GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

Olivia Collins5 said:I think I need to swap this thing out. It doesn't just crash; it completely freezes up every other game I play, and then my speakers just start making this constant, horrible "trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" noise. I'm thinking about upgrading since I never had these issues back when I was running Nvidia cards. Anyone else dealing with this kind of nonsense with AMD?😠 It feels like Windows is just constantly fighting itself. To make matters worse, the people who actually designed these cards aren't releasing any patches, and they don't seem to have a clue how to fix the underlying issues anyway. I’ve been reading online that even if you manage to get everything installed, the problems tend to stick around—it's basically just a junk card at this point.😠 So, if you could give me a recommendation for something a bit more powerful from NVIDIA, that would be great.

Ah, that sound... it’s exactly what I heard on my old 8600GT. I recently upgraded to a new CPU, motherboard, and RAM, but I kept my old graphics card for the time being. Within two days, things started falling apart—I'm getting the blue screen of death saying the NVIDIA driver stopped responding. I wonder if you're seeing a blue screen of death that says the ATI display driver stopped working?

I guess it’s just one of those things where mixing new parts with older hardware causes some kind of conflict. I never really got a clear explanation for why it happened, especially since I tried everything possible to fix it. Eventually, I just gave up and switched over to AMD. 😁

Sell yours and grab this GTX 275 instead—it's an absolute beast, and honestly, the price is a steal. 😉

I'm still trying to figure out why my PC keeps hitting a blue screen of death. I guess it might be related to my graphics card, though I'm not entirely sure. It’s running an AMD Radeon HD 4800 series, specifically the Primary adapter Graphics card Manufacturer Powered by AMD Graphics chipset AMD Radeon hd 4800 Series Devica ID 9442 Vendor 1002, with ID E104 Subsystem Vendor ID 174 b Graphics bus Capability PCI express 2.0. The total Memory Bandwidth in GByte seems fine, but things just feel unstable. Maybe it's a driver issue? I'll probably just Google that for you if I can find anything useful.

Specs: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.13GHz, 2GB DDR2 RAM, 400W Codegen PSU, GeForce 8600GT.

casualsurfer92 said:SPECS: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13GHz, 2GB DDR2 RAM, 400W Codgen PSU, GeForce 8600GT.

It isn't quite that simple.

We really need the specific processor model to make any sense of this.

Beyond that, I'll need to know your monitor resolution, what kind of budget you're working with, where you plan on shopping, and whether you consider yourself a serious gamer or just someone looking to browse the web.

!! WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE TO ACTUALLY READ THE THREAD RULES AT THE TOP? IT'S THE SAME STORY ON EVERY SINGLE PAGE !!

R U L E S - - - > this isn't just directed at you, it's a general observation😉

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13" monitor 19 inch, thinking about dropping up to $233, maybe at Links or Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to find something decent for gaming!!!

You guys totally misread him... 😁
He didn't even mention his monitor resolution...
But if you want my take, go with the Radeon HD 5670
Since anything better is overkill anyway, plus for under $600 $233 it’s an absolute beast...

Also, quick question... how much RAM are we talking about?

Bryan Evans77 said:You guys really misread him... 😁
he wasn't specifying his monitor resolution...
but if you want my opinion, go with the Radeon HD 5670
since anything more powerful would be overkill, and for under $600--$233it’s an absolute beast of a card...

Also, a quick question: how much RAM are we working with?

Me? Heavens, no. 😁
I suppose I've grown a bit weary of this place because people constantly ignore the rules, leading to the same repetitive arguments over and over again... 🙄
It isn't personal; if anyone else had stepped in, I would have pointed out the guidelines just the same. 🙂

Regarding the GPU for a 19" monitor, I agree—the $233Radeon HD 5670 is a 👍Best Buy only
Just a small tip: you'll likely find the best deals if you check out Protis or ADM.
If those don't suit you, Links is probably your best bet (which is a polite way of saying stay far away from HG-ŠROT)!

By the way, he already mentioned the RAM; he's got 2GB. 😉

I've got this crappy little 400W power supply from Codegen. Honestly, I have no clue if that's even going to cut it... I'm running 2 gigs of DDR2 RAM.🙂

casualsurfer92 said:I have this cheap, bottom-of-the-barrel 400W power supply from some off-brand manufacturer. I'm honestly not sure if it’ll actually hold up under the load.

It’ll handle a Radeon HD 5670 just fine, so don't lose any sleep over it.

Will this GPU actually hold up? Like, am I gonna be able to run any new games on a 19-inch 1440x900 monitor or is it gonna be a struggle...🙂

casualsurfer92 said:Will my current GPU hold its own for much longer? Specifically, I’m wondering if I’ll actually be able to run any modern titles on a 19-inch monitor at 1440x900 resolution—it feels like such a niche setup these days.🙂

Hey, take it easy on the caps lock—for heaven's sake...

Like I mentioned before—and I really can't stress this enough—please let us know exactly how much RAM you’re working with. It actually makes a massive difference in how we troubleshoot this, so knowing that specific detail is pretty vital to getting you an answer.
Look, Jace, you’re just going to have to accept that you aren't going to be able to force that graphics card to perform any better than it already is—it's simply hitting its limit.
It’s not exactly a massive jump in resolution, but let's be realistic here—don't go expecting to crank everything up to "Ultra" settings. That processor is already feeling a bit underwhelming by today's standards—it's definitely struggling to keep pace with modern hardware demands. That said, you should still be able to enjoy some decent gameplay if you stick to those middle-of-the-road settings... it'll hold its own well enough for a smooth experience.

2 gigs of DDR2😢

That’s perfectly fine—you won't be running into any memory bottlenecks there.

Like I mentioned before, you should have a pretty smooth experience playing on medium settings. To really push those ultra-high details, though, you're going to need a lot more raw horsepower—both from your GPU and your CPU (and honestly, upgrading those usually means looking at an entirely new rig altogether).

Got an old 8600GT sitting here... should I just sell it or what?

casualsurfer92 said:Should I just offload this old GeForce 8600GT?

Honestly, it's entirely up to you—whether you hang onto it or let it go—it really isn't our call to make...

What kind of cash can I pull for this thing?

casualsurfer92 said:What kind of price can I get for her?

Well, there you have it. Of course, there’s a massive difference between what something is actually worth on the market and what you might want to hold out for...

I’d sell her for $83 if that’s even an option?🙂

casualsurfer92 said:I’d actually be down to sell it for $83 if there's a way to do that?🙂

Go ahead and post an ad—it's worth a shot. Just a heads-up, we have dedicated hardware marketplace sections right here on this forum (just scroll through a few subforums down and you'll see them). Whatever you do, please don't try to promote anything on this specific subforum—the moderators are pretty strict about cleaning up ads here, and they're totally justified in doing so 🙂

casualsurfer92 said:I would sell it for $83 if that is even an option.🙂

It is certainly doable, and you could easily move it for $83 😉

On a side note, I find myself wondering if you might consider consolidating your inquiries into one or perhaps two coherent posts, rather than this endless stream of individual messages that really could have been condensed into a single thought.🙂

Hard to say for $83 depends on which 🙂 is actually being played... I could probably grab one for 200, though I managed to settle one for 150 before...