GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

James Morris4 said:The EVGA models have much better cooling, which gives them a real edge over the competition.

Honestly, I don't see that being much of an advantage on the GeForce GT 240... the stock cooler actually performs quite well on its own!

Wouldn't the EVGA version be better?
I haven't had a chance to compare them side-by-side myself, but aren't those stock Microsoft cards usually pretty loud? I know mine was, back when I had the 4890 😬
Well, regardless, the 5770 is definitely a much cooler card on its own.

Hey everyone.
Look, I’m completely out of the loop when it comes to what's actually happening in the hardware world lately, so I'm just going to dive straight into the deep end here. What’s the absolute cheapest graphics card out there that won't feel like a massive step backward if I try to swap out my old GeForce 7900 GTX? If anyone knows of a solid Microsoft option, that would be my first choice, obviously—and it has to be PCI-e, naturally.
Thanks for the help.

The GeForce 8600 GT should definitely be the stronger choice here—honestly, it isn't even worth picking up anything cheaper if you actually want to get some decent gaming done 😉

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 1.80 GHz
Core voltage: 1.456V
Package: Socket 478 mPGA
Motherboard: MSI MS-6547 2.1
RAM: 768 MB
I'm playing at 1024x768
Needs to be an AGP card
Price range is 500 up to $333
Doesn't need to be anything fancy, I guess. Just something that can run my shooter at 60 FPS.

Open to any suggestions.🤷🤷🤷

🤦

Honestly, just toss those $333 aside. Grab yourself a $1000 instead and you’ll have a whole new rig that’s easily 10x better. You could pick up a used GeForce 6600 GT, but honestly? It's not even worth the effort.

Who am I even supposed to sell this to?
A museum?🤣

I mean, there’s always someone looking for those parts; not everyone is a hardcore gamer... it’s probably an excellent 🙄
For 2500, you could actually put together a decent rig that might even run Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on high settings 😛

Alright.
I found a used PC for about $300.
Can someone who actually knows their stuff tell me if this rig is decent enough to run newer games?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/used-desktop-pc-listing-example 😕

nah, integrated graphics...

check out this thread: http://www.example.com/thread/543251

Yeah, but I actually need this for playing newer FPS games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, specifically if I want to run them via SLI.
Not really for watching movies, either. 😛

Yeah, and this guy thinks he’s actually gonna play games... he writes... but for that kind of money, a GeForce 8600 GT is pretty much the ceiling on what you can realistically grab...

😂
I didn't really feel like reading through everything, so I just skimmed it.
Anyway, if I want a finished PC that actually works, what would you suggest
http://www.newegg.com/p/product_info.php?id=3462
The price looks okay to me...
But I don't get it—if I buy all the parts separately, like this
1 x Asrock K10N78D - AM2+, Nvidia nForce 720D chipset, ATX form fact
1 x DDR2 2048MB ( 2GB ) PC6400 Corsair, 800MHz, Value, VS2GB800D2
1 x Intel Core 2 Duo, socket AM3, BOX , 2MB cache, 65W
1 x Sapphire GeForce 8600 GT, 1Gb GDDR3, 128bit, dual DVI, PCI Express 16x
1 x HDD WD 500GB, 5000AAKS, SATA II, Buffer 16MB, 7.200 rpm , 8,9 ms
1 x Napajanje Coolermaster 420W, TM-420-PMSR, PFC, 120 mm vent
1 x Pioneer BD-RE, DVD±RW, 22x DVD±R ,8x DL , 40x CD-R
1 x Gigabyte GZ-KX1, midi tower, bez PS, crno, USB, Fire wire, 1×120
who's going to put this together for me? Or am I supposed to grab a soldering iron and a screwdriver myself?🤣 🤣🤣

The folks over at AMD handle the assembly and the testing themselves. Even if they wanted to—which I highly doubt—it wouldn't matter much if they actually sent it out.

Greetings. I am seeking some professional guidance regarding a potential graphics card upgrade. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Current system specs:
Motherboard: Asrock A770DE+
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM: 3GB DDR2, Corsair, 800mhz
Monitor: Dell UltraSharp Monitor, 21.5"
PSU: Chieftec, 550W

What kind of price we talking about here?

from 800 up to $500, just for gaming

Any GPU in that ballpark is going to be totally bottlenecked by your current CPU.

If I were you, I'd go with the Nvidia GeForce + Intel Core i3 combo. You could probably flip your old processor for $250-$100 and stay way under budget...