GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

Henry Kelly40 said:Alright, so I was wondering—is this a decent graphics card? An ATI Radeon HD4350 512MB.

Personally, I think it’s perfectly fine for my setup—it basically just sits in the server and handles the display output.

What are you actually planning to use it for, and what does the rest of your rig look like? It would be a huge help if you could provide some details—there's really no point in guessing without knowing the full specs first...

Casey Long2 said:Works fine for me. In the server, it just serves to display the image.

.

🤣

Casey Long2 said:What do you even need a GPU for? What's your build? No point in asking if we have to dig through the first post...

Exactly 🙂

Ideally, you’d hunt down some used gear—maybe an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Series card, an AMD Radeon HD 4830, or even an HD 4850. But if you're set on buying something brand new, don't just stick to that HD 5670 Smart suggested. Take a look at the HD 5750 too; I saw an XFX model over at Micro Center for a pretty decent price. $67 Honestly, I think it’s totally worth it. You could probably toss that part into a brand-new build, or just pair it with a newer processor in your current setup. Either way, you're looking at a solid move.

Get a new power supply, seriously. Especially if you're pairing it with a used GPU since those things tend to be total power hogs. You could go with that Smart one darkowl72 mentioned, or honestly, you’d be better off grabbing a 500W Strider. Check out this listing on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/example-link-here

Either look into overclocking that CPU or just swap it out entirely. Honestly, you can get decent results overclocking it with even a basic aftermarket cooler, and the jump in gaming performance is actually pretty massive. Alternatively, if you happen to stumble upon an Intel Xeon on eBay—they pop up for cheap all the time—that’d be a total game changer. It would feel like you just bought a whole new rig.

Henry Kelly40 said:Alright, so I'm wondering—is this card actually any good: AMD Radeon HD 4350 512MB?

Well, it's fine for multimedia stuff—you know, browsing, saving photos, watching videos, whatever—but for gaming? Not really... maybe you could squeeze out some Call of Duty 2 or GTA San Andreas 😉

Mark Brooks72 said:It’s fine for multimedia stuff. Downloading pictures, saving videos, whatever. But for gaming? Not really. You might be able to limp through 😉
or GTA, but that's about it.

The graphics card is the only thing screwing me over. Everything else is more than decent. I've got an AMD Phenom II X6 processor running at 2800 MHz, 4 GB of RAM, and a 1 terabyte hard drive—which is honestly overkill. Since I don't know much about this stuff, I thought the current card was okay, but I think I'll just grab an AMD Radeon HD 5870 1GB instead. It's only $500....I saw it at Best Buy for about 300 bucks

Henry Kelly40 said:The GPU is the only thing killing me. Everything else is solid enough—I’ve got an AMD Phenom II X6 processor running at 2800 MHz, 4 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB hard drive (which is honestly overkill). Since I don't really know my way around hardware, I thought this card was decent, but I think I'll just grab an AMD Radeon HD 5870 1GB instead. It's only... $500Saw someone at the local Walmart drop like $300 on some random stuff. What even is that?

And you actually thought about buying that junk?
Wait, what? Is that it? Just "ccc"? Are we really doing this?

So, if you happen to stumble upon a 5870 for a decent price... $500 I salute you. 🙏
Oh, that's gonna be a killer deal. Seriously.
Look, if we're talking about a 5870, then what? $500

Bryan Evans77 said:you were actually thinking about buying that piece of junk.
ccc

Look, if you can track down a 5870 for $500 I'll give you a hand 🙏
then you're looking at a killer deal.
But I'm telling you, if it's a 5870 and if it's $500

Yeah, from a buddy of mine who works in IT. He buys up used gear. It's not factory sealed, but it's half the price...

Henry Kelly40 said:Yeah, some buddy of mine who flips PCs is selling them. Not factory sealed, but you save like 50%...

Not quite 50%, though.
But honestly? It's easily one of the best deals I've seen at a Best Buy somewhere.👍

Bryan Evans77 said:it's not really 50%
but it’s definitely one of the better Best Buy locations I’ve dealt with👍

at the local Walmart, it's probably closer to 3,300, so yeah, way more than 50%

Henry Kelly40 said:I think it's sitting at $3,300 on HG, which is over 50%

Who actually thinks HG is the cheapest option? Besides, HG isn't exactly the kind of shop you go to if you're watching your budget—unless you want some clerk who doesn't even know what they're selling to screw you over.. 🙂

http://www.google.com/search?q=hd5870

Henry Kelly40 said:honestly, the graphics card is the only thing killing me—everything else is pretty much solid. I've got an AMD Phenom II X6 processor running at 2800 MHz, 4 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB hard drive (which feels like overkill, I guess!). Since I don't really get this stuff, I thought my current card was decent, but I'm thinking about picking up an AMD Radeon HD 5870 1GB for just $500... I saw one at Best Buy for about $30 extra

that's pretty standard for a card like that... I paid about $360 for my HD 5870 Vapor-X🙂
What's the speed on your RAM?

Joshua Patel68 said:So, my graphics card just died on me. I need to pick up a replacement, but I'm a little out of the loop. What would be a good match for this setup?

ASRock Motherboard
Intel Pentium E2180, 2000 MHz (10 x 200)
3GB RAM
Power Supply - Platinum ms - 400atx p4.
Old graphics card, NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS.

