GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

You can try it since you've got an AGP slot and the card is AGP. It doesn't pull much power, but your PSU is pretty weak. Plus, if it's some off-brand unit—which it almost certainly is—and it's old... I don't know... give it a shot. 😁 But if you notice anything weird happening, shut it down immediately and swap out that power supply.

darkowl72 said:Sure, if you have an AGP slot and the card is AGP, go for it. It won't pull massive power, but honestly, your PSU sounds pretty weak. Plus, if it’s some random no-name unit—which it definitely is—and it’s old... I don't know... give it a shot... 😁 but if things start acting funky, shut it down immediately and swap out that power supply...

Thanks a ton for the help.

Hey everyone, what's the consensus on this GeForce GTX 250 graphics card?

Nonexistent graphics card..

Maybe you meant the GeForce GTX 250? It’s a solid card, though it's definitely starting to show its age with all the new stuff hitting the market lately. Old architecture, you know?

Thinking about picking it up? What kind of price are we talking?
Check the original post here:

analogcobra442 said:Hey guys, what's the deal with this GeForce GTX 250 card?

Black. Or maybe green. I think I've seen a few red ones floating around too.

Well, you get what you give, I suppose... such a vague question deserves an equally vague answer.

Bryan Evans77 said:That card doesn't even exist...

You probably meant the GTS 250—which, honestly, was a solid card back in its day—but it’s definitely showing its age now that newer hardware is hitting the shelves. It's running on some pretty old architecture at this point...

Were you actually looking to pick one up? And if so, what kind of price are we talking about?
Take a look at the original thread here:

So, I'm trying to figure out which graphics card currently offers the most bang for my buck. My budget is sitting right around $1200-$467. Honestly, I haven't been keeping up with any of the recent developments in this field lately.

Right now, I've got an absolute fossil in my rig—an 8800 GTS with 320 MB. Even though this old faithful has been through hell and back with me, and I've grown somewhat sentimental about this crumbling legend, it looks like the old man is about to kick the bucket. I've started seeing graphical corruption all over my screen along with the Blue Screen of Death, and I'm pretty sure it isn't a software issue, but the card itself dying on me.

I don't really care whether I go with AMD or NVIDIA, though I have heard whispers that the newer GeForce cards require a dedicated nuclear power plant just to stay powered and Arctic conditions just to keep them cool. One major thing to consider is that my power supply is a Corsair VX at 450W—so nothing particularly special or beefy enough to feed some massive power-hungry monster.

A few other details: the card obviously needs to be PCI-E. I'm planning to run things at an archaic resolution of 1280x1024 on a 19-inch 4:3 LCD monitor. As for where I buy it, the specific store doesn't matter much, as long as it's somewhere accessible in Washington, D.C., rather than some remote outpost that takes three days of riding to reach.

So, does anyone have any recommendations? I'd appreciate any info you can throw my way. Thanks!

ATI HD 6850 vs. GTX 460... which one?
Neither really needs a massive power supply—just look for cards with decent cooling. 👍

The HD 6850 pulls slightly ahead in gaming, though the gap is tiny. That said, NVIDIA’s CUDA cores are a huge plus if you're doing heavy lifting like decoding or complex calculations...

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...ing-study.html

Given your resolution, I'd say a 768MB GTX 460 from somewhere like $400 would work just fine. 🙂

Hey there 🙂
I was wondering if you guys could point me toward a decent graphics card in the $300-$133 range?
The main thing is that I need at least two video outputs (for my 22'' monitors, if resolution even matters in this context...). I’m not exactly some hardcore gamer or anything, so just something that won't die the moment I decide to try out a new game every once in a while should do the trick...

What’s the quietest 6850 out there? Is it even possible for a standard Sapphire card to hit idle numbers like this: http://ht4u.net/reviews/2010/amd_rad...st/index17.php

Roger Wood50 said:Hey there 🙂
I'm looking for some advice on which graphics card I should pick up for around $300 $133?
The main thing is that it needs at least two video outputs (for my 22'' monitors, if that matters...). I'm not really a gamer, so just something that can handle the occasional light task would be fine...

http://www.bestbuy.com/products/detail...hdmi-dvi/32149
Please read the rules.......

I'm torn on whether I should go with AMD or Nvidia, I currently have $250 ??

depends on which 🙂

AMD vs Nvidia

the GeForce GT 730 actually edges it out --> http://www.legitreviews.com/images/r...70-heaven9.jpg

my advice? hunt for used gear. you can score something twice as powerful for the same cash on Facebook Marketplace if you find a decent warranty...

nothing much out there right now, but maybe wait a bit or check Craigslist 🙂

Bryan Evans77 said:There isn't much going on right now, but maybe just wait a bit or try searching on Craigslist 🙂

Nice, that looks like a solid deal 😉

http://www.craigslist.org/search/electronics/gpu-listing-example

Would a 9800GTX run alright on a 400W power supply paired with an Intel Pentium Dual Core 930D at 3.0GHz?

Whose 400W are we talking about?

codegen 400w

I'm not entirely sure if the 8800GT is a better bet, or the GTX, or this 9K series...

The codegen is going to crash if you try to push an 8800 or anything even more powerful through it...

I’m about to lose my mind here. Who else is dealing with my 😢
?

Casey Long2 said:The codegen will just crash if you try to run an 8800 or anything more powerful on it...

Hmm, I used to have an 8800 GTS with 320MB and it worked just fine...

Paul Miller64 said:hmm, I used to run an 8800 GTS with just 320MB and it worked fine....

Alright, let me put this another way: brands like those budget off-brand units you see at big-box retailers—think generic power supplies from a local discount shop—are basically bottom-tier components. They suffer from a few major issues: a) they don't actually deliver much juice on the 12V rail;
b) they aren't built with any decent internal components;
c) they lack basic protection against sudden voltage spikes;
and so on.
Sure, you might be able to get a beefier graphics card running on one of them for a while, but once you start pushing it with high power demands, things can go south pretty fast. And because of that cheap construction, if it does blow, there’s a very good chance it’ll take something else down with it—be it your GPU, your motherboard, your hard drive, or even the whole system...

The bottom line is that you should look to replace that power supply as soon as possible. Personally, I'd much rather have a rock-solid, high-quality power supply paired with a weaker graphics card than the other way around.😉