to go. Looking at your setup, the motherboard seems solid and the case has decent airflow... plus, the Q9550 is a pretty damn good clocker 🙂

Like this, for example: http://www.amazon.com/example-coolers

I've got an Asus Silent Square evo cooler so I'm done messing with overclocking the CPU. But what about my RAM? I'm stuck with DDR 2 800 mhz right now and the motherboard won't go past 1066 mhz. Is it even worth hunting down some DDR 2 that hits 1066 MHz?

crimsonstag84 said:http://www.bestbuy.com/product_info.php?c...ducts_id=10260

US-East

It pulls very little power, so you shouldn't need a new PSU. Try to grab the 1GB DDR2 version if you can—you'll actually notice the difference in performance.😉

Would this work with my current motherboard and setup?
Just don't want to screw myself over by buying something that won't even run.😁

Also, I was looking at a Sapphire Radeon HD5450 with 1GB GDDR5 earlier. How does that stack up against a GeForce GT 240?

Bradley Morris13 said:Also, I was looking at a Sapphire Radeon HD5450 with 1 GB GDDR5 earlier—how does that stack up against a GeForce GT 240?

Does an HD5450 even come with GDDR5? It’s way weaker; honestly, it’s basically just a display adapter. With a 64-bit bus, the GPU itself is pretty much a piece of junk. That GT 240 is probably four times more powerful.🙂

Well, you've got a PCI-e slot on your Motherboard, so that's all it really needs (assuming your power supply can handle it). I guess the processor might struggle to get much out of it since the card is weak, but maybe a higher clock speed will help it just a little bit.😛

oops, my bad. I meant DDR3, not GDDR5. My brain just short-circuited trying to track five different graphs at once 😁

My bad if I'm being a pest, just got two more things on my mind.
Regarding this GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB deal... what’s the actual deal with the differences between NVIDIA, Zotac, and Gainward? This specific Zotac one from the link is the only $133 , whereas anything else I’ve stumbled upon seems to be $183+

Also, I know this isn't exactly where this belongs, but mods, please don't nuked the post. Cheers. 🙂
On my motherboard, am I allowed—or even able—to slap in 4GB of DDR3 RAM running at 1600 or 1333MHz? I don't really get how this works, so figured it's better to ask than to go out and make a total rookie mistake. 🙄

It’s probably just down to the core and memory clock speeds—or maybe you've got a slightly beefier heatsink or something along those lines... also, just a heads-up, you can actually slap some DDR2 1066 MHz on that board instead of DDR3.

Some NVIDIA cards are surprisingly cheap. This one’s got 1GB of GDDR5, making it the top-tier GeForce GT 240, so $133 I doubt you'll find a better deal elsewhere. The versions using GDDR3 are all weaker despite costing more, so you might as well just grab this 🙂

A 4870 1GB on a Codegen 400 W?

That's probably not going to work, right?

I ran an 8800 GTS on that exact same 400 W unit, and since the power draw for a 4870 is only about 5% higher than the 8800 GTS, it should be fine.

The 4870 Ti pulls just under 200W while at Idle, and when you're actually gaming—say, running Crysis—it hits slightly less than 300W. So, I guess a Codegen 400 W isn't really going to cut it for this setup. 😢

Well, damn...

What about the 5770? I'm seeing reports that it pulls about 200W under load (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...0,2446-15.html)

Meanwhile, my 8800 GTS handled things just fine while drawing nearly 270W (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...b,1743-13.html)

The 5770 pulls about as much juice as a 100W bulb... 🙂

I'm running a Fortron PNF 400 W with dual HD 5770s and an overclocked Phenom B50 at 3.6GHz @ 1.45V, plus fans and drives
I know I'm being a broken record here—annoying myself and everyone else on this forum—but honestly, someone has to say it when people just refuse to believe the facts. 🙂

And from what I can see, you didn't even bother checking the link.

ATI rates the Radeon HD 5770 for 18W of power consumption at idle and 108W maximum board power at load.

Thank God the first sentence actually says it right: that 207W figure refers to the total power draw for the entire PC.