Price isn't the main concern right now, since there's no point sinking $400 into a card for this rig anyway. Besides, I spotted some great deals on eBay for an 8800 GTS or something similar...
Basically, what's the absolute best card I can squeeze out of this configuration?

I know my power supply is pretty weak, but if it's absolutely necessary, I'll grab a better one.🙂

Obviously, I'm not looking to drop $400 on a modern card here, nor is that part of the plan.

So, here is what I grabbed:
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Series (G80) (500MHz) / 640MB DDR3 (1600MHz) via eBay. Total was about $45 including shipping—an absolute steal! You'd easily pay $500$200 for a used one locally...
It feels like a solid win. As for the power supply, I really don't want to spend more money on it;$133 otherwise, I'd end up paying more for the power supply than the actual graphics card itself!

Yeah, sure, even if they hit you with shipping fees, or if customs just grabs the sales tax instead of full duties... you're looking at more than $200 easy. Plus, you’ll be sitting around waiting a month for it to show up. And there's always that gamble where you have no clue what's actually going to arrive in the box 😁

As for the power supply, you don't *have* to buy a new one... maybe it'll be fine. Maybe it won't. You won't know until you plug in the GPU and flip the switch. If it works great? Awesome. But if it pops and takes something else down with it—like your new GPU, the CPU, or the motherboard—then that "I didn't feel like spending the money" attitude is going to cost you big time

Your choice...

darkowl72 said:Exactly! Even if they just hit you with shipping fees or a bit of sales tax instead of full customs duty... you could easily end up paying more than $200... plus you'll be stuck waiting a whole month for delivery. And there's always that gamble where you don't even know what's actually going to show up in the box 😁

You don't necessarily *have* to buy a new power supply... maybe it'll work fine, maybe it won't. You won't know until you plug in that GPU and flip the switch. If it works? Great! But if it fails and takes something else down with it—like a brand new graphics card, your CPU, or the motherboard—then that "I'll just save a few bucks" decision is going to get very expensive, very fast.

Your call...

There are no customs issues since everything comes through family traveling from Germany. 😁

I didn't realize a bad power supply could actually fry other components. 😢

Joshua Patel68 said:No customs involved, it all just goes through relatives living in Germany.😁

But I had no idea a bad power supply could actually fry things.😢

Oh, it definitely can. Especially with that power supply you're running—it puts out so little juice it's painful. Honestly, it'd probably die the second you plugged in anything heavy.

You don't even need to go higher than an 8800GT or something similar, but those cards pull a lot of power...
So maybe look into getting a 400W unit with an 80+ rating (like a CX400 or whatever). It'll run you about $350-$133

As far as I am aware, items falling under the category of $333 are exempt from customs duties... 🤷

Austin Rodriguez41 said:As far as I know, it's all about the stuff listed below. $333 No customs fees. Simple as that. 🤷

Just heard from a buddy of mine—guy picks up stuff on eBay like four or five times a month—that things are looking pretty grim. $53 Nothing...
Everyone’s watching that, and they'll probably hit you with sales tax too.
Since there aren't any more gifts left? 🙂

Everyone jumps straight to customs, as if you’re all crossing the border seven times a day carrying motherboards, GPUs, and CPUs... 😁how cute...

At the start of the year, they passed a law increasing the personal import limit from $100 to $333... so, personal, just to clarify for those who only read what they want to hear. And that's without any customs duties. There are catches, though—like, you can't just bring in a thousand bucks worth of booze without paying anything (unless you drink it all on the way, right?)... and so on...

But when we're talking about shipments, there's no customs duty up to $53 (have you seen that devil 😁) and if anyone doesn't believe me, go check the customs code...

Actually, I wasn't even talking about customs, since that's a minor part of it... there isn't really a duty on IT equipment, or if there is, it's only about 5%. The real issue lies elsewhere...

For the skeptics, I suggest studying the customs laws again: nowhere does it say that sales tax isn't charged. Sales tax isn't waived because the government is feeling generous. It's likely ignored because they'd have to hire three times as many agents just to collect such tiny amounts...

But if a customs agent decides (and they have every right to) to charge you sales tax, it won't be 22% based solely on the value you claim for the goods 😂. It'll be the item value + visible shipping costs + other fees, and *then* they tack on the 22%... You better have an invoice ready, because if they start guessing the value of your gear and shipping, you might as well just send the package back immediately... 😁

Bottom line: realize that until now, the government has let you enjoy the little luxury of importing things without getting totally fleeced, but how long will that last? They need to fill the budget, and the deficit is huge...

One more thing: you'll fare much better at major hubs like Chicago, LA, or NYC, where people handle mountains of packages every day and don't have time to nitpick—they often let things slide that they technically shouldn't. But if you're in some small-town outpost where the customs office is just a few bored employees sitting around drinking coffee waiting for someone to show up, you're in trouble... take it from 😬

Our customs department is incredibly unreliable. There are two hundred and sixty-five damn articles about customs regulations, but I could probably condense everything a toddler needs to know into just 20 posts 🤣

Which one of these should I grab?

1.
XFX PCI-E graphics card, AMD Radeon HD 4350, 512MB DDR5, HDMI, DP, DVI, HDTV-$246

2
Sapphire PCI-E graphics card, AMD Radeon HD 4350, 1GB DDR3, DVI, D-SUB, HDTV-$240

Please let me know. Thanks.